Kilimanjaro: September 10 – 16, 2011

 The stress of the prior day’s travel went away with a great night of rest. Now we were ready to climb Kilimanjaro and to get away from civilization for awhile. Only one stressful thing remained before we could escape into nature and that was visiting the ATM to withdraw enough T-shillings to cover the climb. I was nervous since we were withdrawing so much cash within a short period of time, but luckily we had several cards and accounts we could pull from to not exceed our daily maximums. We eventually got enough and handed Castro huge stacks of bills adding up to millions of T-shillings. Mike and I laughed at the amount as it would be the only time in our life we would be counting out millions of currencyJ Now we were paid in full and ready to go.

 We had decided to climb the 7 day Lemosho route. This would allow us a little extra time to acclimatize and hike ourselves into shape since we haven’t truly exercised since leaving the US. We would see if our stair climbing and walking everywhere regime would be enough.

 We drove from Moshi to the Lemosho gate (3 hour drive) with our guide Kushi, 2 porters, our driver and the office assistant. Mike and I took in the scenery while the office assistant kept everyone laughing in the car. It was Saturday, so each little village that we passed was packed for market day. It was neat to see the community come together. We stopped at the gate to pay our fees and luckily no problem with our credit card going through. We also picked up 3 more porters. We would have a team of 6 plus usJ It was interesting to watch the porters pack up all of our group gear and have it weighed to make sure they were not carrying too much. The porter’s union has a max weight of 20kg of group gear plus 5 kg of personal gear. We also ate our boxed lunch including our 3^rd piece of fried chicken in 36 hoursJ

 Another hour’s drive, and we were finally at the trailhead to start our climb! We were ready to enjoy the outdoors after all the traveling and spending so much time in urban areas over the last month! The hike was short, only 2.5 hours, through the rain forest to our camp at Big Tree (2780m). I saw my first monkey – a black and white one with a really long tail! It was a great first day and we both felt great. It was nice to have hot drinks and a good dinner before bed.

 Day 2 was a long day – 6 hours of hiking to Shira 2 camp (3900m). We climbed most of the morning out of the rainforest into the moorlands. We had some amazing views of the valley below us and our first view of Kilimanjaro! It was great to put a picture to what we were climbing, and it looked so beautiful! Now I was super excited. We stopped for a hot lunch at Shira 1 camp and sat at our table with our camp chairs and took in the views of the mountain. After lunch, it was a flat 1.5 hour hike to Shira 2. We got in a bit late after our long lunch and both Mike and I had headaches from the altitude. We drank a ton of hot drinks and ate another enormous meal! I swear, they served me an entire box of spaghetti noodles for dinner! Apparently, the President of Tanzania had attempted a climb along this route, so they had built really nice, tiled outhouses here, and the men’s side even had a toilet fixture instead of just a hole to squat over; so Mike has now placed his bottom in the same hole as the Tanzanian president, who never got above Shira Camp.

 We woke up for Day 3 feeling rested, and our headaches were gone. Today included a climb up to Lava Tower (4640m)and then a descent to Baranco Camp (3960m). The terrain changed again to mostly boulders and small shrubs. I am always amazed how quickly the terrain changes almost in a blink of an eye! During our hike, Kushi taught us some Swahili – “Jambo” (Hello), “Mambo” (What‘s up), “Pole Pole” (Slowly, Slowly), and “apoa con chisi como dice biridi” (I’m cool, like a cool banana)! Just below Lava Tower, our route merged with another major route, so the number of hikers more than doubled! Lava Tower was a really neat rock formation, and we got a much closer view of the mountain and the impressive Arrow Glacier. We took a nice break here, and I had a slight headache form, so I was happy to be descending back to camp to get to some thicker air. We had a steep and quick descent into a lush, green valley to camp. There are some really cool trees here that only grow at a certain elevation. They are tall and at the top split into two branches. The leaves are lush green, and the steams are soft and fuzzy. I guess when it gets cold, the leaves fold into themselves to protect itself. Super cool and I was impressed. At camp, we rested and had lunch outside while soaking in the views of the mountain. After lunch, the fog rolled in and we spent the afternoon in the tent and ate dinner in there too.

 Day 4 started out with a steep climb including some scrambling over rocks. It was a train of people up the hillside and a bit chaotic with porters trying to pass climbers through bottlenecks. It was a little extra excitement, and we were feeling strong! The trail flattened out, and we continued hiking. We then descended a short steep section of rock, crossed a creek and then had to choose the route to camp – short/steep or long/gentle. We chose the short/steep up to Karanga camp (4035m). Along the way, we saw many porters going back down hill to the creek. We found out that this would be the last water source for the next 2 camps! Our porters sure do work hard! It was a short hike, so we spent the afternoon relaxing in our tent bundled up. We finally used our sleeping sheets as an additional liner in our sleeping bags to keep us warm!

 Day 5 was the final push to high camp (Barafu 4640m). It was a short day of hiking up gentle slopes until the final steep slope up to camp. I definitely felt the thinner air and my heart was going! As most climbers know, the higher altitude causes extra gas, and both Mike and I were a little afraid to let one go up here! We were at camp by 12:30 and checked out a few of the climbers coming back down. It was late, so they were hurting, but most seemed to be in good spirits. From our camp, we could check out our climbing route and also see the ice cliffs! We relaxed and tried to eat as much as possible, which isn’t that much this high. I did manage to eat a few of their pancakes, which are super yummy!! Bed was early, since we would be waking up at 11:45pm for our summit push.

 The day was finally here to attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro!! Both Mike and I were feeling strong and only mild effects of the altitude. We woke up and quickly got ready putting on all of our warm clothes. We didn’t have our big puffies, so we were making due with rain pants, fleeces, compressors and hand/toe warmers. Breakfast was hot drinks and chocolate cookies, and then we were off! We could see the line of headlamps ahead of us, and we enjoyed the full moon and bright stars. We walked pole, pole and only stopped every hour for a short rest. This way we stayed warm and kept moving. At one point, I felt really sick, but just sat for a few minutes and I was ready to continue. Mike was strong the whole way. But it was cold!! We reached the summit at 6:20 am, after 6 hours of climbing! We were just in time to watch the sunrise, something neither of us have done on a summit of a mountain. It was an amazing experience, and the views were incredible! We were on the roof of Africa (5895m)!

 

We descended a huge scree field (loose small rocks and sand) and were back at camp by 8:30am where our team was waiting with fruit juice to celebrate! We took a nice long nap and ate lunch before descending for another 2 hours to Mweka Camp (3080m). Boy, did the air feel rich and thick down here after being so high!! We relaxed and enjoyed our last night of the climb in bliss after such an amazing summitJ

 Day 7 was a quick 2 hour descent to the gate via a slick, steep, muddy trail. Our guide was keeping track of how many times Mike and I landed on our butts during our hike. Poles sure would have come in handy to keep our balance, but there was no use carrying them around for our whole tripJ We were back in the rain forest, and I saw another monkey and some beautiful flowers! It was so lush and green after being up in the dirt and rocks for many days.

 We both had an awesome time on our climb, and I am so happy that we were able to add this experience to our trip! It truly has been amazing and so beautiful. It was also really fun getting to know our guide Kushi who was also our cook (he worked so hard!) and all of our porters too!