Lessons learned on top of the world

POST FALLS — Marita Diffenbaugh knows how low a person can feel no matter how high they are.

She also has a keen understanding now of what working together can accomplish.

Diffenbaugh, principal of the new charter school in Post Falls, Elevate Academy North, said the vision to climb Mount Kilimanjaro started when she was a kid.

“I just didn’t realize how hard it was going to be though when I really dreamed up this dream,” Diffenbaugh said.

Located in Tanzania, Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is the largest freestanding mountain in the world at 19,340 feet.

Diffenbaugh said she wanted to climb it ever since she learned that a person could walk up the mountain without having to jump over crevasses or be put in a harness.

She said she and her husband, Andy, did a lot of hiking to train, and her son and daughter-in-law, who also joined the trip, had already been training for Ironman. In September, they set off for Africa.

For support, the foursome had a local team of 15 from Tanzania including porters — skilled professionals who help guests and carry loads — as well as a cook and two guides for the journey.

“That was a huge team to support four people because they have to carry all your stuff up there and all that,” Diffenbaugh said.

She said there was no way she could have done the climb without the support of all those around her.

On the second day of the hike, Diffenbaugh started struggling with altitude sickness. She had to give her backpack to one of the guides.

“It was the most humbling experience I’ve ever had in my life because I like to do things by myself,” she said.

She started thinking that she was the weakest person on the team because the locals were doing fine, and her family didn’t get sick.

“We’re going for seven days so I’m thinking, ‘You can’t already start getting sick,’” Diffenbaugh said. “Everybody that’s with us, they’re not having the issue, but I am having the issue.”

She said one of the guides came to her and said, “I know you are strong enough to do this if you let me help.”

Diffenbaugh said she was still doing OK and tried to walk a little farther, but not very far as she was so weak.

The guide again begged her to let him carry her pack, Diffenbaugh said, and gave her a name: Mama Simba.

“I just felt like … OK, I can be strong and still let somebody care for me,” Diffenbaugh said. “So I gave him my pack.”

The guides let them carry their burdens as long as they possibly could, then would take the load off them when they knew they couldn’t go any farther. The guides studied the team the whole climb, taking note of their energy levels and how much they ate and drank.

Toward the end of the journey, the guides split up the team. Diffenbaugh was having bad altitude sickness so she was moving slowly, while her son and daughter-in-law needed to be moving faster so they wouldn’t get cold.

“I wasn’t thinking about cold,” Diffenbaugh said. “I was thinking about catching air and breathing.”

She said she thought the guides were splitting the couples up because they thought she wasn’t going to make it to the top, but realized that what they'd done was personalize their experience because they knew what each person needed.

“They gave us exactly what we needed to find success,” Diffenbaugh said. “It was really something special, because at one point when I just felt like I couldn’t push I wasn’t having to worry about the other two.”

Diffenbaugh said that made her think about her experience in the classroom, and how learning can be rushed because one child isn’t on the same track as the others. She said when kids realize they're behind, they might feel like giving up.

“They removed that from me,” she said. “I didn’t have that comparison to want to give up.”

Diffenbaugh said that by the time she could see Stella Point, one of three official summit points, she had to breathe from a straw because her altitude sickness was so bad.

She said one guide came to her and grabbed her arm and marched her up the mountain when he noticed she was losing strength. About an hour from the top, the guide told her he wasn’t going to help her a step farther; it had to be her choice to continue because she was very sick.

“I was like, ‘I’m going,’ so off we went,” Diffenbaugh said.

That one hour ended up being an hour and 40 minutes because they were walking so slowly.

Diffenbaugh said she kept thinking about the mantra the locals were singing, “One team, one dream. You never stop, ‘til the top.”

She said she had flashbacks of all the participants coming through Ironman races when she and her husband helped at the bike station.

“I’d see the look in their face,” Diffenbaugh said. “I was imagining the look in so many of these athletes' faces, thinking, ‘All I have to do is just keep making the decision to keep breathing and moving.’”

Diffenbaugh said the journey reminded her of community, and how dependent humans are on each other, and how important it is to work together.

“I was so grateful,” she said.

She said she was humbled and overwhelmed when she reached the top of the mountain because of all the work the team did to help her succeed.

“We shared something but we also had something that we took away that was just ours,” she said. “It was a beautiful day.”

The stop at the top was quick because the guides knew Diffenbaugh had to get to a lower elevation soon.

She said they grabbed her hands and had her put her feet back while they ran down the mountain, off the path and down the shale.

“They said, ‘You just trust us,’” Diffenbaugh said. “They ran and I slid. I thought if they let go of me I’m never going to end because I could not stop myself. So that was a whole other level of trust.”

Diffenbaugh said she felt that kind of trust is sometimes missing in society because people feel like they have to do everything themselves. They feel shame if they aren't able to go it alone.

“When I realized the joy they were having in helping me and I could trust them, I just had to let go,” Diffenbaugh said. “They told us that from the beginning. ‘We’re your family. Let us be your family on this mountain.’”

What she took away from Africa is the word “received,” and she will be taking that throughout the whole year of 2022 as she works to open the new school.

Diffenbaugh said she's grateful for everything that has gone into bringing the charter school to where it is, and said Elevate is a relationship-building environment.

For those interested in learning more about Elevate Academy North, visit elevate-north.org.

The enrollment window closes Monday.