Alumni Profiles
Three generations climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
Give them an inch, they'll take a mile
Three generations climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
By Deborah Lilly
Ruben Schwieger BA ’62 grew up with Mount Kilimanjaro in his backyard, so to speak, but he didn’t attempt to climb Africa’s highest mountain until last summer.
Ruben first moved to Kenya when he was 7 years old with his missionary parents. After undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States, Ruben returned to Kenya with his wife, Jenny (Livingston) Schwieger BS ’62, where they worked as missionary teachers.
“When [my son] Kevin was 3 years old,” Ruben remembers, “we were visiting a national park at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I said, ‘Kevin, one day we’ll climb up to the top of that mountain.’”
Last fall, Kevin BA ’86 decided it was time for his dad to fulfill that promise. “If we’re going to climb the mountain, we’d better do it now,” Kevin told Ruben.
Ruben didn’t hesitate to say yes, especially since Kevin’s 14-year-old son, Logan, would be climbing with them — three generations of Schwieger men tackling Mt. Kilimanjaro together.
In June, Ruben, Kevin, Logan, and their friend Scott Arnold BA ’94 met their guides at the bottom of the southern slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. When they left the bottom of the mountain, the temperature was 75-80 degrees. At the end of the day and 10,000 feet up, the temperature hovered around freezing.
“It took us three days of hard climbing to reach the top,” says Ruben.
The second day, they reached 15, 000 feet. Their third day began at midnight, so they could climb the final 4,000 feet in time to watch the sunrise from the rim of the mountain. “That was the toughest part of the climb,” says Ruben. Hiking by the light of a full moon, the climbers were still sleepy and the path was very steep. But it was worth it.
“We arrived at the rim at dawn, which was spectacular,” says Ruben. “The weather was absolutely clear and we could see for miles and miles. It was just beautiful.”
After taking in the view and shooting a few pictures, they began their day-and-a-half descent from the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. “In some ways, climbing down was harder,” says Ruben, “because it was very, very steep, and we used a different set of muscles from those used climbing up.”
As spectacular as the trip was, Ruben says he isn’t sure if he’d be interested in doing it again. But then he’s quick to add a few exceptions to that statement: If his 11-year-old granddaughter decides she wants to someday make the climb, he’d be happy to go along. And if someday Logan wants to climb the mountain again with his son, Ruben would join a four-generational trek up Mt. Kilimnajaro.
Give them an inch, they'll take a mile
By Kim Walker
That’s exactly what Connie Hippensteel BA ’67, program director at the Kardatzke Wellness Center; Becky Hull, chair of the Kinesiology Department; Cindy Peck ’74, associate professor of accounting; Peck’s daughter, Vivienne Ross; and two neighboring teachers did with the “inch” of time they had available this summer: They stretched their week’s time into miles and hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail through Georgia.
As women with jobs and families — none of whom have husbands who are particularly fond of camping — making the time to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, which runs for nearly 2,000 miles from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mt. Katahdin, Maine, would be nearly impossible, so they conquered a section.
The group headed for Amicalola Falls, Ga., June 15, and hiked 40 miles over a four-night, five-day period. Along the way, they passed beautiful scenery, scenery that compensated for what could, at times, seem like endless up and down motion. “Right when you think you are too tired to go on, you get to a vista or feel a cool breeze, and it rejuvenates you again,” says Hippensteel. “It’s those small pleasures that drive you on.”
The portion of Georgia the group hiked was both rugged and scenic, with unusual and bright wildflowers. It was also bear territory.
“They (park officials) warned us this was bear territory, and we had better be mindful of bears at all times,” says Peck. They kept their trash and food scraps with them at all times. At night before they slept, they used pulleys rigged throughout the campground that allowed them to hang their food — mainly granola bars and dried foods they carried in their backpacks — high in trees while they slept.
Traveling in a group allowed them to watch out for each other, but it also heightened awareness of how each traveler’s health and attitude reflected upon the entire group. “If you have to stop or slow down, the group has to stop or slow down,” explains Peck. “If you don’t take care of your feet and can’t go on, the group can’t go on. You learn that you have to listen to your body and take care of yourself at the onset of a symptom. That’s an important lesson that applies at home, too.” Repetitive thoughts of caring for oneself and the environment are reminders of just how basic our needs really are, says Hippensteel. “Hiking together brings you back to the basics. You spend the day with minimalist thoughts. Do I have enough water? Do I have enough food? Are my feet cared for so that I can go on? You really do spend a lot of time thinking about feet,” she laughs.
Never underestimate the importance of well-cared for feet, they acknowledged. After all, next year their feet will have to be in tip-top shape so they can stretch their inch of time into more miles on a fresh trail section to feel the pleasure of basic living again.
