Martin and Esther Kafer are the oldest man and woman to climb to the top of
Mount Kilimanjaro. This mountain is the highest point in Africa.
The climb was organized by the Alzheimer Society of B.C.
Photo courtesy of the Alzheimer Society of B.C
Adapted from The Vancouver Sun and The Province
by Nancy Carson
Level 1
Esther and Martin Kafer are 85 and 84.
They are active seniors.
They hike, climb and ski.
The Kafers have climbed more than 500 mountains.
They have named over 73 mountains.
Why? They were the first to climb these mountains.
Read the PDF.
Visit the links:
- “Climb Every Mountain”: a hit song written by Rogers and Hammerstein for the movie “The Sound of Music”.
The Alzheimer Society of B.C.
Their story
The Kafers married in 1953 in Switzerland.
A few days later, they were climbing in the Alps.
Then Martin fell.
He was hanging on a rope.
Esther pulled the rope up.
“She saved my life,” Martin says.
A year later, they came to Canada.
The oldest couple
Esther and Martin are the oldest couple to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
This mountain is the highest in Africa.
The Kafers made $24,000.
They made the money for the Alzheimer’s Society of B.C.
Martin’s sister has Alzheimer’s disease.
View of Mount Kilimanjaro from Honeybadger Lodge, Moshi, Tanzania
Photo by Koen Muurling, CC/Flickr
Advice from the Kafers
“Be active all of the time.
Eat well, use your arms, your legs and your head.
Most of all your head.”
Mountains are their religion
Martin says, “ Some people, they go to church on Sunday.”
But the Kafers go to the mountains on Sundays.
Martin believes, “The mountains become like your religion, in a way.”
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