Bethel Stu­dent Hikes Kil­i­man­jaro

MISHAWAKA – Over win­ter break, Bethel’s own Syd­ney An­der­son hiked Mount Kil­i­man­jaro in Tan­za­nia, Africa. An­der­son, a ju­nior ma­jor­ing in Ac­count­ing and Busi­ness Man­age­ment, climbed the moun­tain with her dad. Mount Kil­i­man­jaro has been her dad’s num­ber one bucket list item for sev­eral years, and she was ex­cited to join him in mak­ing it a re­al­ity.  

An­der­son had pre­vi­ously par­tic­i­pated in a va­ri­ety of hik­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties with her fa­ther in the United States, and she was also part of Bethel’s Ap­palachian Trail trip in the spring of 2022. How­ever, Mount Kil­i­man­jaro, which sits at an el­e­va­tion of 19,341 feet, is the high­est moun­tain in Africa and the high­est free-stand­ing moun­tain in the world, set­ting it apart as a unique ex­pe­ri­ence and An­der­son’s most chal­leng­ing hike yet.  

The group An­der­son and her fa­ther hiked with be­gan the as­cent on Christ­mas day at around 7,000 feet. The hike took a to­tal of eight days. The high­est point at which they camped was 15,000 feet, and the group sum­mited on New Year’s Day be­fore hik­ing back down to a safer el­e­va­tion for camp­ing. The group took one of the longer routes up the moun­tain.  

Syd­ney An­der­son cel­e­brat­ing suc­cess with the Bethel flag on Mount Kil­i­man­jaro. Pro­vided by Syd­ney An­der­son.

One of the many in­ter­est­ing ex­pe­ri­ences An­der­son had on this trip in­volved the cook that came with the group to pre­pare food. An­der­son re­counted one par­tic­u­lar meal: it was pizza, but not av­er­age pizza.  

“The sauce was just ketchup, and we had potato and car­rots on top,” An­der­son said. 

As for look­ing ahead to her next ad­ven­ture, An­der­son is cur­rently plan­ning to join the Bethel trip to Machu Pic­chu in May of 2023.