Gloucester resident Bruce Pully had a lifetime adventure last month—he climbed Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro.

A long-distance runner, Pully and his long-time friends Dale Abrahamson of York County and Ed Elmore of Gloucester have been running trails together for years. But one day, while hiking the trails at the base of Mt. Rainier in Washington with a friend, Pully had an epiphany. The two had lost the trail and were sitting on the side of a snow bank when the clouds opened up, the sun shone on the snow-covered peak, and Pully was enthralled.

"We both said, ‘we’ve got to do that,’" said Pully.

In no time, he was back, climbing Mt. Rainier, learning how to deal with ropes and crampons and an ice axe, and falling off a cliff. From there, it was on to Mt. Hood in Oregon, Mt. Elbert in Canada, and Mt. Orizabe in Mexico.

For years, Pully talked about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but he kept putting it off. Then about a year ago he decided to commit to the ...