Team Reaches the Top of Mt. Kilimanjaro — Completely Barefoot

CREDIT: Barefootimpi.org View full size image

A couple of weeks ago, we reported about a team who set off to summit Kilimanjaro without wearing shoes, socks, or any other type of footwear at all. Last weekend, said team of intrepid, barefoot mountain trekkers attained their goal when they reached Gilman’s Point (18,638 ft. ASL) with the smiles — and lack of shoes — to prove it.

This slightly insane stunt was accomplished by Barefoot Impi, a “global tribe of adventurer philanthropists” who push their bodies to do things in the name of charity — in this case, the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. All proceeds raised by the group will go directly to the hospital.

CREDIT: Barefootimpi.org

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So what was it like to trek up the tallest free standing mountain in the world? “We reached the peak as one very emotional tribe knowing that we had achieved what we had set out to do,” says Andrew King on the expedition blog. “The entire barefoot team had summited — sore — but with no serious injury.”

This is good news, knowing that summiting Kilimanjaro barefoot involves the risk of hypothermia, and cuts from sharp volcanic rocks along the trail — not to mention the threat of altitude sickness for parts of the body above the feet.

“We may be on the top of Africa,” Andrew King writes, “But we feel like we are on top of the world.”

This story was provided by Discovery News.