Why are we going to Africa?
Kilimanjaro and a northern safari, 13–25 June 2028. The load, not the selfie.
On 3 October 2026, the Team and Trail Foundation put a deposit on a trip. Nine hundred and nineteen dollars. The dates are June 13-25 2028. Thirteen days. A climb of Kilimanjaro and a safari in Tanzania’s northern parks. One person is going.
That person is Dr. Robert Forto, who runs this desk from Willow, Alaska in the Mat-Su Valley and keeps a sled dog team at Team Ineka. The deposit is his. The trip is not a Foundation holiday, and it is not a product for sale.
This is the first note in a series called The Load We Carry. It explains why the Foundation is attached to the trip at all.
On a dog team, the leaders do not haul the sled. They set the line. The dogs behind them take the weight, and the musher’s job is to see who is working, who is off, and when the load is unfair. Kilimanjaro runs on the same fact, with people instead of dogs. The paying climber is not the team. The guides, cooks, and porters are. They move the camp. They carry the duffels. They know the mountain. A summit photograph that leaves them out is a bad report.
That is the job. Watch how a crew carries a load. See what is left of the ice. Come home with a public record other outdoor people can use, and with one small award for a partner on the ground.
The Foundation already says, on its apply page, that it does not fund holidays or charity-challenge vacations. That rule stands. Gifts to this campaign are restricted. They pay for a grassroots award in Tanzania after the recon, porter education or gear, or one community partner, in the range the Foundation already uses ($500 to $5,000), and for the writing and audio that come home. They do not pay the deposit. They do not buy a plane ticket. Flights, tips, vaccines, and personal kit stay off the donate button unless the board says otherwise in writing.
We have not named the partner. Naming one before the operator has answered, in writing, on porter pay and load limits would be guessing. The screen is the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project or the Kilimanjaro Responsible Trekking Organization, or an equivalent we can show the board. If the operator cannot meet that, the dates get moved or the trip does not go under this flag.
If there are colleagues who want the mountain can book a seat with the same company, for their own reasons. They are not clients. They are not a cohort. This desk is not invoicing them.
June is the start of the dry season on the mountain. That is a better window than March, which is the start of the long rains. Twenty months is a long runway and we promise will not write every week, and we will not ask every week. The next note is what “ethical operator” means in plain language. The next is what a gift to this campaign actually pays.
There is no promise of a summit. Weather, altitude, and judgment can end a climb short of the crater. What we can promise is a report and an award that doesn’t pretend a vacation was a program.
The Load We Carry lives at teamandtrail.com. The restricted campaign is separate from the Foundation’s general pot. Unused funds stay in outdoor-access awards.