SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT: Amanda Bowler
By Emaan Riaz,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
In 2014, junior Amanda Bowler set off for Tanzania to conquer the tallest mountain in Africa–Mount Kilimanjaro. Bowler, who was with her sister, brother-in-law and two other couples, spent one week hiking up to the highest peak, which is 19,341 feet tall.
Although Bowler isn’t typically an avid climber, she saw this trip as opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
“My older sister and her husband like to travel a lot, and they’ve done other mountains like Mt. Fuji and the Andes,” she explained. “On my 16th birthday, they asked if I wanted to climb a mountain with them.”
For Bowler, climbing Kilimanjaro was a powerful experience, with the only downside being that she couldn’t shower for a week. “I had a lot of time to think. Most of the other people were entertaining themselves with music,” she said.
“Seeing the people who helped us climb was kind of sad. They would carry 50 pounds of stuff on their heads and they would run ahead of us. But they really created a sense of community by being really talkative, helping us and explaining our surroundings,” Bowler said.
After hiking everyday for about two to four hours, the real challenge came when they had to summit. Summiting, or reaching the top of the mountain, took nine hours and was a 4,000 foot climb.
“I didn’t feel much until the night before we had to summit. I was feeling nervous and kind of sick,” she said. “One of the people I was climbing with wasn’t able to summit all the way to the top and had to go back down because he couldn’t breathe.”
When Bowler finally reached the top, she felt a combination of relief and happiness. Down below, she had a clear view of ice formations and neighboring states. “My sister and her best friend started crying and then she threw up, but it was pretty awesome,” she said.
Despite the beautiful views, Bowler was exhausted and eager to back on solid ground. Lucky for her, the hike down was not nearly as hard as the hike up. “For parts of it, the mountain was sandy and we got to ski back down, so it was definitely not as hard,” Bowler said.
