North Vancouver resident aided by five porters as he attains world record
Erin Gregg
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, August 31, 2002
Special to the Vancouver Sun
Jim Milina relaxes on the shores of Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island. He completed a five-day climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, becoming the first person in a wheelchair to make the climb.
Jim Milina sat in the bright sun at the saddle of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro at an altitude of 42,672 metres and wept.
"It was then I realized we'd done it," he said. "It was absolutely amazing. We were on top of the world."
Earlier this month, Milina, a North Vancouver resident, became the first person in the world to climb over the peak from its north to south side in a wheelchair, and set a world record for the highest altitude attained by a quadriplegic.
"Hopefully it inspires people to do their best, at whatever they chose to do," Milina said from Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island, where he was vacationing after the climb.
"You only go around this world once. For me, I go around it in a chair. Just because I'm in a chair, it doesn't mean I can't go to Africa and it doesn't mean I can't climb a mountain."
Growing up, Milina was an athlete, involved in football, soccer, and baseball, but he said his passion was for freestyle skiing, in which he became B.C.'s provincial champion at the age of 17. In 1981, Milina was forced to give up the sport when, at 18, a skiing accident left him quadriplegic.
"Living life in a wheelchair is obviously different," Milina said.
"You learn to accept things that are out of your reach. For me, being in the outdoors, and skiing on top of mountains and the wilderness, and hiking were all things that were no longer part of my world."
But Milina's attitude changed when his long-time friend and avid mountain climber, Erik Bjarnason, approached him with a proposal.
"Erik said he couldn't imagine what life would be like if he suffered permanent spinal damage and couldn't walk. He was adamant that there was a way for him to take me mountain climbing. I didn't believe what he was telling me, because I can't mountain climb very easily -- or at all."
With the help of nine dedicated friends (including Milina's fiancee and brother), five porters, and a modified version of the TrailRider wheelchair, originally conceived by Vancouver councillor Sam Sullivan, which can be lifted or rolled through extreme terrain, Milina was able to climb over the world's largest freestanding mountain. But as he attests, it was no easy task.
"The paths are certainly not meant for wheelchairs," he said.
"It's extreme. Climbing Kilimanjaro is an effort for an able bodied person, let alone trying to move a 200-pound package of man and chair as well."
That's why Milina's Climbing Over Restriction and Disability team hired five porters from Tanzania to help with the climb. Over the course of five days, the porters lifted, hoisted, and pulled Milina up the mountain in his chair at a steady pace that often had him feeling anxious.
"At one point, we went over a rock, and down the other side of this boulder, and the chair was almost vertical, [overlooking] more boulders. My whole body was suspended by the harnesses. I was holding the hand grips, and trying to push myself back into the chair. I remember watching [the porters'] knuckles on the front handles and thinking, 'Just don't slip.' If I was going to be dropped, it would be six or eight feet, face first into volcanic rock."
Now that the team has succeeded in its quest on Kilimanjaro, Milina said he would like to relive the experience by writing a book about the climb.
"I'm glad I did it, but I don't need to do it again," he said.
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Vancouver Sun
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Topic: Quadriplegic "climbs" over Kilimanjaro (Read 30159 times)