Ketchikan resident summits Mt. Kilimanjaro

When longtime Ketchikan resident Angela Salazar made the decision to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro — the fourth most topographically prominent peak in the world — it was simply because she “needed a goal.” During her once-in-a-lifetime journey, which stretched from Oct. 4-10, Salazar pushed herself to new limits, met lifelong friends and, most importantly, impressed her kids.

The mountain is located in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, in East Africa and stands at 19,341 feet above sea level. Salazar made the climb with a group of 10 other women, who were all part of a professionally guided trip with one main goal, to safely reach the mountain’s peak. Despite the high elevation and rugged nature of the trip, Salazar said it did not become truly strenuous until the time came to make for the summit.

Her alpine expedition did not come as the result of a lifelong quest or bucket list item, but at the offhanded suggestion of a friend who had already been planning a trip up Kilimanjaro. Salazar was scheduled to undergo arthroscopic hip surgery in April, and wanted something to work towards in conjunction with the rehab from her surgery. Ultimately, the decision came down to three words — “Let’s do it.”

“[My friend] and a couple of her friends were already going, so I was the fourth person and I literally had no idea what I was getting myself into.” Salazar explained. “Honestly, this was never on my bucket list. This was not some big challenge I've always hoped to do. I was just looking forward to doing something active outside and I thought it would be OK. And then I did some research and wondered what I got myself into.”

After her surgery, Salazar was given a timetable of 9-12 months before she would be fully recovered. But she had already planned to hike Kilimanjaro in October, just six months removed from her surgery. Her doctor described the accelerated recovery plan as “not impossible, but very aggressive,” which was all Salazar needed to hear. She explained that, although she pushed the limits as far as recovery time is concerned, she “never overdid it” and followed all the guidelines set by her doctor and physical therapist.

Amanda Schuler is a physical therapist who owns and operates Ketchikan Physical Therapy LLC. She is Salazar’s friend as well as her physical therapist, and she worked with Salazar to help her prepare for the journey. Schuler said they worked together to establish boundaries for Salazar’s training and for the climb itself, saying they put a “bailout plan” in place in case she pushed herself too far while on the mountain.

Schuler said it was a combination of Salazar’s work ethic, adherence to her recovery program, and pure grit and determination that helped her complete her goal. She said Salazar didn’t push herself past her physical limits, which helped her recover without re-injuring herself. Schuler said she got emotional when she heard the news that her friend and patient had summited Kilimanjaro

“I was so proud of her,” Schuler said. “It speaks to the human spirit and the capabilities and potential that we have. To see her navigate such a big challenge with tenacity and grace and flexibility was so beautiful to witness. When we, as humans, are determined and capable, when we put our mind to something, there's almost nothing that we can't do within reason.”

After being unable to put weight on her surgically repaired hip for the first six weeks of her recovery time, Salazar began training by hiking many local trails — including Ward Lake Trail, Coast Guard Beach and the Minerva Mountain Trail — in the remaining four months and two weeks leading up to Kilimanjaro. Salazar had to complete each hike multiple times without pain in order to get the OK from her doctors.

Despite months of training, Salazar still had serious second thoughts before embarking on her trip.

“I started having second thoughts before I got there because we had a Zoom call and they told me we need to be prepared for minus-20 weather,” Salazar said. “So I was more worried about what I got myself into. The elevation sickness is a huge factor too. This climb is kind of the great equalizer because it doesn't matter necessarily how fit you are, whether or not you're going to make it to the top. We had a couple really fit, very active hikers that didn't make it, and it was nothing to do with the fact that they weren't able, it's because they had really extreme elevation sickness, so you just really never know.”

Still, Salazar didn’t let her reservations stop her. She and the rest of the 11-woman group — self-dubbed the “Gal-livanters” — arrived at the base of the mountain on Oct. 4. After the first day of climbing, all of her clothes, and everything else she’d packed, were soaking wet. Salazar said that her guides had given the group a packing list that detailed the supplies needed for the journey. Although she thought she’d packed well, one key omission from the list led to a lot of headache for the group.

“The one thing they failed to mention was to make sure you put all of your stuff in a garbage bag inside your duffel, because that's how our stuff got wet,” Salazar said. “Even though it was in a North Face waterproof duffel bag, my stuff was completely drenched on day one.”

Salazar praised the guides who took care of her and the group during their journey, without whom she says the trek would have been impossible. The company, called “Plains to Peak,” provided everything Salazar needed to successfully summit Kilimanjaro. Her guides provided hot food, worked to dry out her wet clothes and even physically assisted her in continuing the hike when things became most difficult.

She added that one guide named Edie was crucial in getting her up the mountain.

