I noticed a Bostoner named Dave Greten had a link over this way so I figured I’d repay the favor. He summited Kilimanjaro last year. Here’s why:

I’ve never liked the conventional reason people give when they are asked why they climb mountains, “Because they are there.” That’s not the reason I climb, I climb because it makes everything afterwards seem easy in comparison.

Mountain climbing, to me, is the ultimate test of mental and physical strength. There was a point during our summit of Kilimanjaro where all three of us had the same thought, independent of one another, which we discussed afterwards. The singular thought when we were on the verge of breaking, “I’m never doing something like this again.”

The irony was I had this exact same thought while climbing Mount Rainier in 2004. It was on the icefield above Disappointment Cleaver where I swore, swore to myself that I would never be so foolish as to attempt something like this again. That moment, so vivid when I climbed Rainier, was only revealed to me again while I was busy summitting Kilimanjaro.

I realize I owe a lot of people some link payback; if you’re among the masses, drop me a note and I’ll try to rectify the situation.