Staring up at Mt. Kilimanjaro two years ago during a Safari trip in Kenya, Richard Hluchan, of Haddonfield, never imagined he would be staring down from the mountain’s peak.
Last month, Richard and his daughter Christine did just that.
“It was an amazing trip for us,” Hluchan said. “Being on top of that mountain was breathtaking. It’s a feeling that is indescribable.”
Hluchan and his daughter are not professional hikers. In fact, before this trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro, they had done little to no hiking before. And yet, they were able to reach the peak of the highest freestanding mountain in the world, at 19,341 feet above sea level.
“It is definitely an accomplishment,” he said. “And we lucked out with the weather conditions while we were there, too, which made the whole climb much more pleasant.”
Mt. Kilimanjaro is one of the Seven Summits, being the tallest mountain in Africa. It is a mountain climber’s dream to reach the top. Many train all their lives, seeking to stand atop and look out over the world, even looking down at the clouds. Hluchan and Christine took a vastly different approach to their training, and even their inspiration is quite remarkable.
“During our safari, I bought a t-shirt that says ‘If you can’t climb Kilimanjaro, you may as well drink it’,” he said. “There is a beer in Africa called Kilimanjaro, and the t-shirt is what made us really consider attempting the hike. It was also a way to spend some time with Christine before she goes back to Georgetown University Medical School.”
They began training last December after they decided they were going to attempt the climb. However, the training did not involve much climbing. Instead, they stayed on flat ground during the majority of the preparation.
“We spent a lot of hours on the Stairmaster,” he said. “I also bought new boots and put about 100 miles on them, hiking all over Haddonfield and Camden County. I also took the boots with me to the beach to hike in the sand, which was better for my knees and got me ready for what the mountain would be like.”
Hluchan and his daughter hired two guides and nine porters that helped them during their summit, which took seven days.
“The climb is not the most difficult in the world,” Hluchan said. “It’s a long, steep hike, but it doesn’t require any real technical skill, which is why it was the perfect climb for us. The only real trouble is the altitude.”
Like all the Seven Summits, the air is much thinner at the top of the mountain, which causes some to become delirious during the trek. Hluchan says he was not affected by the altitude during his hike, but attributes that to the acclimatization process.
“It took us seven days to get to the top, but it only took us one day to get down to the bottom,” he said. “They do that on purpose to help you get used to the air up toward the top.”
And standing atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, Hluchan says he understands now why people dedicate their lives to mountain climbing.
“On the summit, the sun was shining, we could see for miles and miles, and we were looking down at the clouds,” he said. “It is definitely a memory I will never forget.”
