A 14-year-old from Lakeland says reaching the top of Mount Kilimanjaro was bittersweet.

Garrett Robinson made it, but he was alone. He had to spread the ashes of the man who was to be his climbing companion.

The boy's stepfather, Steve Pickett, died in an April 2005 car accident.

The stepfather had made the almost 20-thousand-foot ascent in August 2004 for an HIV/AIDS support group he helped create called Friends-Together.

The top wasn't as cold as he expected, according to a release sent on behalf of Garrett and his mother.

Three others climb with him in Tanzania: Julie Sprague of Naples, Aki Komulainen of Stuart and Mark Tatro of Atlanta. But the boy was the only one who made it to the top.