A sisterhood of 14 Black ladies was within the temper to raise, and so they climbed to the highest of the tallest mountain in Africa.
Earlier this month, the Sistahs to the Summit group had lunch and danced to Beyoncé‘s Cuff It on the high of Mount Kilimanjaro, towering over 19,000 toes excessive. The ascent makes them one of many largest teams ever to climb the highest freestanding mountain on this planet.
They left along with numb toes, lifelong connections, and the will to maintain exploring.
Final week, the New York Metropolis and New Jersey-based ladies sat down with CBS Mornings co-hosts Gayle King, Nate Burleson, and Tony Dokoupil to share their difficult but triumphant journey.
A fiftieth birthday want
The eight-day journey up and down the so-called “Roof of Africa” started with one girl, Erica Liles. She needed to usher in her fiftieth birthday with a historic feat, so she emailed her pals with an bold proposition. Out of 18 individuals who responded, 14 ladies determined to take the journey.
“I had a technique the place I didn’t wish to put any stress on anybody as a result of I do know that climbing Kilimanjaro just isn’t for the faint of coronary heart,” Liles stated.
These plans, nevertheless, had been 5 years within the making. Liles tagged in her good good friend, Malaak Compton-Rock, to deliver the imaginative and prescient to life.
“We have now the identical journey sensibilities,” Compton-Rock stated. “We’re speaking about Antarctica subsequent. We wanna see the world. We wish to uncover locations and take ourselves out of our consolation zone.”
“After I acquired her e mail, it was like instantaneous.”
Coaching
In preparation, these ladies enlisted methods to assist them prepare, together with walks at Martha’s Winery.
“For me, I couldn’t journey to Martha’s Winery, so I broke my boots in in Brooklyn [sic],” J’Nelle Agee stated. “[I did by] going to Dealer Joe’s and Goal. So all of us needed to discover our methods to coach…whether or not it was on the treadmill, doing small hikes in New Jersey, or getting into Harlem.”
The journey
“The reward just isn’t higher than the trouble,” Compton-Rock stated.
The group additionally journeyed with 72 porters who helped carry their day packs, however alongside the best way, two ladies needed to flip again resulting from altitude illness.
Take a look at the complete interview right here:
