DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:
Take this next story as a record of achievement for 2025 and something to keep in mind for 2026. Member station KUER's Ciara Hulet made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain, this year, just under the wire. And for those of us about to embark on New Year's resolutions, she brings us this lesson - take it slow and steady and step by step.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
CIARA HULET, BYLINE: OK. We are starting the hike.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
HULET: I'm making the climb with a couple of friends, my husband and a Tanzanian tour company called Climb Kili. Only a couple minutes in, one of our guides, Gaudence Mato (ph), tells us to slow down.
GAUDENCE MATO: Pole, pole.
HULET: That means slowly, slowly in Swahili, and it becomes our mantra to get to the top. This pace helps our bodies acclimate.
Pole, pole.
G MATO: Pole, pole. No hurry.
HULET: On the second day of the hike, our guides show they're in no hurry by stopping on the side of the trail to sing to us.
UNIDENTIFIED GUIDES: (Singing in non-English language).
HULET: One of the singers is our head guide, Seraphin Mato (ph). He's done this hike more than 350 times.
SERAPHIN MATO: But I love my job.
HULET: Yeah?
S MATO: I love it.
HULET: You still like hiking it?
S MATO: I like it.
HULET: Even after all this time?
S MATO: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
S MATO: Yeah. Really, I can say this is my office. I can't complain.
HULET: Yeah.
The first couple days of hiking aren't too bad. But by day three, it's starting to get harder to breathe because of the altitude. The crew keeps us in good spirits, though.
UNIDENTIFIED GUIDES: (Singing in non-English language).
HULET: That song gets stuck in our head as we plod along into cold, desolate parts of the mountain.
Literally, this is how slow we're going. Step. Step. Step. Step.
On the last day of climbing, our guides wake us up at 11 p.m.
All right. We are about to start our final descent - or ascent.
UNIDENTIFIED HIKER #1: (Laughter).
HULET: Gosh.
UNIDENTIFIED HIKER #1: I wish it was the descent.
HULET: That shows how tired I am. Only got a couple hours of sleep.
I'm too exhausted and nauseated to record more on this final push, but we hike for six hours in the dark and drink from our water bladders until they freeze. We have no energy to talk, but our guides keep reminding us - pole pole. And then we make it to 19,340 feet.
We did it.
UNIDENTIFIED HIKER #2: We did it.
HULET: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED HIKER #1: Summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
HULET: (Laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED HIKER #2: Yeah.
HULET: Definitely the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. But man, the view from up here is incredible. Just the - we're just on top of the clouds. I can see all the glaciers. It's beautiful.
After we descend, our crew celebrates with us with one last song.
UNIDENTIFIED GUIDES: (Singing in non-English language).
HULET: And pole, pole is a state of mind I'll be taking with me into the new year.
For NPR News on Mount Kilimanjaro, I'm Ciara Hulet.
(SOUNDBITE OF TEDDY CHILLA'S "HANA HANA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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