WARREN — “One team, one dream,” was the rallying cry a group of climbers was embraced with by crew members between breaks from hours of trekking to the summit of the tallest peak in Africa, atop the glacier-covered Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Among them was 60-year-old Christopher Becker, who typically finds himself arguing on behalf of the state as a Trumbull County assistant prosecutor.

But, for his birthday this year, Becker decided to make the journey to Africa. He opted to take the Lemosho Route up the western side of Kilimanjaro, which is known for being the most scenic route of the mountain’s trails — and one with a high success rate for climbers. The peak is more than 19,000 feet high.

“I’m blessed to have friends, family and co-workers who were all supportive,” Becker said. “Now that I’m back, everybody’s been excited to hear about it and see pictures.”

Three years before his trip, Becker suffered from loss of mother. Searching for emotional outlets afterward, the longtime prosecutor found solace in the outdoors.

“After she passed, I found it therapeutic to just go on walks and hiking,” Becker said.

In the past, he said he had done strenuous physical activities. He once competed at a Tough Mudder at age 50, a 10-plus mile, military-style endurance course.

Last summer, he climbed 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado and has hiked Cuyahoga Valley National Park, emphasizing, “so long as you’re in physical shape, the rest is mental.”

When it came to tackling the hurdle of the much larger dormant volcano, Becker said he had to ask himself, “Can I do this mentally and physically?”

He knew this trip would be something he’s never faced before

“You can’t really prepare, there’s no match to being at 16, 17 thousand altitudes,” he said.

Departing on day one, a crew of about 40 tour staffers led the group of climbers for two days through a rainforest leading to an encampment site on the 11,500-foot Shira Plateau.

The strategy, Becker said, was to “travel high then sleep low” to allow their bodies to get acclimated to the mountain’s challenging conditions.

One of the hardest things Becker said he had to adjust to was sleeping inside his cocoon-styled sleeping bag nestled inside a tent during the cold nights, where temperatures would drop 10 to 15 degrees from the usual 50-degree weather.

“It’s also difficult to sleep because you have less oxygen, and you’re trying to breathe properly,” Becker said.

Day five was when Becker said they hit a difficult stretch through the alpine desert en route to his next campsite.

“It was only five kilometers, but there was a very sheer wall you sort of had to scale to get through. If you fell, you might die or get hurt pretty bad,” Becker said.

Between the 13,000- and 15,000-feet elevations, the group went from Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp where they were well within viewpoint of the nearing summit, which put them seven to eight hours away.

Later that night, the group left around midnight traveling through the cold, windy conditions that bore down on them.

“This was where you’re getting into the snow and the glaciers,” he said.

Becker explained, “It took about six hours to reach Stella Point, which is where the mountain sort of levels off but you still have a mountain grade to get through for an hour or so until we reach Uhuru, the summit’s peak.”

It was around 8 in the morning when Becker said the group reached its destination.

“There’s nothing that gets you ready for that lack of oxygen,” Becker said. “We were told that at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro you’re dealing with about 50 percent less oxygen than at sea level.”

But once you make it, Becker said, “The first thing I felt was a thankfulness and a deep appreciation for the people that helped get us here.”

His next thought, “It’s almost like you think, ‘OK what’s the next mountain to climb?'”

After reaching the highest peak overseeing the developing African country, the next obstacle became getting down, which took another few hours.

“We went through a rainforest getting back down, it was so moist that your hair’s wet and you just feel like you’re in a shower from the thick moisture in that humidity,” he said.

By the end, Becker said everyone in the group was handed a certificate from the government of Tanzania commemorating the moment.

Throughout the seven-day excursion, the trek team accompanying Becker and others worked relentlessly setting up camp, providing medical checks to ensure heart rates and oxygen were at safe levels and, ultimately, navigating the entire trip.

“I’m forever in their debt,” Becker said. “There was never a group of individuals I saw work harder physically, but yet be as happy and pleasant and helpful as they were.”

He called getting to know the workers and building comraderie between them and the climbers one of the more rewarding parts of the trip.

“When you work in my job, it’s adversarial. You’re arguing with the defense counsel or the judge, but this was a total group effort,” he said. “Everybody had the same goal in mind to reach the top of the mountain.”

cmcbride@tribtoday.com