Danielle Pinoni is recovering from three knee surgeries, but that’s not stopping her from training to hike nearly 20,000 feet to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro next month.
The 23-year-old paramedic and lifelong Burnaby resident will be making the ascent as part of Summits of Hope, an organization raising money for B.C. Children’s Hospital.
She will pay her way to Tanzania, and every penny she raises in pledges will go towards the hospital’s music therapy program and equipment for its physiotherapy department.
The five-day climb and two-day descent promise to be a gruelling challenge, but Pinoni knows what will inspire her to keep going. Her mom works at Children’s, so she has seen the perseverance of the young patients there.
“Just seeing the struggle the kids and the families have to go through and thinking of how care-free a lot of people’s childhoods are, and then walking through the doors of Children’s and seeing what they have to go through and seeing how much support they need,” she said.
But she has no illusions about the challenge she’s up against. The weather will fluctuate from as high as 30C at the mountain’s base to a –15C glacier hike near the summit.
“I’m expecting it to be a pretty hard climb and a pretty emotional journey and just a humbling experience,” she said.
Pinoni will be among 10 Summits of Hope hikers, five from B.C. and five from Manitoba, each supporting the children’s hospital in their home province.
The charity has inspired people to summit the earth’s highest peaks since 1999, raising more than $2.5 million along the way.
Anyone interested in more information or who wants to support Pinoni’s climb, click here.
