For Shawanna Kendrick, the journey to climb Mount Kilimanjaro began before she ever set foot in Tanzania, Africa.
Missing a connecting flight in London resulted in Kendrick, 48, and two other Chattanooga women having to start their ascent of the mountain the same day they arrived in Tanzania. Feeling the effects of travel added to the rigors of an already arduous trek but did not detract from their ability to “complete the task at hand,” Kendrick said by phone Friday.
As the founder and CEO of the H2O Life, a community-based organization that helps women of color, especially Black women, connect to the outdoors for not just their physical health but also their mental health, Kendrick set out to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest point and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, in the company of four other Black women from Chattanooga. The group included Crystal Sorrells, executive principal at Brainerd High School; Melony Collins, graphics and technology specialist with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency; Capt. Terri Roshell of the Chattanooga Fire Department; and Patricia Washington, a retiree who joined the group a week prior to their departure for Tanzania.
The ascent began June 10, and “there was nothing easy about it,” Kendrick said. While the trek to the summit, which sits at an elevation of more than 19,000 feet, is certainly a physical challenge that tests the body’s limits (Kendrick said she was grateful for ibuprofen), it also tests one’s mental fortitude, according to those who’ve previously made the climb. It was hard but not impossible, Kendrick said.
“It really did uncover more layers, or a deeper sense of self, for me than I really thought was there,” Kendrick said of the experience, adding that she would reflect each night, looking at what she had accomplished, what she wanted to accomplish but hadn’t and how she could apply what she learned during the experience to her everyday life.
“Yes, the things that I want to accomplish and hope to accomplish, they are going to be difficult, but it doesn’t mean I can’t do it,” she said. “I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I do have to prepare properly. I have to make certain that I’m putting aside time for rest, so that I will have the energy to continue. I will have that mental fortitude. I will have the physical ability to continue along my own personal journey.
“So, those are the things that resonated and continued to help fuel me each day, because I know if you can do that, you can do anything. If you can summit Mount Kilimanjaro, you can do anything,” Kendrick added.
Contributed photo / Mount Kilimanjaro is pictured. Five Black women from Chattanooga set out in June to climb and summit Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest point and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world.(READ MORE: Young Chattanooga climber wins national championship)
Of the five women, three — Kendrick, Collins and Roshell — officially summited Kilimanjaro. Kendrick reached the lower Gilman’s Point, one of three recognized summit points, and Collins and Roshell reached the highest point, Uhuru Peak. While Kendrick won’t downplay her accomplishment of summiting, she said she intends to climb Kilimanjaro again, hopefully next year, to reach that highest point.
“I don’t know who Gilman is; I haven’t done that research. I’m grateful that I made it as far as I did, but I want to reach Uhuru Peak,” she said. “And the reason I want to reach Uhuru Peak is because: No. 1, I’m just that determined to meet the goals that I set for myself; but, No. 2, the word ‘uhuru’ means ‘freedom,’ and there is something so magical about summiting and giving your all, physically and mentally, to reach a peak.”
At first, Roshell, of the fire department, wasn’t interested in doing the climb, she said by phone Friday. But the more she thought about it, the more she asked herself, “Why not,” until eventually she decided to take the challenge. Reflecting on the climb, Roshell said summiting Kilimanjaro was an accomplishment she didn’t know she needed.
“At that half-century mark, you feel like you’re living on borrowed time sometimes, but I got a lot left in me,” Roshell, 53, said about the experience. “I can start new adventures, and I think this climb was one of those starts to say, ‘Hey, whatever I want to do now, I can just go out there and get it done.'”
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While Roshell’s experience as a firefighter helped her be prepared physically for the climb, she said nothing can prepare you for the limited oxygen at higher altitudes. Even simple tasks like setting up a sleeping bag or changing clothes became more difficult due to the lower oxygen levels, Roshell said.
Reaching the peak is a mind game, Roshell said. There were times when she considered turning back, but she felt a drive to finish what she started. By the time Roshell reached the peak, which she described as ice-covered and slick, she was exhausted.
“I was really almost too tired to be excited,” Roshell said. “But, I do remember feeling like, ‘Wow, I’m here. I did this. I made this climb, as rough as it was.'”
Roshell said the goal-centered focus of reaching the top of the mountain sticks with her the most. Despite the struggles of the climb, she said seeing the sign that tells climbers “Congratulations,” realizing she had made it, that she had accomplished what she set out to do, was glorious.
Contact Sam Still at sstill@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6579.
Contributed photo / Shawanna Kendrick, left, and Soraka Tours guide Simon Minja stand for a photo at Gilman’s Point, one of three recognized summit points atop Mount Kilimanjaro. Five Black women from Chattanooga set out in June to climb and summit Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest point and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world.