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Although Clark Coffman grew up with a creek in his yard, the outdoors never had a strong presence in his life. It wasn’t until Coffman, a Class of 2017 Syracuse University alumnus, met his two friends Hunter Longland and Alden Bohrmann during his undergraduate career that he became interested in the outdoors.

“They taught me how to enjoy nature more than I already did,” Coffman said. “Hunter was a climbing enthusiast and always talked about mountains — that kind of (was) instilled in me over the years and led me to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.”

The idea of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro came to mind during the pandemic. Coffman had never done any climbing prior to Mount Kilimanjaro, but he’d done some skiing in Colorado and developed an understanding of how to deal with elevation and altitude sickness. After hanging out one night and talking about the climb, Coffman and his friends decided to start planning the trip. Last month, from Jan. 13-20, Coffman took on the adventure of a lifetime.

In the lead up to the trip, Coffman said he and his friends experienced “a mix of excitement and a little bit of paranoia because the week that we left was the largest spike of omicron.”

“Our concerns shifted from ‘Are we going to the top?’ to ‘Are we even going to be able to leave the country?’” Coffman said.

They booked a flight and were picked up by the team from Follow Alice, a company people use to go on big trips like Kilimanjaro.

The best advice Coffman received from the guides was to not think about the summit and instead enjoy now and focus on the present. If you think about the summit, you get scared — take it one step at a time and go slow, the guides said.

On the day of the journey,the group left camp at 1 a.m. After a six-hour hike, they reached the summit and watched the sunrise at 7 a.m. As he reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, emotions set in for Coffman.

“It’s pretty emotional. I don’t really know how to put it into words. You feel a sense of accomplishment but also an awe of the beauty,” Coffman said. “I was pretty emotional; I know my friend was. I had been planning it for so long, and it was such a big trip for me. My friend was going because he had just lost his mother to cancer and he brought a flag along, and I really think he was doing this for his mother. A lot of emotions came out.”

Over a year of planning and the time has finally come:mount_fuji::flag-tz:

A photo posted byclarkcoffman

Coffman didn’t go on the hike alone. He went with Harrison Vaughn, a longtime friend from his early high school years. Although they went to different colleges, they’ve reconnected throughout the past couple of years.

Vaughn has always loved the outdoors. He’s had a handful of jobs involving nature — one that stood out in particular to Vaughn was working in New Zealand in high mountain forestry with a government contractor called Central Wilding Pine Tree Control. He had also done lots of backpacking excursions in the Appalachian Trail area and Rocky Mountain National Park.

“Kilimanjaro is unique in a lot of ways in the sense it has four progressive climates,” Vaughn said. “You start in the jungle, end up in Alpine desert and (then) pretty heavy snow for the days that we were there.”

Vaughn and Coffman had to purchase different layers, backpacks and other types of equipment to accommodate for the temperature changes. Physical preparation was also essential.

They spent several months working out in gyms, using the stair climber, lifting weights and going for hikes at local state parks to get into shape, with an average of 30-40 miles per week.

“I had been planning the trip for a year, so I kind of accumulated things step by step. The only things we didn’t purchase were sleeping bags and tents. We had to have layers, summit gloves, hiking pants, sun hats,” Coffman said.

Several guides, porters and chefs were on the hike as well. Their main responsibilities were to help the hikers succeed and be able to accomplish the journey. One particular guide, Gideon Kaswa, said it’s all about being ready to climb.

“Someone who wants to do this must be ready and willing to climb. It’s very mental,” Kaswa said.

Published on February 21, 2022 at 11:03 pm