A Nevada couple, who it’s fair to call “adventurers,” spent seven days of October ascending the highest mountain in Africa.
Katie and Jimmy Woodard made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, which has a rise of 19,340 feet.
“It’s like a really big breath of fresh air,” Katie described of the feeling she had once they reached the highest peak. Katie did all the sharing for the couple, as Jimmy quietly listened and nodded in agreement at times.
“We’d been trudging it felt like, a lot in the dark, by the time we got there,” she said.
“There” was Gilman’s Point, which is one of three official summit points on Mount Kilimanjaro. “We stopped and sat,” Katie said, noting it was about 20 degrees and clear with no snow or wind. “We were really lucky that we had a really nice day.”
From Gilman’s Point, they went to Stella Point, which is where other hiking groups first reached the mountain top. “We joined with those groups at Stella Point, and then we went to Uhuru Peak, the highest of the three,” she said.
She and Jimmy took photos as they took it all in. Their climb took place at the end of the dry season in Tanzania, which only has two seasons – wet and dry.
While they do a lot of hiking, backpacking, and travel, prior to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Katie said the couple’s biggest life adventure was moving to the island of Grenada with an infant. Grenada is where Katie did graduate studies at St. George’s University for three years before transferring to Iowa State, which is what brought the Woodards to Story County, Iowa and the City of Nevada.
Katie and Jimmy are both natives of Louisiana, and both moved around a lot as children due to their father’s jobs, which is what they agree gives them their adventurous spirit.
They met as students at Louisiana State University and got married in Baton Rouge. Today, Katie works as a lead public health veterinarian for Iowa State University. Jimmy is a radiology tech for McFarland Clinic, and, Katie adds, often a “stay-at-home dad” to their three children: Abigail, a freshman in high school; Hazel, a third grader; and James, a first grader.
“We rented for a year in Ames and then found our first home in Nevada in 2014,” Katie said. They moved to a bigger house in town in 2019 and have really enjoyed the community during their 10 years here. Katie was in the 2022 Leadership Nevada program, and now serves on the Board of the Nevada Community Garden. Jimmy serves on the Nevada Public Library Board. They both have participated in local 5Ks, and they enjoy the community’s trails and events. “Nevada is small town but it has everything we need,” says Katie.
They’d been planning for their adventure on Mt. Kilimanjaro for about three years, as a way to celebrate their “joint” 40th birthdays. “He turned 40 last year, and I turn 40 next year,” Katie said. “So, this has been the plan (climbing a mountain).”
They chose Mount Kilimanjaro because it is a peak you can summit without doing technical climbing and being harnessed. “So, it is often people’s first high altitude climb,” she noted.
Their climb was expedition style with a group of other climbers. The group had guides and porters to help them with the nine-day adventure on the mountain. Seven of those days were going up; it took just two to come down. Why, other than gravity, is there such a difference in the number of days?
“The goal (while climbing) is to not get altitude sickness,” Katie explained. “To avoid that, you have to go slow and not go vertical too much at a time.” The group hiked about five hours a day and sometimes in the dark going up, she said, adding, “The switchbacks could be a little disorienting, especially in the dark.”
Gone for two-and-a-half weeks total, Katie recalls that their long flight landed at night in Tanzania. They went to the hotel and slept, then met with the other 16 members of their group and their guide on the first full day. “We went over all of our gear to be sure we had everything.” Gear included their tents for when they’d set up camp each day to rest.
On the second day, they took a bus to Kilimanjaro National Park, which was about three hours from the city they’d stayed in.
“Once we got there, everything had to be unpacked and weighed and then divided between porters. We had a box lunch and then started hiking,” Katie said.
“Tanzania is close to the equator, so the bottom of the mountain is a rain forest, and as you climb in altitude it gets colder. The first day and a half, we were in high trees, lots of vegetation, and wildlife. There were lots of monkeys in the trees, and the first night, you could hear all of that wildlife.”
She continued to talk about the climb. “The first five days of hiking, I didn’t feel like it was a lot of exertion. But as we got to days 6-7-8 … doing even small tasks was hard because the air was thin,” she said.
The Woodards and other members of their group were monitored twice a day for oxygen saturation and heart rate. One member of their group had to go back down before reaching the top due to health complications. Others, including Jimmy, dealt with minor headaches that are not uncommon when dealing with the change in altitude.
“I’m really proud of myself,” Katie said. “There were some times during the summit night climb where I was questioning myself (and the ability to get to the top), but I’m really proud.”
Part of the enjoyment of the adventure was meeting others, especially others who shared a common bond of having an adventurous spirit. Most members of their group were other Americans from all over the country. “It was nice to hear from them of other places they’d been to. We came away with a list of other things we wanted to do.”
One of the group members was a female who talked about doing a guided tour through Glacier National Park in Montana. Another climber had gone on a trip to Patagonia National Park in southern Argentina. And out of all the possibilities, the Woodards are pretty certain that their next adventure will be climbing Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe. “Pretty soon, we’ll start planning for that adventure,” Katie said. And that, like their most recent trip, will include lots of advance research, physical training, and saving funds.
Along with the climb, Katie said the experience of visiting Tanzania and traveling with local Tanzanians (guide and porters) was enriching just in learning about the culture. Even though we live far apart from one another, she found there are common threads among all of humankind.
“All of our guides were men, but they all had families, had kids, and had goals and dreams for their kids. You realize how much you have in common with people on the other side of the world. We are more alike than we are different.”
–Written by Marlys Barker, City of Nevada
