Man with disability scales Mt Kilimanjaro crawling
Swedish national Aaron Anderson, who is a person with disability due to cancer, enters through the Marangu main gate before starting his adventure of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. He becomes one of the few people with disabilities to have scaled world’s highest free standing mountain. He used the specially made tricycle only up to Kibo Hut but continued scaling the mountain crawling. PHOTO | THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT
What you need to know:
Mr Anderson, whose dream is to climb the world’s seven summits, started scaling Africa’s highest peak on a special tricycle a week ago and had to abandon it to continue scaling the mountain by crawling.
Moshi. A Swedish man, Mr Aaron Anderson, who suffered a disability due to cancer, has succeeded in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to the Uhuru Summit by crawling.
Mr Anderson, whose dream is to climb the world’s seven summits, started scaling Africa’s highest peak on a special tricycle a week ago and had to abandon it to continue scaling the mountain by crawling.
The accompanying tour guide on the mountain, Mr Honest Minja, said Mr Anderson used nine days instead of six to reach the summit and descended on Monday.
“He scaled the mountain on a little bicycle to Kibo Hut (4,700 metres above sea level), but from there he started crawling like a snake, utterly refusing to use his tricycle,” Mr Minja said.
According to Minja, when Mr Anderson reached the Stella Point (5,700 metres above sea level) he was very tired and decided, with his own consent, to take a long rest there by sleeping, a practice not advisable. “He covered himself with many special blankets and on the following day he went on until he reached Uhuru Summit. The joy he had was extraordinary,” Mr Minja narrated.
Mr Anderson told this paper that what he did on Mount Kilimanjaro was sufficient evidence to the world that even people with disability could make it and thus there was no reason why they should be stigmatised.
He said scaling the ‘Roof of Africa’ and other world summits have been his dream for a long time after he had lost both of his legs due to cancer, expressing that he would now become an ambassador for the mountain.
Apart from managing to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, Mr Anderson said he did so to collect money for cancer sufferers in his country.
According to Mr Minja, the Swedish national is the first disabled person to ascend Mount Kebnekaise, which is in Sweden, at 2,106 metres above sea level.
