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Mountain climbing is an extreme adventure that involves risk. But for 90-year-old Eritrean American Naizghi Gebremedhin, it has been business as usual.
Naizghi previously climbed Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, with an elevation of about 5,895 meters. He made it to the peak.
On his birthday earlier this month, Naizghi scaled most of Africa’s second-highest peak, Mount Kenya. It was his 14th time on Mount Kenya, which has an elevation of about 5,199 meters.
Naizghi said he could not have hoped for a better place to spend his special day.
“Instead of celebrating in my bedroom down here in this garden in Nairobi we decided we’ll do it up on the top of Mount Kenya,” he told VOA in an interview via Skype.
The adventurer said he hiked up to around 5,000 meters, the third-highest point.
“The point that is approachable by ordinary people like me,” he said.
Why did he do it?
“It was to demonstrate that even at this advanced age, you prepare yourself in a fairly simple way; you are able to do it,” he said.
“Advanced age is not a disadvantage; advanced age can also be a blessing in a way, but you have to try to prepare for it.”
Naizghi is a former dean of the Building College, one of the colleges that formed the Faculty of Technology at Addis Ababa University. He also had a role in helping Eritrea register Asmara as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Naizghi said he constantly exercises and walks a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.
“I do what they call press ups, I do push ups, I do all kinds of stretches, and that has helped me a lot.”
Asked about the challenges of going down the peak, he acknowledged that descending was harder than climbing.
“Coming down was a tremendous challenge. I kept on telling my guide, ‘Where are we now? Are we close now?’”
Naizghi said he is not sure of another climb, although he intends to “continue moving.”
“I have a feeling I may not be able to do another climb but will continue as long as God gives me more years,” he said.
“I will continue to move. But this kind of severe movement, getting up from 5,000 [meters], going about 600 to 700 meters in less than five [or] six hours is terrible on your knees and your muscles,” he added.
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