Timberlake Tackles Kilimanjaro
Pop singer hopes to climb to Africa's roof to raise awareness for that continent's water shortage
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Kilimanjaro is quickly becoming the mountain for celebs—the TODAY Show‘s Ann Curry gave it a go, several British b-listers are currently on the mountain, and this spring, King of Pop heir-apparent Justin Timberlake hopes to summit Africa’s highpoint.
Naturally, he’s climbing Kili for charity: Summit on the Summit raises awareness for the crushing, continent-wide water shortage currently plaguing all of Africa. (It might be more effective to just use half the profits from his most recent record sales to subsidize Dean Kamen’s wonder water purifier for rural Africans, but awareness is good too, I suppose.)
At least Timberlake isn’t treating the climb like a cruise through the Bahamas. He tells GQ (where Timberlake won the very outdoorsy “Most Stylish Man in America” award) a little bit about his training regimen.
“I’ve been training four times a week to get my VO2 levels up to expand my lungs. We’ll climb for a week straight, carrying thirty pounds on our backs. It’s going to be intense. But it’s going to be so rewarding. Plus, we’re going to be ready for it.”
Thirty pounds isn’t exactly your average mountaineering load, but porters are usually part of the drill on Kili (and Everest, for that matter), so we’ll cut JT some slack. Hopefully he makes it to the top, and sings “Rock your Body” while he’s there. We’ll keep you posted.
—Ted Alvarez