That Was Some Big Climb: Kilimanjaro in the 60s

Since I now live surrounded by mountains that I love and climb frequently -- I am re-posting 2 posts about my young teenage adventures climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It has taken many years to get off the prairie and the desert to return to the mountains, but to be in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies is now certainly worth it. I love the feeling of reconnecting to that younger self, who carried the recently published Hobbit in her pack to read in camp at night.

Random photo above of me in the blue anorak at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1968....long story really. The one below is of my brother and I after we arrived home to Dar es Salaam, after 12 hours by African bus. We are wearing our wreaths of everlasting flowers that the guides give you if you make the summit -- and you can that some 40 years later, my wreath is a bit faded, but not bad for such a venerable award.