Kick back and relax on vacation? Not Mandy Moore! The "This Is Us" star, 33, recently announced that she would be using her break from filming to tackle a lifelong dream of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.
On Saturday, Moore revealed that she could officially check the 19,341-foot Tanzanian mountain off her bucket list. The actress shared a glimpse of her journey to the summit in a series of Instagram photos.
In the caption, Moore ruminated on the last leg of her climb, an 8-hour trek that began in the middle of the night.
"In total darkness, we took it pole pole (slow slow) and trudged through rain, sleet and snow, where seemingly everything on our person managed to freeze (water bottles, backpacks, our eyelashes, hair, fingers, toes, etc...)," Moore wrote. "Oddly, I’ve never felt more determined to tackle such a physical challenge before and yet the combined elements of exhaustion and extremely cold weather made it much trickier than any of us were prepared for."
Moore called reaching the summit "more emotional and overwhelming than I had thought possible," adding, "Kilimanjaro demands a lot from those who traverse her trails. You have no choice but to show up. And we did."
"There’s nothing more empowering than realizing that we are all capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for," she added.
Wow. We feel incredibly proud and incredibly lazy at the same time.
Mostly proud, though. You go, Mandy!