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Two Kenyan Women — One, the Mother of a Winter Olympian at 1,926 Mtrs in the French Alps.
“A chance connection, a hike to Le Grand Rocher, and a conversation about motherhood, winter sport, identity and who gets to belong in the mountains.” I knew immediately which one was Josephine. We had never met before, but as I arrived at our meeting point in Crolles that Saturday morning, there she was wearing a bright green T-shirt with KENYA written boldly across the front. I laughed to myself as i drove towards her. She had certainly made identification easy. Although, truthfully, I probably would have recognised her anyway. When you spend enough time hiking in the French Alps as a Black African woman, you become accustomed to being one…
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The Mountain I Had Been Warned About: My Journey to the Dent du Chat
Some mountains remain in your imagination long before your feet finally touch their paths. For me, the Dent du Chat was one of them. I had wanted to climb it for the longest time. Its distinctive tooth-shaped summit is difficult to ignore when travelling around Lac du Bourget. It rises above the lake as though keeping watch over the towns, villages and water below. Yet whenever I mentioned wanting to hike it, the responses were almost always the same, “It is very steep.” You need to be careful.” “The final climb is not easy.” The warnings did not make me want to abandon the idea. If anything, they made the…
