Lachlan

I’m going to write this next “Why I Climb” for my Survivor Summit teammate, Lachlan Tindal.

Lachy was the only international member of our Survivor Summit team, representing the entire continent of Australia. But represent he did. He was a strong climber, a hilarious joker, and quite the runner. He blew past me with some super fancy footwork while we were on slick, muddy sets of downhills on our last day on the mountain. Off he disappeared, into the mist in his navy blue short shorts.

All kidding aside, Lachlan was an amazing team-player whom anyone could count on when needed.

I was fortunate to spend the first few days hiking in the same group as Lachlan, but our expedition guides, Nelson and Chris, quickly saw the value in having someone so strong migrate over to support Team Mindy (named for amazing cancer survivor, amputee, and teammate Mindy Boyum!).

While I think Lachlan would have been able to summit about 20 hours ahead of the rest of us, he was absolutely content to hang out at a more relaxed pace. You see, Lachlan is humble. He is always happy, never drags anyone down, and works incredibly hard, too—and here’s the best part: he doesn’t need any recognition for it. From what I saw, Lachlan wanted to do his part to help Team Mindy summit. He learned a lot about himself during the whole process, and he even had some energy to spare, too.

Lachlan’s humility and selflessness really paid off: Survivor Summit had a 100 percent summit rate of Kilimanjaro. I continue to be in awe of what Team Mindy—and our whole group—accomplished, and I know it was because of some truly incredible people, like Lachlan.

Today, I climb for him.