Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

A year ago, I can't say the thought of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was a thought I was entertaining, well, perhaps I should qualify that a bit - I wasn't thinking about doing it anytime soon. So how did I end up in Tanzania climbing Mount Kilimanjaro? I have to credit a few people, Maureen Miller, Josh Wong, and Greg Lockwood. Maureen put the Tanzania idea in my head with an email inviting me to join her for a beach vacation in Zanzibar in January 2011. While the trip with Maureen never materialized, the two seeds got planted: 1) a winter break in Zanzibar sounded spectacular and 2) if I was going to go all the way to Tanzania, I should climb Kilimanjaro while I was there. Josh kept the idea alive while I was in Kenya an even tried to organize a large group of folks to climb it together in February. Unfortunately, February wasn't going to work with my work schedule. Luckily, I still had a traveling companion in Greg. It didn't take much convincing an in November we bought our plane tickets and organized the rest of the trip in December and January. Planning the trip was amazingly easy. On January 13, we left San Francisco for Kilimanjaro International Airport. We arrived late on on January 14 and were transported to out hotel in Moshi. We were scheduled to depart on our trek at 8:00am the next morning, so once we were in our room, we quickly repacked our stuff so that our trekking gear was all in the right place and went to bed.

Day 1: Machame Gate (1600m) to Machame Hut (2900m) - 12km

Greg and I at Machame Gate, ready to get started

Our head guide was Wallace and our assistant guide was George. We were paired with couple from Canada for the trek, Paul (69) and Roxanne (68). I am always inspired when I meet people their age out doing things like this. It gives me hope for my future. I enjoyed their company. Roxanne is a character and listening to them banter was amusing.

We started the day walking through a rain forest. George was leading us because Wallace had to stay back with the porters to weigh and inventory everything we were taking into the park. We were walking very slowly, so slowly it was kind of annoying. The guides know what they are doing, so we went with. Looking back, we are really happy we went so slowly the first day because we felt great the whole trek. There were a lot of flowers on the mountain and it didn't take us long to encounter some.

Fireball Lily

Kilimanjaro Impatient

We arrived at camp and around 5:00pm and hung out for a but while camp was constructed. Once the dining tent was up, we had tea and hung out there waiting for dinner. We were really hungry. Because the porters got such a late start, dinner was late. Too late really, but what could we do. We headed straight to bed once we finished eating.

Greg and I at Machame Hut

Most of our crew

Our first campsite

View of Kilimanjaro from Machame Hut

Day 2: Machame Hut (2900m) to Shira Camp (3850m) - 7km

The hike on day 2 was steep and we plodded up the mountain at a slow and steady pace. We got our first glimpses of Mount Meru.

When the ascent leveled out for a bit, we stopped for lunch. The ravens found this to be good area to hang out.

There were also a few flowers here, even at what was now a rather high elevation.

Mackinder's Gladiolus

Everlasting Flower

Giant Groudsel - an interesting tree that lives on Kilimanjaro in the mid-elevations

The ascent after lunch - into the clouds... Those clouds, unfortunately, contained a bit of rain. All in all, it wasn't so bad though. It rained enough to make us stop and put on our rain gear, but more to keep things dry for the next day than because it was raining hard.

Shira Camp

The blue sky trying to break back through the rain clouds over camp

Shira Cave - about a 10 minute walk, if that, from Shira Camp. As far as caves go, it wasn't very impressive.

Unfortunately, one of our porters fell ill with some sort enteric illness. He did not improve over night and had to be helicoptered off the mountain the next morning. We did received good news that once he got medical attention, he improved quickly and had been discharged from the hospital.

Day 3: Shira Camp (3850m) to Barranco Camp (3950m) - 13km

View of Kilimanjaro from Shira camp on the morning of day 3

Day 3 was our acclimatization day. Over the course of the 13km we covered, we hiked up to Lava Tower (4600m) before descending to Barranco Camp. Greg and I were still feeling really good. We weren't sore and the altitude was not giving us any problems. It was definitely starting to get cooler though. My pant legs were zipped on, I was starting to wear long sleeves, and my ball cap was replaced with a light weight winter hat.

Day 3 was also the day that Greg and I separated from Paul and Roxanne while we were walking. Greg and I preferred to keep a steady pace and stop only occasionally to drink water, whereas Roxanne and Paul preferred to walk for 10-15 minutes and then rest for 30-60 seconds. Wallace ended up staying with us and George stayed with Paul and Roxanne. By the time we reached Lava tower and stopped for lunch, we were about 30 minutes ahead of Paul and Roxanne.

