CC alum Zivia Berkowitz ’21 is one of nine women that make up the Above the Clouds Kilimanjaro 2024 Expedition Team. This group of all-Black women will set off on January 3, 2024 to pursue the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano in Tanzania with a peak more than 19,000 feet above sea level. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, is prized in the hiking and climbing world as one of Earth’s seven great summits.
“Climbing Kilimanjaro is something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a teenager,” Berkowitz says. “My mom is from Kenya and I visited the area a few times to see family. I saw the mountain a lot and thought, maybe someday. When this opportunity came up with this team, I was like, of course!”
Berkowitz also speaks to the significance of the mountain and this trek to the entire team. “Given the demographics of our group and what we’re trying to center, it’s important. We all have connections to the African diaspora. This trip will combine our personal identities and backgrounds.”
Above the Clouds Kilimanjaro is a venture by Full Circle Expeditions Inc., the company who ran the Full Circle Everest trek in 2022. It was the first all-Black climbing team to summit Mt. Everest.
The Above the Clouds team plans to hike a route up Kilimanjaro that will take approximately seven days. On the final day, they will wake before sunrise, peak, and then spend the rest of the day hiking back down the entire mountain. “That’s definitely going to be a challenging day,” says Berkowitz.
Berkowitz, a Feminist and Gender Studies major while at CC, dabbled in climbing during college. Her interest ebbed and flowed while she also explored other activities on campus, such as the Arts & Crafts Studio, Dance Workshop, and being a member of the Swim & Dive team. It took graduating and the pandemic to bring her back to her love of the outdoors and climbing. She currently travels around Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, serving as an instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). In 2022, she also served as the summer program director of Blackpackers, a Colorado Springs-based nonprofit focused on free gear, outdoor excursions, and education.
“Getting involved in Above the Clouds comes back to my connections at NOLS,” says Berkowitz. “The first course that I ever worked was with a woman named Rosemary Saal. I met her as she was starting to prepare for Everest.” Saal was a member of the Full Circle Everest team in 2022 and is serving as the expedition leader for Above the Clouds Kilimanjaro. “We stayed in touch over the years. We kind of kept bumping into each other in different places. Then Rosemary had this idea for the climb and she invited me.”
Berkowitz says training for this experience has been quite different to anything she’s ever done before.
“I spend a lot of time working outside, so it’s nice to have that base to work from. But I’m more of a rock climber,” she says. “In general, endurance sports haven’t really been my focus or have not been the thing that I typically go towards. I’ve really just been trying to focus on increasing the amount of cardio that I do. Going on runs and bike rides and just trying to do those things consistently because this is something that’s newer for me.”
Berkowitz has also had a few chances to meet up with other members of the team to do some longer hikes in training for their trip. In the fall, she and two other members of the Above the Clouds team did a fourteener in Colorado together. “It’s helpful being in the Rocky Mountain West, to be in a little bit more altitude. It’s really helped with my training,” she says.
While all the members of the team know each other and have been connected in the climbing community one way or another, this trip will be the first time the entire group has ever been all together in the same place, let alone hiked together. While they have spent the past year meeting up on Zoom to plan the trip, there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to group dynamics.
“I think this is the biggest challenge, but also the thing that will ultimately lead to our success too. How we work together and figuring out how to collaborate with each other,” says Berkowitz. “We’re getting a lot of practice with that, just trying to collaborate on organizing this climb. But it’s different when you’re actually on the mountain. We have to make sure that we’re climbing in a style that feels supportive for all of us, and feels like we can like show up and push ourselves. Working in outdoor education and having done trips in general, I know the community that you build on those trips really makes the difference.”
The team will be supported on their expedition by local outfitters. The group of outfitters is led by a member of the Full Circle team that summited Everest. He was also the first Kenyan to ever summit Everest. He will be leading a team of porters along with guiding Above the Clouds. The outfitters have helped the team get the appropriate permits, advised on preparation for the trek, and will assist on the climb.
“It’s cool that we get to work with people that have intimate knowledge of the area and the mountain,” says Berkowitz. “You’re thousands of miles away from anything that you’ve ever done before, and so there’s just different variables and different things that you’re managing. It will be great to work with them.”
Not only does Berkowitz see this trip as fulfilling a lifelong dream, she is also looking forward to experiencing trekking culture outside of the States.
“A lot of my outdoor pursuits have been in North America and in the US,” she says. “I’m looking forward to having a different cultural experience, to see a different approach, and to interact with people that work in the industry somewhere else.”
But above all, she’s excited about the community she will be coming into on this climb.
“This feels like a moment where a lot of different pieces of myself are coming together. Sometimes in the outdoor industry, especially as a Black woman in this industry, I kind of have to center different parts of my identity. I don’t get to work with very many Black people in general or Black women specifically. And so, it’s really exciting to be able to do something that I love and do it in that affinity space.”
You can follow Above the Clouds Kilimanjaro 2024 as they prepare for their trip and stay up-to-date on the expedition via their Instagram.
Learn more about supporting the team and their expedition.
Update: Zivia Berkowitz ’21 and the Above the Clouds team summited Kilimamjaro on January 10, 2024 and all returned safely.
