On February 20, 2026, French athlete Alexis Trougnou set the boys’s supported para-athlete quickest identified time for ascending and descending Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. At 19,341 toes (5,895 meters), Kilimanjaro is the best mountain in Africa.
Trougnou is visually and listening to impaired, and he recorded a time of 26 hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds for the roughly 30-mile (48 kilometers) Rongai Route. The route, which positive factors over 12,000 toes in elevation, approaches the mountain from the northeast and is much less used than most of the different choices. Trougnou had guides for visible and auditory help and referred to as the mission “Le Kilimandjaro Pour Voir Plus Haut,” or “Kilimanjaro to See Increased.” The mission was pushed by a powerful goal to point out that impairment ought to by no means be a self-imposed limitation. He’s the first para-athlete to set a quickest identified time (FKT) on the mountainthe primary particular person to submit an FKT on the Rongai Route, and one amongst a rising neighborhood of para-athletes setting pace information on routes around the globe.
Alexis Trougnou (middle) and his two guides setting a para-athlete FKT on Mount Kilimanjaro. All photographs courtesy of Alexis Trougnou.
Trougnou has Usher syndrome, a genetic degenerative dysfunction that leads to a lack of imaginative and prescient and listening to over time, and has a field of regard of lower than 5 levels. As said in his report on the Quickest Recognized Time web sitehe sees “as if by means of a straw.” At evening, he’s blind, and in the course of the climb, he relied utterly on his important guides — Vanessa Marc Morales and Florent Marc — to relay the circumstances of each step to him. “The function of a information is extraordinarily demanding,” says Trougnou. “They have to handle their very own effort, discover one of the best path, and on the similar time, constantly talk data to me. It’s a actual duty. I’m very grateful to them, and with none pun meant, I place blind belief in them.”
A Workforce Effort
This was Trougnou’s first mission at excessive altitude, and he and his guides first accomplished the Rongai Route over six days for reconnaissance and acclimatization. For this, they had been accompanied by three Tanzanian guides and 18 porters from Discover Trekking Journey, in addition to Trougnou’s associate, Charlene Boucherwho managed all the executive work for the mission and was there to assist Trougnou with each day duties in order that he might give attention to the try itself.
Alexis Trougnou along with his workforce on his approach to setting a brand new para-athlete FKT on Mount Kilimanjaro.
For the precise report try, the workforce consisted of Trougnou, his two important guides, three Tanzanian guides, and three porters. Mórales, one in every of his important guides, holds the ladies’s supported FKT for the ascent and descent of Kilimanjaro by way of the southern Mweka Route. Trougnou didn’t personally know her earlier than this mission, however was impressed by her. He says, “A good friend with the identical situation as mine advised me a couple of Kilimanjaro mission, however I wished to transcend a easy trek. After I noticed that she was accompanied by Vanessa Marc Mórales, I believed: Why not attempt to go for a report as a visually impaired athlete with Vanessa as my information?” He reached out to Mórales on Strava, and he or she and her husband joined the workforce, alternating within the guiding function. Based on Trougnou, though they had been initially strangers, they’ve since constructed robust bonds.
Setting an FKT and Paving the Manner
For the FKT try, the workforce set off from Rongai Gate at 4 p.m. on February 19 in favorable circumstances, with solely a short rain bathe at first. Roughly 16 hours and 35 minutes later, after shifting by means of the evening, they reached the Uhuru Peak summit on Kilimanjaro at 8:35 a.m., permitting them to descend probably the most technically difficult and visually demanding part in daylight. All through the whole FKT effort, Trougnou’s guides constantly relayed the path circumstances in order that Trougnou might negotiate the terrain safely, and so they arrived again on the trailhead at 6:41 p.m on February 20.
Alexis Trougnou celebrates on the highest of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Trougnou has accomplished athletic challenges earlier than, together with crossing France from east to west on a tandem bike and operating the 75k Extremely Path of the Jura Mountainshowever says this problem “represented an actual step into the unknown.” It required 18 months of preparation, with a mean of 5 coaching periods per week, in addition to altitude coaching. “I’ve at all times had a aggressive mindset by means of the completely different sports activities I’ve practiced,” Trougnou says. “Being a part of an official report, having your title acknowledged on a world scale, is one thing highly effective.”
However he’s additionally eager to claim that this was a workforce success, not a person one, and it was an opportunity to “change views and break down prejudices,” hopefully inspiring others with impairments to push their boundaries. “For me, incapacity is just not a barrier. It shouldn’t forestall you from dreaming or having ambition,” Trougnou says. “Whether or not you’ve gotten a incapacity or not, the necessary factor is to dare, to encompass your self with the correct folks, and to remain decided.”
Velocity efforts for para-athletes are a rapidly rising section of the game. The Quickest Recognized Time web site established a para-athlete class in early 2025, and on the time of this text’s publishing, it has documented 11 efforts by eight para-athletes, together with Trougnou’s on Mount Kilimanjaro.
Alexis Trougnou on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Trougnou says he loved the high-altitude expertise — experiencing sensations he had by no means felt earlier than — and hopes to do one thing related once more. For now, he’ll give attention to extra native tasks which are much less logistically and financially demanding, such because the Grande Traversée du Jura mountain bike route, or the GR20, a 112-mile (180k) trek throughout Corsica, France. “The thought stays the identical: to problem myself,” he says.
Movie maker Pierre Petitfrom Meije Productions, accompanied the workforce on the FKT and is at the moment producing a documentary in regards to the mission and each day life with a visible impairment.
