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Written by: Sindhu Palaniappan
When prompted with the question of what I did for winter break, I usually respond with something like, “I relaxed – worked a little – and saw some old friends, pretty standard.” If you ask Greg Bucci the same question, his answer will be slightly different. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Pretty standard.
A sophomore majoring in Managerial Economics here at Bentley, Greg is also an RA. When asked to describe his hobbies, he answers with your average adventurous things, such as camping, hiking, skiing, and so forth. Seems like the daily life of a mountain climber.
This particular trip took nine days, seven days to get all the way to the top and two to get back down. Mount Kilimanjaro is a little over 19,000 feet, which makes it the highest mountain in Africa. This explains why it took significantly longer to get to the top, since sickness that goes along with the height and changing altitude of the mountain.
Greg took a course with Professor Davis in the Natural and Applied Sciences department before he embarked on his journey. His Directive Study focused intensively on high altitude physiology and environments. “He was a huge help in preparing me for the trip,” Greg conceded. He is double majoring in the Earth, Environment, and Global Sustainability Legal Studies Major, so an experience like this one with Professor Davis was complementary to say the least.
Along with Professor Davis’ help, Bucci climbed the mountain with the Thomson Safaris group, a trekking company in Watertown, MA. Joking about free advertising, he quickly threw in that they were a great company to climb with (for all you Mount Kilimanjaro hopefuls) and that he had a good time with them.
He spent time with the Company while in Tanzania for a total of eleven days. The villages were great, but when prompted about the food, he admitted that he was not able to try most of it since the trekking company provided it.
Surprisingly enough, Bucci did not have much experience with climbing mountains before this. Aside from a ton of hiking and camping while growing up, he says, he has not climbed any other major mountains. I think it is safe to say that he picked quite an impressive mountain to start with.
In regards to continuing climbing, Greg says that he has no definite future plans, but definitely wants to keep going. A few friends of his have already started plotting the scaling of Mt. Cook in New Zealand.
Although it did not hit him as hard as it hit others in the company, Greg did suffer through some altitude sickness. Just headaches and upset stomachs, which was not too bad compared to the some of the others. He said he “hit a wall at 17,000 feet,” the same day they had reached the top of the mountain, and he had to push through it.
But it was worth it at the top, which felt great and was really exciting, he added quickly. Easily enough to imagine, “the scenery was incredible,” and surely indescribable, one of the best parts of climbing the mountain, Greg said.
I am sure words fail to capture the exact feeling, but he mentioned his adrenaline pumping and it being like no other experience he ever had.
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