Tori Lieberman, 24, of Tulsa, OK, and her grandfather, Gary Fetterhoff, 70, of Broken Arrow, OK, will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters / 19,340 ft.) on the 7-day Machame Route in February 2016. Mount Kilimanjaro, located three degrees south of the equator in northeastern Tanzania, is the tallest mountain in Africa, and the highest freestanding mountain in the world. To summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, Lieberman and Fetterhoff will be using adventure travel outfitter Adventures within Reach (http://www.AdventuresWithinReach.com).
Lieberman has been to Tanzania twice before to visit and work at the Janada L. Batchelor Foundation for Children (http://www.jbfc-online.org/index.html). During one of her trips, Lieberman flew over Mt. Kilimanjaro and decided to add climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro to her bucket list. Lieberman also decided she wanted her grandfather to join her. After three years of Lieberman asking him, Fetterhoff surprised Lieberman by saying yes at the 2014 family Christmas party. Since then, Lieberman and Fetterhoff have been having a lot of fun training separately and together. They each have their own training regimens and naturally they are pretty competitive about which way is better. Fetterhoff goes to the gym to lift and do his cardiovascular workout on machines so he can add resistance and elevation. Fetterhoff was an All-American high school athlete. Lieberman has been running, doing yoga, and strength training. They hike together every Friday afternoon. Fetterhoff and Lieberman make sure to throw in a little bit of fun, taking turns bringing beer to drink after their hikes and, if the weather is bad, they skip the hike altogether and head to the bar. They have had a blast picking out gear and have talked about what music they will listen to, who they might meet along the way, and even the bathroom situation. Lieberman and Fetterhoff are planning to visit Zanzibar right after their Mt. Kilimanjaro climb using the Machame Route.
The Machame Route, also known as the Whiskey Route, is the second most popular route up Mt. Kilimanjaro, as it is a more difficult route, but incredibly beautiful. The trek is not a technical climb, but summit day is long, strenuous, and at an incredibly high elevation. Nonetheless, "Mt. Kilimanjaro is our most popular trek," says Robin Paschall, owner of Adventures Within Reach. "Of the famous 'Seven Summits,' this is the easiest to get to and to climb. It requires no technical climbing experience, and a moderately fit person can summit the mountain with training and perseverance. Most people add a cultural tour like a safari before or after their trek. This is really a trip of a lifetime." See http://adventureswithinreach.com/tanzania/kilimanjaro/ for details about climbing Kilimanjaro.