Former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, the only one who attempted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, has died aged 100 years.
Jimmy Earl Carter Junior served as the Head of State in America from 1977 to 1981.
Seven years after he retired from office, Carter travelled to Tanzania and attempted to climb Kilimanjaro in Moshi.
Carter is so far the only U.S President to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, though he did not reach the summit.
A member of the Democratic Party, Carter was the longest-lived president in the United States’ history and the first, to reach 100 years of age.
Hailing from Georgia, Jimmy led an active life as can be attested with his Kilimanjaro trekking.
The former President of the United States almost made it to the highest peak on African continent, during his 1988 tour of Tanzania, in which he scaled the mountain.
But his trip to Tanzania wasn’t just to attempt Kilimanjaro, but it also took him and his family to the Serengeti National Park as well as in Ngorongoro Conservation.
Then the former President of the United States turned back not far from the summit of Africa’s highest mountain, an official of the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) who was in-charge at Mount Kilimanjaro then had stated.
“Carter descended this morning after climbing to Gilman’s Point, which is 18,647 feet high,” 693 feet short of Uhuru peak, the park official said. He however did not reveal why Jimmy Carter, then aged just 63, failed to reach the 19,340-foot summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.”
On record, Jimmy Carter did set out to climb the snow-capped mountain on Thursday, August 4, 1988, trekking for five days until August 8 or 9, 1988.
Jimmy Carter climbed Kili at the start of his private visit to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, the three East African countries that were listed in the itinerary.
The former President, who is accompanied by his wife, Rosalynn, and seven other family members, later conducted a game drive in the Serengeti National Park before descending into Ngorongoro Crater and afterwards crossed on to Kenya, then Uganda.