You got a taste of Heather's amazing adventure climbing the peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro in this month's newsletter. Check out more below and a link to some awesome photos from the trip!
My Journey to Africa's Peak
My friends and I had been planning a trip to Kilimanjaro for the past few years. I did not expect that my real journey would begin eight months before the hike in April, when I injured my lower back. What began as something minor, grew to severely limit my movement, making many ordinary activities almost impossible. Ironically, the more I protected my back, the more limiting the injury became. Instead of improving, my body reacted by locking up even more muscles. By June, I was so fearful of triggering a spasm, I stopped doing anything that involved reaching or bending forward.
In July I had started working with a Feldenkrais practitioner. Over the next five months, she re-taught me how my body could move. It was a slow, but enlightening process as I gradually relearned to move to put on socks and reach down to pet my golden retriever.
By the time we left for Africa in early December, I knew the hike was here, whether I was ready or not. At that point I was already looking back at 2010 as a year of learning my physical limitations. What better way to top it off by climbing a 19,300 ft mountain?
The hike was nothing short of amazing. Being on the mountain, camping in tents and hiking every day took me out of my routine. It took me out of normal situations where I had firm beliefs of what I could and couldn’t do physically. I just hiked, climbed in and out of the tent, and scrambled over rocks, albeit carefully. As soon as I thought, “I shouldn’t be able to do this,” my back locked up. Yet, when I stopped thinking and just trusted my body to do what it could, it amazed me.
My friends and I had been planning a trip to Kilimanjaro for the past few years. I did not expect that my real journey would begin eight months before the hike in April, when I injured my lower back. What began as something minor, grew to severely limit my movement, making many ordinary activities almost impossible. Ironically, the more I protected my back, the more limiting the injury became. Instead of improving, my body reacted by locking up even more muscles. By June, I was so fearful of triggering a spasm, I stopped doing anything that involved reaching or bending forward.
In July I had started working with a Feldenkrais practitioner. Over the next five months, she re-taught me how my body could move. It was a slow, but enlightening process as I gradually relearned to move to put on socks and reach down to pet my golden retriever.
By the time we left for Africa in early December, I knew the hike was here, whether I was ready or not. At that point I was already looking back at 2010 as a year of learning my physical limitations. What better way to top it off by climbing a 19,300 ft mountain?
The hike was nothing short of amazing. Being on the mountain, camping in tents and hiking every day took me out of my routine. It took me out of normal situations where I had firm beliefs of what I could and couldn’t do physically. I just hiked, climbed in and out of the tent, and scrambled over rocks, albeit carefully. As soon as I thought, “I shouldn’t be able to do this,” my back locked up. Yet, when I stopped thinking and just trusted my body to do what it could, it amazed me.
For me, this was an exceptional lesson in the opposite of “mind over body,” which I had been so focused on during my past rowing career. The more I thought about my body, the more limited I became. The injury had robbed me of this deepest kind of faith, the faith in my body to perform as I expected.
We spent 5 days getting to the base camp at 15,000 ft. Then left at midnight on day six to climb to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa. That morning, climbing up 4,000 ft over 6 hours in the complete dark and below freezing wind chill was the most difficult physical challenge I’d ever encountered. We had no idea where our destination was in the dark night, and it seemed that the sun would never come up. I thought about turning around, but figured that working my way back down in the slippery volcanic soil was not going to be any easier or warmer, so I kept going. The moment when the sun peeked over the horizon as we reached the crater rim was indescribable. I had made it. My body, and not my brain, had gotten me to the top of Africa!--Heather Healey
Please feel free to check out the peak in these pictures from the hike!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanashlock/collections/72157625660048986/
We spent 5 days getting to the base camp at 15,000 ft. Then left at midnight on day six to climb to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa. That morning, climbing up 4,000 ft over 6 hours in the complete dark and below freezing wind chill was the most difficult physical challenge I’d ever encountered. We had no idea where our destination was in the dark night, and it seemed that the sun would never come up. I thought about turning around, but figured that working my way back down in the slippery volcanic soil was not going to be any easier or warmer, so I kept going. The moment when the sun peeked over the horizon as we reached the crater rim was indescribable. I had made it. My body, and not my brain, had gotten me to the top of Africa!--Heather HealeyPlease feel free to check out the peak in these pictures from the hike!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanashlock/collections/72157625660048986/
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