Two Douglas County residents are connected to each other in many
ways, from a shared love of mountain climbing to the same birthday,
several years apart.
Jeremiah Watson, 10, and his grandfather, Earl Voigt, returned
from their mountaintop experience climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in
late January.
Watson is not the same boy who left for Africa in early January,
his mother, Amy Thompson said.
“There’s something a little more worldly about him,” Thompson
said.
Watson has been climbing for several years, Voigt
said.
The two share a passion for climbing Colorado’s 14ers and worked
together to get acclimated before their trip to northeast
Tanzania.
The highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is an extinct
volcano with twin peaks. The highest peak, Kibo, is 19,340 feet and
Mawenzi is 16,896 feet.
The climbers took the Rongai route which circles Mawenzi and
then climbed Kibo, Voigt said.
“The route was about 35 miles and the approach was about 13,000
feet,” Voigt said.
In a small group of adults, Watson kept up with everyone, and
was told when he descended he was the youngest American to ever
climb Kilimanjaro, Voigt said.
“Jeremiah did fine,” Voigt said. “He was never behind the group
and he kept up with us.”
The climb wasn’t hard, Watson said, but it took five days to get
to the top and one day to get down.
“Getting down is faster,” Watson said.
His favorite part, though, was being outdoors, Watson
said.
But climbing Kilimanjaro was only part of the project. Watson
also contributed to a research project Voigt and fellow climber and
optometrist Clive Armstrong were working on the effects of altitude
on blood oxygenation, tear flow and the health of the retina, Voigt
said.
Armstrong and Voigt have been working on the study since 1998
and are ready to write a paper based on the data collected, Voigt
said.
Watson also wrote in his journal for school.
When the climbers got back down, Voigt called home and told his
family they had completed the climb.
Watson’s mother called the school to let Jeremiah’s classmates
know he’d made it.
While in Africa, Watson and Voigt also took in a safari in the
Serengeti plains and relaxed along the beaches of Zanzibar,
Tanzania.
Seeing a cheetah was one of Watson’s high points, he
said.
“It was a trip of a lifetime,” Voigt said. “On the Serengeti
you’re the zoo – you’re the captive.”
Watson and Voigt might have reached the pinnacle of Mount
Kilimanjaro, but they aren’t done climbing.
“There are still a lot of cool mountains to climb,” Voigt said.
“It’s not the height that matters but the quality of the
climb.”
Watson agrees. He would like next to climb Chief Mountain, an
11,000-foot mountain in Colorado.