It was sometime around midnight when Jeff Dobslaw and wife Julie began the ultimate push toward Mt. Kilimanjaro’s peak.

The temperature hovered around 20 as they left their base camp, already standing at an elevation of almost 14,000 ft. With nothing but the soft, hazy glow of their headlamps to delineate what lay ahead and below them, they trekked upwards into the darkness through the oxygen-deprived air. Their ultimate summit destination? 19,431 feet above sea level. The tallest peak in Africa awaited them.

The climb the St. Louis-based Director of Finance and his wife made in October 2022, suffice it to say, is far from easy: According to local guides, 50 percent of those who attempt Kilimanjaro suffer from mountain sickness, and just over 65 percent are unable to reach the summit. But this daunting challenge – and the ecstasy that follows such a feat – only begins to tell the story of Jeff Dobslaw, his love affair with the mountains, and his craving for the summit.

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir

They didn’t call immediately, though Jeff does credit his parents for introducing him to the outdoors at large.

“I grew up on 18 acres, 12 of them wooded. We would cut trails through the woods and make BMX tracks,” Jeff said. “I attended Boy Scout High Adventure camps where we’d canoe 50 miles in 5 days through northern Wisconsin…My parents clearly played some role. We camped a lot. We went to national parks.”

While attending college at Indiana University Bloomington (and later Washington University in St. Louis), Jeff took up road biking and triathlons.  A few years after graduating, he bought his first mountain bike (and explored the trails surrounding St. Louis), while developing a passion for snow skiing;  his fascination with the mountains began. A co-worker at the time, nearly twice Jeff’s age, shared his passion for the outdoors and came up with an idea. This idea would be a turning point for Jeff's mountain adventures.

“This gentleman had been climbing his entire life, and so one day he said to me, ‘Let’s go climb Mount Rainier,” Jeff recalls. “OK. That sounds awesome. So my wife and I, her best friend, and my coworker started training.”

With a summit elevation of 14,411 ft., this Washington-based peak is far from a modest first attempt. To train, Jeff and his friend ventured out to Colorado to climb Mt. Elbert (Colorado’s tallest peak) and the nearby Mt. Massive. They conquered Long’s Peak, a prominent mountain in Colorado’s northern Front Range of the Rockies, and of course, would summit Mt. Rainier months later.

“There were 9 people on the hike and four of us summited, including myself, my wife (who is an avid trail runner), and her best friend,” Jeff recalls. “It was a combination of training and mentally being ready for it, it was just so cool to be up there, to have that feeling of accomplishment.”

Over time, Jeff has conquered Mt. Whitney in California, toured the Sierra Nevada ( famed wilderness advocate John Muir’s old stomping grounds), climbed Pikes Peak, and trekked through Bhutan in the Himalayas’ eastern edge.

“It was on this trip that my wife said, ‘let’s go climb Kilimanjaro,” Jeff said.

“Modern life has made the draw of home stronger than ever, but taking the time to unplug and hit the trail is the perfect way to reset and reassess your priorities.” – John Muir

Whether it’s on the bike, in the skis, or on the trail, the mountains offer Jeff a sense of reset, reassessment, and reward that cannot be replicated with material things.

“For me, it’s definitely reconnecting with nature. Reconnecting with the people who accompany you. Usually, you don’t have access to the outside world. You’re off your phone, so it’s more simple. I think, because of COVID, people are learning that experiences tend to be worth more than stuff. As a result, that’s why I’ve gravitated more toward experiences,” Jeff said.

Jeff says he urges people to take their time off to seek activities that enrich their life experiences… and return to work better than before.

“You are refreshed mentally. You come back, sure with a ton of emails. But you’re recharged. And these experiences are not unlike a big project you have at work. There are challenges, but there’s a reward with completion. You’re better and you’re taking on even bigger challenges. It’s kind of a metaphor for life,” Jeff said.

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir

Back to Kilimanjaro, October 2022. The temperature is dropping below freezing as they inch closer and, five and a half hours into the trek, sunlight is just beginning to peek through the summit ahead. In all, 6,000 ft. of climbing will be necessary this day to reach the peak. Jeff and his wife are two of the few people who achieve this.

As they reach the 19,431 feet mark documented by the infamous rustic wooden planks, they know the challenge is far from over. It’s another 7 hours back down the mountain. Rest assured, that doesn’t stop them from breathing in the achievement fully, even as thin as the air might be.

“You’re smiling. You are saying to yourself, ‘What an accomplishment, I just climbed the tallest peak in Africa. It was pure awe,” Jeff said. “Even afterward, as you are coming down, or two days later at the airport, you’re looking out the window at the summit, and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘I climbed that. That’s really cool.”

Kilimanjaro wasn’t the first such achievement for Jeff and it is far from his last venture into the mountains. As he and Julie plan the next adventure (Mont Blanc in France), they’ve fully realized that in every walk with nature, they receive far more than they seek.

For Jeff Dobslaw, the mountains will call again and again and again. And he must go.