Anik or Aeronik ???  That is the question !

My name is Anik. My nickname is Aéronik (pronounced in french)

Anik + Aerobic (I'm an aerobic instructor) !

You see??? That was easy!

This website is about my climb in Africa this next June. I will try to climb the highest peak of this continent, Mount Kilimanjaro, 5895 meters or 19340 feet. I am not a professional climber. The more I could say is I do hike sometimes. I live in Quebec, Canada and I go in the States, in Vermont or New York when I want to hike bigger mountains. I'm an active person. I like all kinds of sports. I do aerobics, jogging, yoga, bicycling, hiking and new in my life, climbing...  Most of all, what I like best is combining sports with travel...

Aerobics and dance have been in my life for a long time, but all those new sports came when I met my actual boyfriend, Gino, back in 2001. He was a big hiker and introduced me to long rides in the bush and backpacking. We started travelling a lot since the beginning of our relationship. First we would do "easy" trips, all inclusive, on the beach, in Jamaïca, Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc... I would sometimes go in those beautiful settings to teach aerobics and Yoga. I still do once in a while...

Then in 2003, we did our first "out of bound" trip. We planned a 3 week bicycle trip in Nova-Scotia, Prince Edward Island and les Iles de la Madeleine, in Quebec and eastern Canada. We really enjoyed that trip and started planning other destinations more challenging and physical. We discovered that we really liked being challenged physically while on a trip.

Over the years, it's been a sequence of different kind of marvelous trips. We went to Costa Rica, we hiked in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, we've been in France, along with other sunshine destination such as Ste-Lucia, Cuba and once again Jamaïca...

And then we started to think about Nepal. We have been planning that trip for a long time and we finally went in march/april 2006. We trekked to Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar and I knew from that time on, that I will go back there for sure. After Nepal (we had to shortcut that part of the trip because it was the time when King Gyanandra was keeping Kathmandu under his control and we've had curfews for so much time that we decided to leave) we ended up in Thailand for a whole month. We really enjoyed that part as well. And we finished that beautiful trip by spending a full week in Paris at some friend's house before coming back to Montreal and go back to work...in may 2006.

In November of that same year, we went to Ecuador to climb Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world (5897 meters). Too bad, I was not able to summit because I think we didn't have enough time to acclimatize and I really had symptoms of altitude sickness (huge headaches that wouldn't go away). I should have come down and climb back the day after, but we had to meet other people on a specific date and we couldn't keep on going. I climbed up to 5300 meters and Gino and his kids (we were on that trip with them Joseph, 16 years old and Kaly, 14) went up to 5700 meters, almost there but really exhausted and presenting symptoms as well. After that big challenge (it was my first time on a real climb with crampons, iceaxe and ropes), we went to the Galapagos Islands. Wow!!! That was amazing! A trip that I'm not willing to forget. We saw all kinds of animals, rare species and lands that are different from one island to the other. A "must see" in a lifetime!!!    

When we came back from that trip, we started talking about the next trip. I wanted to go back to Nepal, saying that I was not able to go on with other plans because I had a feeling of hunger, I wanted to see more... climb a trekking peak, see the Annapurna valley, etc... So we started planning this trip for october 2007.

And then in january, that e-mail that changes the plan! I get this e-mail form Énergie Cardio (the business I work for as a fitness instructor) offering to join an expedition in Africa to climb Kilimanjaro to raise money for Opération Enfant Soleil. 

To start with I was not so sure because I knew Gino couldn't come with me because of the kids, the money and the job. I was also considering the financial aspect. I didn't want to compromise the trip to Nepal in october. But then I started thinking that we only have one life to live, I can afford it even if it's a little tight, I'm still young and healthy (well...not that young), I don't have kids, commitments and best of all, I can have the days off at the job to do it...

Plus, it's a good cause, it's a good occasion for me to build more of my confidence and learn how to do things on my own... without Gino! Not that I don't want to do things with him anymore... "Au contraire"... I just want to see how far I can go without him being around to count on. I know how important it is in the mountain to count on your "only" self. I just know I'm going to come out of this stronger and more confident! And I surely know that everything you learn on yourself in the mountain, you can apply in your everyday life!

Aeronik