Brian

This “Why I Climb” is dedicated to my Survivor Summit teammate, Brian King.

I blogged about the King family in an earlier post, before I had the opportunity to meet our founder Mike and his brother, Brian. When we all arrived in Tanzania, Mike was there, but Brian wasn’t; he had missed his flight! Mike told us Brian would be joining us the next day, and luckily, both he and his bags showed up 24 hours later at the KIA lodge.

Losing that extra day, though, meant that Brian had only a few hours to get everything packed and ready to go for the climb, and a little bit to sleep off the jet lag. No matter. Brian jumped in like a champ and hiked through everything with the rest of us. I never heard him complain once, and he was such a good sport about any curveballs thrown his way.

Even better, after our climb and during the safari, Brian was able to kick back and engage with everyone in such a relaxed, fun way. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most about Brian: he just rolled with the changes. I learned that things don’t always go according to plan. And yet, it doesn’t have to get in the way of exciting, productive, and meaningful experiences. Brian didn’t let any crazy details affect the importance of his climb of Kilimanjaro for his dad, Paul, who is currently in treatment for prostate cancer.

That’s pretty amazing to me, so today, I climb for Brian.