Hoogendorn brothers summit Kilimanjaro

Wilson Hoogendorn and Oliver Tusagvik Hoogendorn of Nome summited Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak in Africa, on February 21.
The brothers are known for their outdoor exploits: They were the first to the summit of Denali before skiing down in 2019; they won the first season of reality television adventure Race to Survive in 2023, and thjeysummiting Aconcagua in 2023.
Wilson said that the brothers didn’t set out initially wanting to complete the seven summits. “I was the one that wanted to do Denali,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man, that’d be badass if we ski that from the top.”
Next, they climbed Aconcagua while biking through South America. After summitting two of the seven highest summits, they felt like they should just keep going. “We picked one out, and it ended up being Kilimanjaro, and renewed our passports and went over there,” said Wilson.
The brothers spent about a week on the mountain, starting on February 14. Hoogendorn said that they were required to book a guide, which came with a team of porters. “We didn’t have to carry tents or sleeping pads or stoves or didn’t have to carry any of our food,” he said. “It’s kind of like a little vacation almost.”
Still, it was hard.
“The days leading up to summit day were pretty easy, but summit day wasn’t that easy,” said Wilson. “Pretty high up there, just over 19,000 feet. You can feel the low oxygen.”
Kilimanjaro was crowded. Wilson said that when they started their summit push, it seemed like there were a couple hundred people climbing, and the guides to match. “You’re going up the mountainside, and you could just see a huge line of headlamps in the dark,” he said. “And then they had people actually hooked up to breathing oxygen tanks.”
Wilson said it feels good to come from a small town and know how to work hard. He carries that mentality that he learned in Nome with him on his adventures. “If you work hard enough, you can be on the same level as a lot of other people,” he said. “It’s just about working hard, pretty much.”
After returning to Nome, he went on to place second in last Saturday’s inaugural Nome-White Mountain 140 snow machine race.