Dead Sea to Everest 5.8 – part 1 – Charlie Engle 

THE 5.8 ADVENTURERS
Fewer than 500 people have summited all Seven Summits and no one has achieved Charlie Engle and André Kajlich´s goal:
To be the first athletes to trek from the lowest point to the highest summit on every continent.

While it’s over 4,500 miles from the lowest place on our planet, the shore of the Dead Sea, to its highest peak on Mount Everest, these iconic ends of the earth are separated by a mere 5.8 vertical miles.

THE 5.8 GLOBAL ADVENTURE SERIES!
It was the first big push of the Brazil 135, a 135-mile ultramarathon that includes 33,000 feet of climbing through the mountains of Brazil, Charlie passed André inching his way up the hill in his wheelchair, and stopped to wish him luck.

Once out of earshot, Charlie turned to his friends and said: “There’s no way that dude is finishing this thing.” 
 62 and-a-half hours later, André proved him wrong.

The next morning at breakfast, Charlie told a proud, smiling (and tired) Andre’ what he’d said to his friends. Over the next few months, working on an article for Runner’s World, André and Charlie shared their stories, finding a great deal of common ground and shared dreams.

Together, they came up with a plan to trek from the lowest to the highest point of all 7 continents.

UP FIRST: 5.8 AFRICA
Starting August 28, 2019, Charlie and Andre would journey from the depths of Lake Assal in Djibouti to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Unfortunately, André had to step out before they took off, so Charlie started solo, accompanied by the crew.

While this expedition was most certainly about taking on huge physical challenges, it actually was about much more than that. It was a journey of deep self-exploration, while inviting followers to dig deeper into their own hearts, examining motivation and each person’s individual impact on the world we inhabit together.

The expedition started at Lake Assal in Djiboti, Africa’s lowest land elevation, traverse the magical Rift Valley, through Ethiopia and Kenya, arriving finally at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, where twenty other adventure seekers came in to join for the final leg of the Africa Expedition: Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.
On September 25, 2019, they reached the top! Part one of this global adventure had been completed

So far Covid 19 and personal circumstances made it impossible for Charlie to continue with part two of the challenge, but we’ll keep you posted.

Image by caromcdaid