Conquering Kilimanjaro - Military Health, military health and wellness, military physical fitness - Military Times

Conquering Kilimanjaro

NAIROBI, Kenya — The three veterans from three different wars had only one good leg among them. But that didn’t stop them from summiting Africa’s highest mountain.

The three soldiers — veterans of Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam — scrambled, clawed and plodded to the top of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, hiking up the domed mountain’s scree-filled paths on one human leg and five titanium and carbon fiber prosthetics.

They skidded. They fell. They removed their legs to adjust their shoes. And after six days of climbing, they stood at 19,336 feet — Africa’s highest point.

“The message we’re trying to send back to the USA is no matter what disability you have, you can be active,” said Kirk Bauer, the executive director of Disabled Sports USA and a 62-year-old Vietnam veteran who lost his leg in 1969.

“If three amputees from three different wars and two different generations with literally one good leg can climb Kilimanjaro, our other disabled friends can get out and go hiking or go biking or swim a mile, can get out and lead a healthy life,” he said.

The youngest of the veterans, 26-year-old Neil Duncan, lost both legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2005. The Denver resident tried to summit Kilimanjaro last year, but poor planning doomed the trip.

This time, a different guide planned a route specifically for the veterans. The group took six days to ascend, instead of three or four, and a special permit for the disabled allowed them to spend the night in tents at 19,000 feet.

“It was evidence that with the right planning and right preparation and right execution, anything can be done,” Duncan said.

The third veteran, Dan Nevins, a 37-year-old from Jacksonville, Fla., who lost his legs in Iraq, developed a pressure boil on one of his leg’s stumps, which may have been the cause of his high fever, coughing and congestion. After reaching the summit and descending to 15,000 feet, he was evacuated on a wheeled stretcher.

That illustrated just one of the challenges the amputees faced. On Day 5, the group hiked from 15,500 feet to 19,000 feet, a 12-hour day in thin air that left everyone struggling to breathe.

Kilimanjaro’s lower paths are flat dirt, but higher trails turn to a rock and scree blend difficult for prosthetics. In the loose rock, the artificial legs slid backward, leading Duncan to feel as if he was climbing the mountain twice.

Going down — the part many climbers say is the hardest on the body — was no easier. Duncan lost his footing and somersaulted. Bauer’s artificial leg fell off. “It’s more of a controlled fall down the mountain. It’s not a graceful process I assure you,” Duncan said.

Bauer, talking about his 45 minutes on the summit, said, “The feeling was total exhaustion and total exhilaration.”