Lava Tower

On the hike down to camp from Lava Tower, the weather started to play games with us. It started to sprinkle and then started rain, so we stopped to put on our rain gear. Pretty much right after we had gotten through the process of putting all of rain gear on, it stopped raining. Since we were descending, the temperature was also starting to rise and we were getting hot. Greg was able to unzip his gear in several places to create vents, but mine did not have that option, so we stopped and I took everything off. Right after we started walking again, it started raining again, and then it quickly turned to a down pour. I hurriedly put my rain gear back on, prioritizing trying to keep the things dry that I was going to need tomorrow. Day 4 was clean pants day, so if the ones I was currently wearing got a bit wet, it wasn't the end of the world. This time the rain hung on for a bit. I think we were pretty much at camp by the time it stopped completely.

When we did reach camp, however, we learned of more bad news for our porters. One of them had fallen and broken his leg (I use the term "broken" loosely because all leg injuries, sprains, dislocations, etc. are called broken legs). It took the rest of our porters until midnight to bring him and the gear he and those helping him had been carrying down to camp. One of the items that was missing was the table, so we dined in our tents that night.

View from Barranco Camp after the rain had stopped.

Carduus keniensis

Day 4: Barranco Camp (3950m) to Barafu Camp (4670m) - 13km

View of Kilimanjaro from Barafu Camp.

day 4 was a long, hard day. It started off with the steepest segment of the trail that we would encounter. This segment is called the Barranco Wall, and it was pretty much as steep as the name implies. It took us close to 4 hours of switch backs and rock scrambling to get to the top. We took a break and ate some snacks once we were there, but we still had quite a ways to go before we reached camp.

Making our way to the Barranco Wall

Greg and I at the top of the wall

After leaving the top of the wall, we descended into the Karanga Valley and then back up to Karanga Camp, our lunch stop for the day. It was now 1:00pm, and we were starving. Unfortunately, unlike the other days where we had had a boxed lunch, we were getting a hot lunch today. A hot lunch sounds great, but by now we were an hour ahead of Paul and Roxanne and had to wait on them to eat. We were eager to get to our campsite because the sooner we got there the more sleep we would get before attempting the summit.

Karanga Camp is where those doing a 7 day trek camp for the night on Day 4. This leaves them a relatively short hike the day before summiting. I would highly recommend taking 7 days to anyone considering doing this in the future. The more rest you can get before the summit attempt, the better.

Once lunch was ready, Greg and I ate quickly and headed to camp. We still had quite a bit of climbing before we got there. We reached camp around 400pm and immediately laid down to take a nap. We were able to sleep for two hours before we were woken for dinner. Paul and Roxanne had arrived in camp about an hour after us.

After we finished eating, Wallace and the assistant guides came in to brief us about our summit attempt. We would each have our own guide with us for the summit attempt. That way if any of decided to turn back, we not do so unaccompanied nor would we negatively impact someone else's attempt. We were going to be woken up at 11:00pm, have tea, and then start climbing. The goal was to start hiking at midnight.

Day 5: Barafu Camp (4670m) to Uhuru Peak (5895m) to Mweka Camp (3100m) - 22km

By the time 11:00pm had rolled around, we had only managed to get an additional 2 hours of sleep. We bundled up, drank our tea, and ate a couple of biscuits and an energy bar before starting our ascent. We were one night away from the full moon, so there was a lot of light as we headed away from camp at about 12:20am. The night before, I had gotten the impression that Roxanne was, perhaps, not that interested in actually climbing all the way to the summit. About 15 minutes in, this feeling was confirmed when she decided to go back to camp. The rest of us kept going and it wasn't long before Greg and I pulled away from Paul.

