Simon Mtuy knows every inch of the popular hiking routes that snake up the sides of Africa’s highest mountain.

A Chagga tribesman who grew up in a small village nestled in the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mtuy’s first job nearly 35 years ago was to porter equipment for international climbers aspiring to tag the peak’s 19,341-foot summit. Since then, he’s been to the top more times than he can remember.

By 2006, as a trail ultrarunner competing in races around the world, Mtuy set a Guinness World Record for the fastest ascent and descent of the famous peak in 9 hours and 21 minutes.

Given his intimate knowledge of Kilimanjaro, it’s no wonder that famed mountain runner Kilian Jornet, our 2014 People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year, came to Mtuy for advice while preparing for his speed record attempt there in 2010.

However, during the course of his career, Mtuy has seen Kilimanjaro’s glaciers shrink, forests burn, and crops dry up.

“The environment is so much to us; we cannot live without water and oxygen so it’s very important for us do our part to give back to nature,” says Mtuy, who’s become a leader of his community’s conservation efforts.

From Farm to Trail

While tourism supports the local communities living along the famous mountain’s lower flanks, that prosperity has come with an environmental cost. Deforestation has changed the local microclimate, which is thought to contribute to the melting of Kilimanjaro’s ancient glaciers.

To help with Mtuy’s grassroots conservation efforts, he turned to his friends in the international ultrarunning community.

In 2012, Mtuy began inviting fellow trail runners to take part in an annual event called the Kilimanjaro Stage Run (KSR), an arduous multi-day run circumnavigating Kilimanjaro’s base. The inaugural edition of which was captured in a documentary produced by Andrew King called Mountain of Greatness.Mountain of Greatness.