The big day has come. As I mentioned last week, I am accompanying a group of employees of Elanco, a Heifer International corporate supporter, as they climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and raise money for Heifer. I’m likely to be out of Internet access after today, but I’ll be sure to update everyone when we make it back down.

The climbing team has assembled at our hotel outside Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro National Park, and we are excited. We’re also wondering what’s in store for us.

Mt. Kilimanjaro is not a technical climb — no ropes or crampons — which leads many amateurs to attempt it and be forced to turn back. The altitude is the critical element, and it affects each person – young or old, fit or fat – in an unpredictable way. Our group will be climbing the Rongai Route, beginning today (Wednesday) very near the Kenyan border.

Our staging hotel is on the south side of the mountain, nestled, along with several other hotels, into a rural community which, like most places in Tanzania, runs on agriculture. On our free day before the climb, a local man walked us along paths through the hills – and right through the back courtyards of many small homes – to see sights like waterfalls and the local market. The countryside is covered mainly with banana cultivation, along with native trees. And if you’re someone who thinks of Africa as being all hot and humid jungle or savannah, wrap your mind around this: we’re almost on the equator, and temperatures range from the mid-80s in the day to mid-60s at night. Delicious!

This group of Elanco employees is composed mainly of Midwesterners and Canadians. Is it cliche’ to say “salt-of-the-earth?” If so, I don’t care, because that’s what they are: warm, friendly, patient and certainly not afriad of a little exertion. Here’s how they came together for this trip:

Randy Bagg initiated this whole adventure; he works in research and regulation at Elanco, and he has dreamed of climbing Kilimanjaro for years. When he first proposed the trip to his officemate, the fun-loving James McCurdy, the younger man thought he was half-joking. Friends point out that Randy isn’t particularly adventurous or daring, but he shrugs off that observation. “I like new experiences. This is a challenge,” he says. “And I’ve always been intrigued with Africa.”

Another Elanco employee, the irrepressable Marta Haley, says she “invited herself along” and convinced Gail Neuwirth Geisler to make the attempt as well. Marta and Gail work to promote Elanco’s anti-hunger corporate responsibility programs, and fundraising for Heifer meshed neatly with this journey. The group, at last check, had nearly reached their goal of raising $5,895 for Heifer, or one dollar for every meter of Kilimanjaro’s height. (Click here to help us reach the goal.)

These people are passionate about hunger, and about helping Heifer. Some of them have visited Heifer projects more than once, and speak about the projects with nearly as much passion and authority as a Heifer worker. Yesterday afternoon, the group spent an hour after lunch talking about how to make the critical anti-hunger efforts resonate more with their fellow employees.

Later today, the climb begins, and we’ll see how tough we are. But we all know that the real challenge is much bigger and harder to address. How can we, together, lighten the load of people who struggle day after day, year after year, with the oppression of hunger and poverty?

Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa

How could I have dreamed I’d get the chance to make the climb as part of the job I love?

Next week, I’ll travel to Tanzania and begin scaling the 19,000-foot peak, documenting the fundraising journey of several special Heifer supporters. I’ll be doing my best to keep up with them, and you can keep up with me via Twitter and Facebook.

Kilimanjaro climbers Brendan and Randy Bagg

The climbers are employees of Elanco Animal Health, one of Heifer’s most loyal corporate backers. Heifer gets strong support from Elanco (funding projects that help thousands of families globally) as well as from its big-hearted individual employees. They must be dedicated, if they’re climbing the tallest peak on the African continent.

Mt. Kilimanjaro was on Randy Bagg’s bucket list, too. He’s a veterinarian and regulatory manager with Elanco in Canada, and seems thrilled to be climbing with his son, Brendan. I’ll tell you more about my fellow climbers in updates from Tanzania.

I fully expect the climb to be extremely difficult. It’s not so much the physical exertion as the altitude: it can turn an extremely fit person into a nauseated, hyperventilating mess, even at rest. Harrowing accounts of other people’s climbs aren’t helping me psychologically.

My ever-growing pile of supplies for Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro is a grand and gorgeous mountain. The first documented summit occurred in 1889. Its highest peak, dubbed “Kaiser Wilhelm Peak” by Westerners, was re-named “Uhuru Peak” after the Swahili word for freedom in 1961 when Tanzania gained independence. The top of the mountain features a broad caldera, which was once covered by ice. But in the last 100 years, 80 percent of the ice cover has disappeared from Kilimanjaro.