“I hope I remember this for the rest my life. I wrote in my journal about it every day,” said Montannah Kenney, 7, after climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.
By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
River Ridge Elementary second grader, Montannah Kenney, 7, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro over spring break and stakes her claim as the youngest female to do so.
Montannah began her trek on Saturday, March 10 and made it to the summit on Friday, March 16 with her mom, Hollie, at her side every step of the way.
Mount Kilimanjaro located in Tanzania, Africa and is the highest free-standing mountain in the world, standing at 19,341 feet.
The duo lives in Steiner Ranch, and Hollie, 45, is a former professional triathlete, head coach of Gold Stars Swimming, and Montannah’s coach.
Montannah is an avid triathlete, swimmer and runner. She also plays soccer and basketball and loves gymnastics and the piano.
The Kenneys decided about a year ago to do this together.
“But we’re not sure we could logistically put it together and get a permit for Montannah,” Hollie said.
Kids under 10 need a special permit. It all came together at the last minute only a few weeks before they left.
“When we realized Montannah would be the youngest female to ever do this, it became even more special and a challenge for us,” Hollie said.
Montannah not only thought this would be a fun adventure with her mom, but that it would be a neat thing to try to break the world record, Montannah said.
The Austin American-Statesman stated that Roxy Getter of Florida, who was then 8, was the previous youngest female to complete the climb. Keats Boyd of Los Angeles was 7 when he climbed. An estimated 25,000 people set out to climb Mount Kilamanjaro each year; about two-thirds make it to the top.
To train for the climb, the Kenneys hiked a lot in River Place and Hill of Life.
“A lot of back to back days of hiking with our heavy backpacks,” she said. They also did other forms of training, including swimming and running.
Montannah had just came off of basketball season where her games were on Sunday nights.
“We would go to her games after hiking four to six hours. She learned how to play on tired legs,” Hollie said. “She is definitely an endurance athlete.”
“It was fun,” Montannah said. “We got to see a lot, but I wish it didn’t rain every day because our stuff was all wet.”
During the climb last week, it rained throughout the climb and then on summit night, it had snowed two feet.
“It was very difficult getting to the summit because we were slipping all over the place,” Hollie siad. “Even more difficult, was we started our summit at 12:30 a.m. and it took 7.5 hours to get there.”
The Kenneys were at the summit for 20 min before they had to track down the mountain.
“It was a 45 degree grade with all that snow on it,” Hollie said. They got to camp, had lunch, and then had to trek another 5.5 hours down more of the mountain, which made for a 15-hour hiking day. She said this is necessary because of the altitude.
“It felt like a triple marathon,” Hollie said. “Montannah shocked us all.”
Montannah also wanted to do the trek in memory of Montannah’s dad who passed away a week after Montannah’s third birthday.
“The higher I go, the closer I get to him in heaven”, Montannah stated.
“I’m glad I did it, but I would not want to do it again,” Montannah said.