One year ago today, Kim and I were 8,000 miles away and just south of the equator in Tanzania, on the second day of our climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. It’s hard for us to believe that it has been an entire year since that incredible trip. We spent the better part of a year planning and preparing for it, and it has been on my mind since I started rock climbing and reading mountaineering books back in graduate school.

I had to look back at my journal to remember exactly what the day was like last year. The first day of our climb had been a relatively easy hike from our entry point to a camp site called Big Tree Camp. This was a convergence point for a lot of the routes, so it was quite crowded, and since it was in the rainforest, throughout the night we heard colobus monkeys calling through the trees. An interesting first night, for sure.

The second day was a little more intense as far as the hiking goes. Sort of the first real test of how you are going to do on the mountain. It was steep, but our group leader that day was Zelote and he kept us at a nice slow pace (“Pole pole” in Swahili) that allowed us to keep moving without getting overly fatigued. Most afternoons, clouds moved in, and this day was no exception. We should have had a beautiful view of Kilimanjaro, but in the evening the clouds were covering it. Exhausted, we went to sleep and woke on the 19th to the mountain basking in the morning sun. It was both amazing and daunting at the same time. At that point, we still had a mile and a half yet to climb up (and more like 40 in distance).

As I think back on our trip, I’m trying to remember all of the little moments that made up our eventual success at the summit. In the spirit of my newsletter from the end of the year, while getting to the top was our goal, what we took away with us was so much more. It was the experiences along the way with new friends and with people from different walks of life. Even my journal doesn’t capture so many of the little things that happened along the way as we hiked up the mountain.

There is one moment that really captured the spirit of the trip. When we got ready to hike one morning, our porters and guides were gathering together like they were planning something. And sure enough, as we got our gear out and repacked for the day, they began to sing “Jambo Bwana.” It’s a song that has become synonymous with climbing Kili and for us climbers is an anthem that when we hear it brings to the surface a range of emotions. It is in Swahili and has the joy and exuberance that both the language and culture reflect. Here is our group of guides and porters pumping us up for the day’s climb: click to watch. It was really an amazing trip all of the way around, not just because of the climb, but also having the opportunity to meet and spend time with all of the Tanzanian porters. Truly a unique experience.

What’s next? Who knows, but as John Muir famously said: “The mountains are calling and I must go.” I’m not sure where our next major adventure will be, but I know that it is already calling me.