“Halfway up the summit, they carried our day pack for us,” Salazar said. [Edie] constantly was just like, ‘You're doing great. Do you need some water? Let's take a bite of this. Let me take your picture.’ He was constantly trying to give me reasons to take a break and encouraging me. I wouldn't have made it without this kid.”

The first four days of the hike were not particularly stressful, according to Salazar. She described them as “no harder than hiking around [Ketchikan]” and although the group put in over six hours of hiking for multiple days in a row, Salazar was “never out of breath” because of the slow pace the group took. However, things changed when it came time to push for the summit.

“It's kind of almost like it's two separate hikes or two separate experiences,” Salazar said. “You're basically in a line weaving your way up and so we didn't have a whole lot of elevation sickness, but then when you get to summit day, now you really start. We left around eight in the morning and had to hike up 3,000 feet to get to base camp, which is at 15,000 feet. Then we had lunch, rest, dinner, and then we left for the summit at 11 p.m. that same day.”

Beginning just before midnight, the climb to summit Kilimanjaro took the form of a single-file line slowly making its way up the mountain’s home stretch over the course of eight hours. After reaching the summit, Salazar was met with a four-hour hike back to base camp, where she slept for two hours before hiking another 2000 feet back to the base of the mountain. Altogether, she hiked 17 hours in one 30 hour period and slept for about three hours.

Salazar had trouble describing how she felt upon finally reaching the summit, even choking up as she attempted to put her feelings into words. Standing at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, 19,341 feet above sea level, her first thought was “Holy s__t, I’m at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro.”

“It was like sheer relief, and I started bawling,” Salazar said. “I'm going to start bawling just talking about it. It was very overwhelming and empowering that you literally just had to tell yourself to take a step. Overcoming something you weren't sure if you were really going to be able to do, it was just amazing.”

Salazar went out of her way to highlight her fellow Gal-livanters, many of whom were complete strangers to her. The group formed tight bonds over the course of their trip, and still keep in touch regularly via group text.

“I just texted them this morning like ‘I lost my first toenail,’” Salazar said. “It's just funny things. One of us just got engaged last week, and so she sent us her engagement stuff and we're like, ‘We're going to have a table for 10 for the rest of us.’”

Another impactful part of Salazar’s experience were the messages she received from her two children, Gavin and Tessa, when she completed the trek. She said she hoped to make her kids proud in the process of hiking Kilimanjaro. According to her kids, she succeeded.

Her daughter Tessa thought her mom was crazy when she first heard her plans. Tessa worried about her mother’s physical preparedness post-surgery and wondered if she’s trained enough to complete her goal. Relief was the first thing she felt when she finally heard from her mother that she’d completed her goal.

“I was just so relieved to be hearing from her, and I was so incredibly proud of her,” Tessa said. “She is my role model. She's someone I look up to. And just hearing that she was able to get past her fears and have enough self-discipline and want to do something, I was so impressed. Just hiking the mountain in general is amazing, but to hear that she actually got to go to the top when a lot of people experienced elevation sickness, it was amazing.”

Gavin didn’t realize how rigorous of a task his mother was undertaking until it was over, but echoed his sister’s sentiments of pride in Salazar for doing something “so far outside her comfort zone.” Tessa said she’s also noticed significant changes in her mom over the past year.

“In the past year, she's really changed, which is so good,” Tessa said. “My mother is one of the most selfless people I think I've ever met in my life, but this past year she's been really just living, and I'm so proud of her. I was talking to one of her friends the other day and they're like, ‘I don't recognize her anymore.’  She’s so carefree now, and putting herself first and taking chances. Just the fact that she's saying yes to more things is amazing. And then to top it all off, hiking one of the tallest fountains in the world was just like, woah, my mom is a badass.”

Salazar doesn’t think she’d attempt to tackle Mt. Kilimanjaro a second time, but revealed that she and her Gal-ivanters are already looking into more hiking adventures. She hopes these new excursions won’t be quite as high-intensity as their previous adventure, adding that she knows what she’d do differently this time around.

The journey from surgery to training to standing on top of Kilimanjaro represented Salazar expanding her horizons and doing things she might not normally do. She sees her trip as a reminder to herself that she can do anything she sets her mind to.

“The whole aspect of that trip was out of my comfort zone,” Salazar said. “Intense and pouring rain and seven days without a shower, that's not something I do very often now. Maybe back in the day I did that a little bit, but you just feel really empowered when you set your mind to something. I had a goal, I did all of the work that I could do that was in my control to get there, and I did it. And it just makes me feel like there's so many other things that I can do. We all need to live outside of our comfort zones a little bit. You have to be mentally tough to do some of that stuff, and I think that it's just a good reminder that you are, and you can.”

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News