Good news for folks that think hiking in the mountains might be fun but also feel like maybe their chance has passed them by. You are probably not too old to hike in mountainous terrain if you want to!
When Elise and I climbed Kilimanjaro she was in her early 40’s and I was in my late 40’s and the thought certainly crossed our minds – maybe too many years of first-world convenience had irrevocably softened us beyond the point of being able to do something like that.
But when we got to Kili and met with our head guide, who had led hundreds of parties up the mountain during his career, he assured us that in his experience, the trekkers that do best on Kilimanjaro are older than 50 years old! Apparently, youngsters have a harder time pacing themselves and a lack of perseverance built from years of real-world experience plagues the 20-somethings that try to run up the mountain fueled by nothing more than enthusiasm.
So, if we had any handicap setting out on our mountain trek, it was because we might have been too young to do as well as we could have!
Really there is no upper age limit for adventure – even adventures like mountain climbing and hiking. People of any age can participate in pretty much any adventure you can think of. Heck, they even shot 80-year old John Glenn back into outer space a few years ago!
Categories: Adventure, Hiking, Mountaineering
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