Adventure that gives back,
on one of Africa’s last glaciers.
A ski club turned conservation force - planting trees, restoring watersheds, and keeping a strange, beautiful piece of mountaineering history alive in Kilembe.
RWENZORI MOUNTAINS, UGANDA
FOUNDED ON A JOKE, MADE REAL
1955
2024
FORMALLY FOUNDED AS A NONPROFIT
MARGHERITA PEAK - TREK & SKI WITH RTS
5,109M
As featured in Outside - [issue/date]
What started as a colonial officer’s joke is now a working climate project.
Ski Club Uganda began in 1955, when a British officer skied down a melting Rwenzori glacier for fun and wrote about it in the local paper. Nearly seventy years later, we formalized that spirit into an organization — planting trees, restoring degraded riverbanks, and researching one of Africa's last equatorial glaciers before it disappears.
ADVENTURE INTO IMPACT
Eco-tourism, done right: not just a trip — a contribution.
Here's where it goes:
WHERE ADVENTURE MEETS IMPACT
We lead reforestation projects across the Rwenzoris, engaging local communities and volunteers to plant native, fast-growing trees that stabilize degraded riverbanks and slopes.
Tree planting
01 - Restore
We study a mountain ecosystem that's changing fast — sharing findings that inform climate strategy and put the Rwenzoris on the scientific map.
Research & Education
02 - Understand
03 - Connect
School programs, training sessions, and livelihood initiatives like agroforestry — building local pride and pathways from the mountains to a global audience.
Community outreach
OUR ON-THE-GROUND PARTNER
We work through Rwenzori Trekking Services - not around them
RTS has led small-scale tree planting in Kilembe for years, built on relationships with local farmers and landowners that took time to earn. It's a genuine partnership: they bring what we can't, and we bring what they couldn't access alone.
Local guiding expertise, established relationships with farmers and landowners, and years of on-the-ground planting experience in Kilembe.
What RTS brings
Donor funding, tourism revenue from skiers and trekkers, and research partnerships with Makerere University and Penn State.
What SCU brings
See the glacier - and the work happening below it.
OUR STORY, ON FILM
We put together a full documentary on the club, the mountain, and the people of Kilembe. Watch the short cut here, or dive into the full 19-minute film on our story page.
MEET THE TEAM
Few people. Full commitment.
Morgan Long
Max Eihhausen
PROJECT SPECIALIST
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS & CO-FOUNDER
Florian Knollmann
PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
Dr. Anne Dix (USAID, Ph.D. Ecology)
John Porter (Baptist Health Care)
Dr. Bob Nakileza (Mountain Resource Centre)
ADVISORY BOARD
The glacier’s melting. Help us get ahead of what it leaves behind.
Donations fund tree planting and community resilience work that helps Kilembe withstand the mudslides and flooding glacier melt leaves behind.