Springfield Father-and-Son's Kilimanjaro Climb

Mount Kilimanjaro is the world’s highest free-standing mountain above sea level. Just like any great experience with some risk involved, there are some restrictions on who can climb the mountain. One of them is that you have to be at least age 10. 

Just a handful of weeks after his 10th birthday, Elliott LaBarr became one of the youngest ever to summit the 19,341-foot mountain. Along with his dad, Cameron, and a group of eight friends, they spent more than seven days climbing a total of 42 miles.

Any sight you see while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is rare, but spotting a kid attempting the feat was one of the most unique for several hikers. During the trek, Elliott was practically a celebrity for anyone they’d cross paths with or meet at camps, and many wanted their photo taken with him. 

Although we can all agree he’s earned the bragging rights, Elliott isn’t one to boast about the achievement of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro at such a young age. However, he joked about starting to charge for these encounters. He even came up with a very reasonable pricing structure. “Fist bumps were $2, high fives were $5, and then a picture was $15,” he says. “Videos were $30.”

The experience led them through five ecological climate zones with vastly different landscapes. Elliott has a strong love of wildlife and the outdoors, stemming from his experiences at Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife summer camps. One of his favorite parts of the experience was seeing different species of animals, like the black-and-white colobus monkeys that look like skunks and the white-necked ravens. 

While it certainly felt like summer at the base of the mountain, the temperatures dropped as they progressed, and they started seeing fewer animals. To remind the group to preserve their energy, the guides often chanted “pole pole,” which translates to “slowly, slowly” in Swahili. 

On day three, the elevation started to get to Elliott, and he got sick and threw up. At that point, Cameron asked Elliott how he felt about the next few days and reminded him there was no pressure to continue. He simply replied, “Well, what are we going to do? Not do it?” 

After watching Elliott struggle but realizing how determined he was to finish, Cameron pulled the lead guide aside and asked for feedback on the next steps. He asked how Elliott was doing compared to other kids his age. The guide, who has led around 250 expeditions up Kilimanjaro to date, said that he had never taken a kid as young as Elliott on the hike before, so he didn’t have a reference point. However, he assured Cameron  he thought Elliott was doing fine and that they could take it day by day and re-evaluate. 

“It seemed like there was a threshold that Elliott went through, and the guides worked through it with us,” Cameron says. “Really, everybody in the group had their own physical and mental breakthrough. When you got past it, things were much better.”