Close Call on Kilimanjaro with Martina Navratilova (2014)

In December 2010, Martina Navratilova joined an international team to climb 19,300 ft. Mt. Kilimanjaro. The trek was a charity climb for the Laureus Foundation. The climbers included a British Olympic gold-medalist, a German Paralympic gold-medalist, as well as athletes from Greece, South Africa, Scotland and the United States. The dry season arrived later than usual, and all the climbers suffered from the unexpectedly brutal rain and snow. Martina, who had been treated for breast cancer earlier that year, began the climb suffering from intestinal difficulties, likely picked up on a Save the Rhinos Campaign in Kenya, the week before the climb. After hiking ill in rain and snow at increasingly higher elevations for 4 days, she developed severe altitude sickness. Martina was rescued during the night at 14,000 feet. If Martina had waited till morning to go down as she planned, she might not have survived.