Kilimanjaro might seem like an impossible mission to most people, especially those who are “able-bodied,” but to one extraordinary D.C. native it’s another opportunity to prove that anything is possible. Kyle Maynard was born with a condition called congenital amputation. He told Yeas & Nays that his goal is to climb the mountain and “to be one of the first guys to crawl up the thing.”
“It’s 19,340 feet and so I view that as really one of the hardest things I’ve ever attempted in my life. I think with that, we are trying to send a broader message to a couple of different groups that everyone on the team as a special place for in our hearts and that would be to the veteran community and kids with disabilities,” he said.
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Maynard says the itch to tackle climbing came from an experience that he had back in summer 2006, after speaking at an event for Microsoft in Palm Springs, Calif., his roommate at the time pointed out peaks in the area and said that the goal was to climb one — and he wanted Maynard to go with him.
“I started thinking of every excuse in my head as to why I didn’t want to go up the thing, including being a foot off the ground with rattlesnakes and then I realized I just contradicted everything I had just talked about in the speech and I said let’s just do it.” So with motivation and some hotel towels tied to the back of his wheelchair, Maynard climbed for several hours, up to a peak of about 1,500 feet.
The quest to tackle Kilimanjaro was posed in April, when Mission Kilimanjaro Expedition co-Leader Dan Adams approached Maynard with his dream and vision to form a team comprised of wounded warriors to climb the mountain and spread the message to the veteran community and disabled kids that no obstacle is too great to be conquered.
“Just because something has happened to you in your life doesn’t mean that you can’t do things. We want people to be empowered to realize that if you want to take the first step, you can do something,” Maynard said.
