Encouraging the youth of Dominican Republic through mountaineering

Karim Mella is a mountaineer, extreme sports enthusiast and activist. Mella is also an active Green Beret in the United States Army and a spokesperson for prostate cancer awareness, he works with a disabled veteran organization on the use of robotics to improve life skills.

But Mella is probably best known as the first to have led a Dominican American expedition to Mount Everest in 2011, and he is now working to give young Dominican students encouragement to become agents of positive change.

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Now, through his “Siempre Mas” foundation, Mella talks about his love for mountain climbing and shares life experiences with teenagers from slums back in his country, the Dominican Republic.

Mella’s journey to Everest, the world’s highest point

Mella began climbing mountains at a young age.

“My first high mountain was Pico Bolivar in Venezuela, I was 19-years-old,” he said according to USSOCOM. “I did that during my summer vacation in my sophomore year of the naval academy. After that I fell in love with mountaineering. Before that I was just doing a lot of trekking through the mountains in the Dominican Republic.”

After graduating from high school, he attended the Dominican Republic naval academy where he spent two years as an ensign. Afterwards he moved to the United States, where he joined the U.S. Army.

“When I came to the United States, I started doing rock climbing, eventually going back to mountaineering.  I started doing high mountains like Aconcagua, Huascaran, McKinley, Kilimanjaro, Kenya and Mount Denali in Alaska,” he said.

Mella told USSCOM that his motivation to climb mountains stems from many things.

“One is to be out there in nature, another is you go there because of your efforts,” Mella said. “It’s not like you can take a car and drive there; you have to fight and work to get to the top. And the view is just amazing; it basically shows you how small you are in the big scheme of things. Some people think they can take over the world in a day but we’re so insignificant – the mountain shows you that.”

After reaching the summit Mella said that all the strifes were worth it.

“The feeling I got when I got to the summit, I could tell you but it really wouldn’t describe it,” he said. “It’s a surreal experience, seeing the curvature of the earth and where you’re standing, that’s priceless.”

Mella’s nonprofit organization “Siempre Mas”