In 2019 the Salesforce UK channel and alliances arranged a climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise funds for WorldReader, a fantastic charity dedicated to helping children through reading, technology and programming. Through this initiative a team of 9 raised more than USD $250k to go toward e-reading programs in Kenya. This experience was truly mind blowing, I will be forever grateful. I don’t think I could quite put it into words but I'll try. 

There are seven established routes to the Kilimanjaro Summit. We hiked the Lemosho route, the most scenic trail with a modest 3% fatality rate. The entire journey took 8 days, walking 72 kilometers (44.7. miles) and scaling almost 6,000 meters (almost 20k feet) into the sky. For perspective, this is almost twice as high as New Zealand's largest mountain, Mt. Cook and almost 3,000 meters shy of Mt. Everest. The final ascent felt like we were scaling a skyscraper; the view from above the clouds was remarkable, personally I would do this trip again for the view alone.

We took several days to gradually acclimatize to altitude, by the time we hit 2,000 meters, hands and feet start to swell and turn purple and breathing becomes shallow. After we made camp on the 2nd night, we made a short trek on a steep incline directly up the mountain, roughly 500 meters higher to help acclimatize for the next day. As the main cause of fatality on the mountain, altitude sickness was taken very seriously. I know we all felt comfort that the experienced porters assisting our climb were diligent about making this a safe climb. An upside to spending long periods of time at altitude is that it promotes the generation of white blood cells in your body and for weeks after the climb I felt amazing. In addition to this, the high you feel when you descend as more oxygen fills your lungs is incredibly satisfying. The mental and physical wellness that came with this experience was a highlight for me and certainly worth mentioning. 

Day four of the climb we set up camp at a central junction for several routes up the mountain, this was the busiest camp and the only place on the mountain with coverage. This point in the climb was memorable to me because I spoke to my brother back in New Zealand and he told me he had proposed to my now sister-in-law, which made my day. 

The very next day we were faced with ‘The Wall’, the Wall is exactly what it sounds like, a giant wall in which we needed to scale over that day. Definitely the most technical part of the climb, the wall had us jumping over crevices and edging across the rock face to scale the obstacle.


The team stops for a picture at Kilimanjaro National Park Gate.



The porters would carry packs of up to 40kgs

Woohoo! The team arrives at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.



The ceremony after the fund raising grant.



It is worth mentioning the porters who assisted our climb, while we each carried a 10kg pack each, porters would carry packs of up to 40kgs with much faster pace than us… carrying their load on their heads. They would race ahead, set up camp and prepare meals. This wasn’t a luxury trip, the necessary level of support from our porters only spoke to the conditions of the mountain. For a small wage, these men and women would risk their lives on a regular basis trekking Kilimanjaro with tourists like us, and while we trusted that workers were treated ethically by current standards, the disparity between our cultures was not lost on us. The kind hearted nature of our Tanzanian porters will remain a highlight in my memory. 



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Worldreader works globally with partners to support vulnerable and underserved communities with digital reading solutions that help improve learning outcomes, workforce readiness, and gender equity.


In 2019 the Salesforce UK channel and alliances arranged a trip up Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise funds for WorldReader, a fantastic charity dedicated to helping children through reading, technology and programming. 

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

Chris Thomas
Head of Customer Success at Ambit

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Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

Chris ThomasHead of Customer Success at Ambit

Related Experiences

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Chris Thomas
Head of Customer Success at Ambit