Lakeside paraplegic aims to summit Mount Kilimanjaro

Some say Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak on the African continent, earned its name from a Bantu phrase meaning “we failed to climb it.”

Reaching its peak at 19,341 feet, the mountain is by no means an easy climb. Roughly two-thirds of climbers who attempt the journey actually take in the view from the summit. The seven routes up Kilimanjaro range from moderate to extremely challenging, but it’s actually the high altitude that keeps the most people from bagging the peak.

But Lakeside’s Starla Hilliard-Barnes is well-versed in the art of overcoming obstacles.

She’s weathered tragic accidents that could have killed her. In 2009, a driver ran a red light and struck Starla while she was riding her motorcycle, paralyzing her from the chest down.

And in 2015, just as she was learning to walk again, a driver rear-ended her and her husband Shannon at 70 mph. Starla was re-paralyzed, this time at a higher level, and her husband Shannon sustained a traumatic brain injury.

Despite these setbacks, Starla has kept her sights high — very high, in fact.

Next February, she’s taking on Kilimanjaro.

Accompanied by her husband, Starla will join 26 other climbers, including four paraplegics, amputees and veterans, to attempt the largest paraplegic team ascent of Kilimanjaro in history. If she reaches the top, she’ll also be the first twice-paralyzed person to make the climb.

To support the paraplegic climbers will be family members and doctors, along with 100 porters to transport food and equipment. The excursion is a project of Friends of Access Israel (FAISR)— a nonprofit that works to improve accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities.

“I’ve dreamed since I was a little girl to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro,” Starla said.

Her grandparents were missionaries who worked in Africa. She still has the elephant carving they brought back for her as a souvenir.

“I can vouch for that — she always talked about it,” Shannon added.

But talk and do are two very different things.

To summit Kilimanjaro, the team will spend six days trekking up the mountain, including one acclimation day to mitigate altitude sickness, and two days down. Starla and Shannon will stay an additional couple of days in Tanzania to go on a safari.

“I don’t know if I’m really nervous. I’m more excited,” Starla said of the journey.

The team will use the Coca Cola trail, better known as the Marangu route, which is the oldest and most established path on the mountain and also said to be the easiest. To cover the uneven terrain, Starla will use a specialized wheelchair with a rickshaw-style bar in the front that fits around another hiker’s waist and handlebars in the back that a second person can use to stabilize or push Starla if needed.

While she has hand-cycled off-road and on trails in Glacier National Park, the off-road chair will be entirely new to her. It’s only been on the market for a year, so at the end of her adventure, she’ll also provide feedback to help the manufacturer fine-tune improvements to the device.

“We always find a way,” she said. “If you have a will, you can do anything that you put your mind to.”

It’s a mindset she’s carried with her throughout her life. After her accidents in 2009 and 2015, Starla continued to live a full-throttle existence. She was selected as Ms. Wheelchair Montana in 2014 and became the first wheelchair-user to compete in the Mrs. Montana pageant in 2016. She also founded Moving Forward Adaptive Sports to bring a greater variety of adaptive sports to the Flathead Valley, and delivers gifts for hundreds of families and hospital patients during the holidays through her charity, Gifts of Love.

When FAISR approached Starla about Kilimanjaro, she said yes to adventure once again.

And she didn’t have long to mull it over — as the final paraplegic participant selected for the event, she had 24 hours to give her answer so the organization could secure her travel visa in time.

“Starla has been working hard to break down barriers in a lot of different activities and categories of life itself,” Shannon said. “This was an opportunity for her to break another barrier.”

James Lassner, executive director of Friends of Access Israel, said he selected Starla for the opportunity because of her positive attitude and giving spirit.

“This is a woman who has hit tragedy twice … and chose to move forward — and that really impressed me,” Lassner said. “The beauty you see on the outside, which is indeed beautiful, doesn’t even come close to the beauty she has inside.”

On Thursday, the couple met with Starla’s doctor to hash out a training plan, though she said the team at FAISR already recommended no less than an hour-and-a-half to two hours per day, five days a week. They’ll use elevation masks in their training to prepare their bodies for exertion at higher altitudes. Daily mileage up the mountain will range from 3.1 miles on the acclimation day up to a grueling 13.7 miles during the final ascent to the summit.

“It will test us in ways we’ve never known before. Hopefully it makes us stronger individuals on the other end,” Starla said. “I’m just excited. I think when breaking down new barriers, it’s not necessarily that I get to be the first — it’s the people who get to follow. Kilimanjaro might take teamwork, new wheelchairs, new equipment — but it’s possible.”

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss may be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com