Lee student summits Mt. Kilimanjaro
Photos courtesy of Thomas Lake
It is unlikely to come across someone who has seen Africa’s tallest mountain, let alone summited it; but one Lee student can now boast that he has done just that.
Sophomore pastoral ministries major Thomas Lake managed to ascend Mt. Kilimanjaro during the first week of July, accompanied by his father, Jim Lake.
The mountain, which in reality is a dormant volcano located in Tanzania, was visited by 52,000 tourists in 2012.
Lake had been visiting Tanzania on a mission trip for over two weeks prior to the climb, and required a 3-hour trip by bus to the hike’s starting point.
The journey consisted of a 5-day ascension, and 2 more days to return, each day involving seven hours of hiking.
Unlike every other day of hiking, where Lake’s group would wake up around 7 a.m., the trip to the summit took place overnight through the below-freezing mountain air.
“On the summit day, you start at midnight, you hike up in pitch black with nothing but a headlamp, and there were eight of us hiking up in a straight line” Lake said. “You can’t see anything, then finally you reach the summit and feel like you’ve just overcome the hardest thing in your life.”
Despite the toil involved with reaching the summit, Lake descended the mountain with an impression that the climb had been worth it.
“When you’re up top, and the sun [rises], and it’s above this sea of clouds—you’re just so far above the clouds—it was just breathtaking” Lake said. “It’s like, I’m just so small, and so minute, and yet the Lord has chosen me, he loves me—for what reason, I don’t know… It was just a really powerful moment that’s really gotten to me.”
Lake was inspired to undergo the journey up Kilimanjaro by his father, who completed a hike up the mountain when Lake was only 4 years old, promising that they would one day scale the volcano together.
“It was just kind of fun to be with my dad,” Lake said. “That trip brought us a lot closer together than I think we’ve ever been before, so that was really cool.”
Unlike his father, who reportedly lost 20 pounds over six months in preparation for the hike, Lake did relatively little training for the ordeal.
“I didn’t prepare at all, really, and maybe I hiked Starr Mountain every now and again with friends, but other than that, I had no training whatsoever,'' Lake said. “I thought, ‘I’m in decent shape. I work out enough, so I should be fine,’ but I definitely should have trained a lot more than I did.”
Lake admitted that he would have been more prepared had he trained at greater altitudes before he left the U.S.
“If I had trained at altitude, that would have been a lot better for me,” Lake said. “The altitude’s not super high here, but especially in Tampa— where I’ve lived my entire life—it’s below sea level, so going from there to 19,000 feet was a pretty crazy, pretty drastic change.”
Lake was adamant in expressing his lack of a desire to scale the mountain again in the future.
“All the guides kept asking me, ‘Hey, your dad brought you, are you going to bring your son when you get older?’ I was like, ‘Nope, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’m too tired, I’m never doing this again,’” Lake said.
As for Lake’s advice to others who may be interested in attempting their own summit: “Train before you go.”
For those who are interested in climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro themselves, several companies such as Climbkili—the company used by the Lakes—offer guided hikes.
