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NEWS BRIEFS
W.Va. native climbs Africa's highest peak
BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) — He called it his eyes to the world.
Every day after class, Richard Wolfe spent the remaining hours of the day operating the 35mm film projector at Sophia Theater.
It was in between the film reeling through the gate and the take-up that the Sophia High School senior's eyes saw beyond the rolling mountains of southern West Virginia.
One film in particular that caught his eye was the 1952 film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" staring Gregory Peck.
The year was 1957 and Wolfe was 17 years old. The Henry King film left an indelible impression on Wolfe, so much so that 53 years later, Wolfe scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak in Africa, at the proper age of 70 and on his birthday.
"I was fascinated by that mountain all my life," said Wolfe, who now lives in Banner Elk, N.C. "I've had goals all my life and it's something I'd been working on for a long time."
Wolfe credits growing up in Sophia and living in Banner Elk near Beech Mountain, the highest peak in North Carolina at 5,500 feet, for his ability to climb the fourth-tallest peak in the world at age 70.
"I think the climate is key," he said. "You might have physically enough strength, but you don't know who will get sick because of the altitude it's thin air, half the oxygen."
He trained daily for a year, walking 2 to 3 miles up Beech Mountain. Before leaving for Tanzania, Wolfe was checked out by a doctor to ensure that his heart was capable of such an arduous task.
Wolfe said he wanted to climb the 19,341-foot mountain on his 70th birthday. He ascended the summit on July 11 his birthday and reached it on the early morning of July 15.
Wolfe went with two groups of 12 people and his nephew, Dean Yates, 36. He said he was 20 years older than anyone in his group.
"Fifty percent of people don't make it," he said. "That's what our group was, about 50 percent made it."
They left for Uhuru Peak, the summit, at midnight from their base camp. As he zigged-zagged toward the summit, his group slowly pulled away from him. He looked up and saw the stars, the brightest he had ever seen. He felt his legs slow, his breathing became shallow as his lungs filled with fluid.
"I never had a negative thought," he said. "As long as I could think clearly, I knew I'd make it."
Encouraging words from Atilio Hemedi, one of the guides on the expedition, kept him going. Hemedi stayed with Wolfe during their trek to Uhuru Peak. Wolfe said "without him I don't think I could have made it."
Wolfe reached Gilman's Point, which is where the crater rim begins, while it was still dark.
"You had to walk across craters, you got to be able to walk steady," he said. "I said, I might be a little behind you, but I'll make it.'"
Yates asked if he could make it to the summit, and he replied, "I think I can."
Then he saw it.
"The sunrise gave me a lot of exhilaration," he said about reaching the top and seeing the curvature of the earth.
He could see the peak about 50 yards away and about 25 people were there, he said. Yates told the group his uncle was coming and that he's 70. They formed two lines and applauded as he inched forward.
"I almost broke down," he said as the group clapped him on. "It was the toughest, physical and mental, thing I've ever done."
His group didn't stay long at the summit, about 10 minutes at most, he said. Coming back down the mountain he saw for the first time where he had come.
"I could see where I just climbed and it was scary," he said. "I think if I saw that going up it'd be so intimidating I think I'd turned around."
He said it took him about five days to recover from climbing the mountain. He's written a book, titled "Climbing Kilimanjaro at 70," and is seeking a publisher.
Wolfe, the son of a coal miner, grew up loving the mountains and received a coal mining scholarship to Virginia Tech, where he earned his doctorate in engineering.
He says he has dedicated his entire life to clean coal technology and has patented a way to remove mercury from coal before it's burned.
Wolfe has been the director of applied sciences at Appalachian State University and is currently contracted with West Virginia University, where he is working on his patented clean coal technology.
He's also the president of Carbonite Corp.
Wolfe also makes wine at his home in Banner Elk. He said people today can do things at his age that they couldn't do yesterday.
"I've set the bar a little bit," he said. "We can do things at 70 older now than we used to if we just keep ourselves in good physical condition."