Summiting Kilimanjaro was very much like completing my IronMan. I had nearly the same emotional and physical experiences. Both are 90% mental, I began both with a feeling that I would indeed accomplish my goal, I experienced envy of those farther along in their quest than myself and pity for those behind me, I went through a low point where I was so tired that I no longer believed I could actually do it, and I had a turning point where everything became easy again. The low point came about four hours into the climb. I was exhausted. The four hours of interrupted sleep, two biscuits, and energy bar were no longer sustaining me. I was having trouble keeping my eyes open and picking up my feet. As I shuffled along, my missteps caused me to lose my balance. Thankfully, never so much as to actually fall down. I questioned the safety of my continuing, I think more as a legitimate reason to turn back knowing that I would never actually do so unless forced for safety reasons. Greg kept me going, especially when he told me that if I turned back, he would turn back. There was no way I was going to take the summit away from him. I was saved when the first signs of light peeked over the horizon. The daylight gave me the added energy I needed to perk up. Plus, we soon were able to see the top of the last ridge, the crater ridge. the sky was full of light, but the sun had not yet crested the horizon when we reached Stella Point on the ridge. We were now only about 30 minutes from the summit and the steepest part was done.

Sunrise officially occurred as we traversed the crater ridge to the summit. It was incredible.

The crater, what we could see of it anyways.

The glaciers at the summit were amazing. I'e never seen a glacier from this distance before. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but this was not it. The sky was perfectly clear.

Mount Meru

We made it! We reached that summit at about 7:00am.

We spent 15-20 minutes at the summit taking pictures and taking in the views before beginning our descent. We stopped to drink some water at Stella Point and were all wondering what had become of Paul. As we dropped down off of the crater ridge, we found out. Paul was about 100ft from the ridge. He looked completely exhausted. We were all happy to see him and congratulated him on his efforts. Wallace advised him that he should go no further than Stella Point or he would risk the consequences of remaining at such a high elevation for too long. We wished him luck with his last few meters and congratulated him again before turning back to our descent. We descended very quickly. The slope was steep and covered in very thick, fine, and loose gravel. We pretty much let ourselves slide down.

We got back to camp at about 9:00am and immediately went to sleep. Around 11, we though we heard Paul's voice, so we roused ourselves and started packing up our tent. At noon, we were summoned for lunch, where we learned from Roxanne that Paul had not yet returned. We were all a bit worried about him at this point. After we finished eating, Greg and I headed back to our tent to finish packing things up. We still had an estimated 4 hours of hiking left to get to our camp for the night. While we were doing that, Paul was spotted at the top of the last ridge. He was almost down. He was so physically drained from hi efforts, that it took him an hour to come down from a ridge that had only taken us about 45 minutes to climb earlier that day. He reached camp around 2:00pm, and we congratulated him once again. We were all happy for him and very happy to see him back in camp safe and sound. Wallace chatted with him about what, in theory, was still to come that day. Wallace did not think it was safe for Paul to attempt to go to the next camp that afternoon for fear that in his condition it would take 7-8 hours, which would not get him there until close to midnight. Paul agreed and said that he physically couldn't go any further that day, so Wallace went to talk to the park ranger to see if he would allow Paul and Roxanne to stay at Barafu Camp an additional night. Luckily, he agreed, so Wallace went about making all the necessary gear, food, and staffing arrangements necessary for our party of four to become two parties of two. At 2:45pm, Greg, Wallace, and I began making our way to Mweka Camp. Since we had had all day to sit around and rest and the amount of oxygen in the air was increasing with every step we took, Greg and I were light on our feet and made really good time. We were at Mweka Camp by 5:00pm even though it should have taken closer to 4 hours to get there. We had descended so quickly, that we had beat the porters carrying our tents. We ended up hanging out at the ranger station while we waited for our camp to arrive and be set up.

Flowers we encountered on our descent.

Protea kilimandscharica

Red Hot Poker

Day 6: Mweka Camp (3100m) to Mweka Gate (1800m) - 10km

Day 6 was the first day we felt soreness. My quads were a bit sore from the pounding of the descent, but it was my toes that really hurt from being jammed into the fronts of my boots. Two toenails were completely bruised, as were parts of two others. I was dreading the estimated 3-4 hours of descent we still had left. To end the pain sooner, we went as quickly as the terrain would allow.

Our last view of the summit before leaving the mountain

We were just checking our watch and deciding that based on the estimate we should still have at least an hour to go when we rounded the corner and saw a bus. We were done. It was sad. There is something about walking for days that is incredibly fulfilling, mentally, physically, emotionally... I've now done this twice and on both occasions wished it could have lasted longer.

We signed out at the Ranger Station and soon found ourselves on a bus headed back to the hotel. We saw Paul and Roxanne at breakfast the next morning and learned that they were able to make it all the way down from Barafu Camp and and returned to the hotel at the 7:30pm the night before.