Meet first African to conquer Mt Everest

By Joan Barsulai

The first black African to conquer Mt Everest is in Kenya to scale Mt Elgon for leisure.

Sibusiso Vilane, a South African accomplished mountain climber, has had a string of successful hikes and won accolades.

Apart from climbing Mt Everest twice and reaching the world’s other six tallest peaks, Sibusiso, 41, has also reached the South Pole unaided.

Under other circumstances, Sibusiso — who was born into poverty and spent most of his childhood without full meals, clothes and worked as a herder at age six — would have turned out differently.

But fate catapulted him to fame through a sport that he didn’t even know existed when growing up.

Besides his mountain climbing conquests, Sibusiso Vilane is a motivational speaker and author who says Kenyan athletes inspire him. [PHOTOS: courtesy]

If he knew it, he would have taken up the sport earlier, for his step-father’s compound had huge boulders, which he would have used to try out bouldering.

But in 1996 while working as a game ranger his life was to change forever.

That is when he met John Doble, a keen walker, who greatly influenced his interest in mountain climbing and later became instrumental in providing Sibusiso with the much-needed guidance and resources to climb Mt Everest.

"While walking one day, he noticed that I was agile when climbing rocky areas. He thought I would have made a great climber. We visited the Drakensberg Range in South Africa, where we often hiked to 3,000m. Mountain climbing, which was a sport that I had always associated with the white people, suddenly became accessible to me, a black man," says Sibusiso.

With time, he gained confidence, and in 1999, he successfully climbed Mt Kilimanjaro together with ten fellow South Africans and reached the "the roof of Africa" which he found inspirational.

This feat officially introduction him to high altitude climbing and he was ready for the challenge.

Limited experience

"After Kilimanjaro I targeted the Everest. This was highly ambitious of me, given my limited experience, but John pointed out that Everest had not yet been climbed by an African, and this motivated me to attempt it, in order to prove to the world Africans could also do it."

Before taking up the challenge, Sibusiso was expected, just like all Everest climbers, to climb a few mountains beforehand in the Himalayas.

These were the Island Peak (6,100m), Pokalde (5,600m) and Lobuje East (6,200m).

After running extensively and reading many mountain climbing books for mental fitness, he was ready for the leap.

Climbing Mt Everest is expensive, costing up to $50,000 (Sh4.7 million), which covers food, tents, porters, guides, oxygen and climbing permits.

Fortunately, his friend Doble helped foot the bill.

Finally in 2003, being the only African in the company of nine men from seven different nationalities, together with 30 porters and guides, they began the gruelling hike to the top.

Sibusiso says the experience was at times scary, particularly when they came across bodies of hikers who had died on the mountain; he also had to contend with a snow-ridden and frozen terrain, which he had never encountered before.

After three months of blizzards, storms and encroaching avalanches constantly erupting close to their camps, the team finally got to the top, and Sibusiso hoisted his country’s flag.

"I left it among the Nepal prayer flags on the summit. I thought my flag would pray for Africa on earth’s highest point."

This experience catapulted Sibusiso to international stardom and made him a hero back home.

Three years later, he climbed the mountain again but this time for charity, raising funds for three children’s charities.

This second time, he used the north ridge, which is the most treacherous with little success rate.

Once again, he was the only black African to have climbed Mt Everest using two different routes and succeeding at both first attempts.

Even summits club

"When I reached the summit, I kept singing my country’s national anthem while holding Nelson Mandela’s book. It was another great moment."

It was after this that Sibusiso decided to conquer the world’s other remaining high mountains. "After climbing Kilimanjaro and Everest I was left with only five." He quit his job in order to focus on mountain climbing. He attempted four summits successfully.

However, he failed to climb Mt Denali in North America, which was a devastating experience for a man who had never failed at any attempt.

But later in 2008, he conquered Denali too and joined the exclusive Seven Summits Club — for few climbers worldwide who have successfully peaked all the highest seven points.

In 2007, he walked to the South Pole for 11,300km unsupported and unassisted, with fellow country man Alex Harris, becoming the first black person to walk to the South Pole.

Sibusiso, a father of four, is not done yet. He would like to go to the North Pole.

"Getting there will make me the first black person to reach all three poles — Everest, South and North Poles."