I've
been asked that question by a friend who is also planning the climb.
They heard that it was tough and that there were climbs / hikes that
were just as good in North America (less expensive, more accessible etc). Not having done any climbing or
hiking before, I don't know about the NA climbs; I can only answer for
Kili.
My answer ? Yes. It was worth it.
There is a
real sense of accomplishment -- especially for Sandy, who hasn't done
crazy things like this before (I put my 1200k rides in the crazy
category). I made it up and down, in spite of my foot and in spite of
having a bad head cold. Sandy had no difficulty whatsoever. All that training paid off !
And off we go ! Sandy's wearing her new African pants !
The weigh-in
Quick lunch before setting out
Hosea, the main man!
in the rain forest
climber tents
Speaking of Chris, he set a world record at the top -- 92 pushups filmed by Tom. Apparently the Guinness Book has someone with 40 !
Our tents
were just wide enough for two base pads with sleeping bags and our
duffle bags. The duffle bags held our clothing and sleeping bag except
that Sandy's was a little short so it didn't fit. A porter would then
carry all that along with some other gear, perhaps a folding chair ...
they all had big packs. Our duffles were squashed into larger packs
with other stuff.
Still in the heather zone
The fourteen of us under a rock overhang
Simone demonstrating the operation of the latrine ... well not exactly !
It's hard to anchor a tent in rock, other than with other rocks !
Tents, tents, tents -- 2 large mess
tents, tents for the porters, tents for cooking, tents for the
port-a-potties (like the one that we have in our boat); lots of tents.
The porters slept in large tents probably 15 per tent without a square
inch of spare space. I'm sure that they were warm !
During the day it didn't seem cold; you were walking. At night it was a different story. The temperature dropped dramatically with the sun. After about the 3rd day we were sleeping in long johns, fleeces and hats in our 0F cocoon-like sleeping bags. You really didn't want to get up during the night to pee ... getting out of your sleeping bag, putting on more clothes and hiking boots, putting a head light on, making your way to one of the two latrine tents. Fun.
The porters carry big packs.
The trail is marked by footsteps.
The daytime weather got steadily colder as we proceeded. We added layers and zipped up. We were never cold during the day except at one point Sandy's hands were cold; her hand warmers weren't keeping up. At that point she was using walking poles, which probably contributed to the cold hands. She carried her pack every day except day 7, when Felix took it from her in spite of her objections and helped drag her up some of the big steps in the rock.
The strategy most days was to climb high, sleep low. I didn't know what that meant until we were out there. On day 4, that was because the camp was lower than the ridge that we'd crossed. On day 5, at Lava Tower 15,000 feet, we had lunch and then climbed to Arrow Glacier, 1,000 feet further up, and then back to Lava Tower. Day 6 we climbed to Arrow Glacier at 16,000 feet, had lunch, climbed another 500 feet and then back to Arrow Glacier.
We walked ssslllllooooowwwwwlllllyyy. One foot barely ahead of another. The word in Swahili is pole pole (like pole-eh) -- slow. The guides kept us at that pace. I could have gone just a little bit faster, and did on the final day, but you quickly realize that you're not going to dash up the trail like the porters, even if you're not carrying anything.
We'd been offered the option of getting to the summit on the 7th day and we were unanimous, or at least the vocal (mouthy like me) ones were unanimous. The original plan would have had us getting to Crater Camp at 18,500 feet and staying there for the night. No one wanted to try and sleep at Crater Camp. Apparently some groups get to crater camp and crawl into their tents and don't want to eat. We wanted to get the heck out of Dodge.
We left Arrow Glacier at 4am, heading for Crater Camp. This takes us through the Western Breach, where some climbers were killed a few years ago in an avalanche. The new rule is that you cannot enter that area after 5:30 a.m. because after that, the sun hits the rocks above and can melt the frost, sending just one rock rolling down that soon picks up other rocks.
It's not all open, smooth going
Before we even got to the so-called "danger zone" (sounds like Top Gun), I heard this low sound (I can hear low sounds, just not high sounds) and thought "what's that". In another second I had my answer as Hosea, the "main man" yelled "DOWN" and I found out why we were wearing helmets on that part of the climb.
Avalanche !
The rumble grew, it passed by us in the little gully to our right. Some pebbles hit some climbers. Porters prayed. It passed. Only later do you realize how close we were to disaster. The porters knew right away.
Continuing, we were in and out of the danger zone, got rid of our helmets (thank goodness as it constantly moved my hat and glasses down over my face), and start up the rocky steps. These aren't man made, it's just the way that the cookie crumbles. Big high steps, hoist yourself up. Shorter people needed a hand. This is a land where I'm average height, except for the Masai of course, I did not. UP, up, up. I needed a bathroom. An open expanse of rock was my option. Nope. Pee ok, squat no. We stopped for a snack but Tom and I continued on. At that point, almost at 18k feet, even the porters were slowing down. I was mostly keeping up to them.
Tom and I made it to Crater Camp ahead of everyone else by about 1/2 hour. While most of the camps had an outhouse (that we didn't use), Crater Camp did not. "Local Toilet", I was told. Lots of 6' high rocks, find some shelter.
16,000 feet on the 5th day, then we went back down to Lava Tower at 15,000 to sleep.
Sandy and Vita with Lava Tower in the background
Yes, it really is as steep as you can see the slope behind. Sandy is down there in the navy hat; I asked her to look up and her response ? "he's got to be kidding".
Soon some porters came. They setup some of the small guest tents and Hosea advised us to get out of the weather -- snowing at that point. Sandy and I along with the two Ontario doctors Howard and Rob, went into one tent and relaxed. H&R snoozed. We were just on the ground but were out of the wind.
Apparently the mess tent porter ran into an altitude problem. Hosea gave up on the mess tent, setup the tables outside -- the sun was out then -- and fed us something; forget what. We then started up that last 800' to the summit, arriving there sometime after 2pm in the glorious sun, all by ourselves, not having to give way to other groups for photo ops.
Tom and I reached Crater Camp first, ahead of most of the porters. That's ice behind us -- glacier.
Success ! You can see the glacier in the background. That's at the Crater Camp level.
This was a tough moment. Sara had given us small necklaces with a pinch of Alexander's ashes.
Does this look like the moon ? This was the camp at 15,000 feet on the way down the east side. Most groups climb and descend the east. Their porters only have to carry to 15k feet. Their climbers leave at midnight, climb from 15,000 to 19,300 to arrive there at dawn, descend to 15,000 for lunch and then descend further. Our porters had to carry everything to 18,500 feet, circle the summit and then down to 15,000 feet. Because we made up the plan as we went along (early summit), we didn't have a booking at the 15,000 foot camp. We were in a really rocky area -- smooth under the tents, but that's all.
From the summit, by 3pm we were heading down; by 5:30 p.m. we'd descended to15,000 feet mostly on what they call scree -- loose sand that's 3-5" deep, skating in that stuff. Sandy's broken toe was killing her at that point and on the other foot, her nail had been squished into the end of the boot ... well, she's probably going to lose that nail.
By the next morning, she couldn't put on her boots. Hosea saved the day, removing her insoles to give her more room and tying the boots ultra tight so that her feet didn't move forward. Without his help, she wouldn't have been able to walk.
Some of us would have made the complete descent. That wasn't unanimous. We went about half-way down and stopped at another camp, busy with other ascenders and descenders. That camp was right at the edge of the rain forest. The last day we made it down to the gate. Our adventure was mostly over ... save the safari, of course, which is an entirely different story !
Our finishing gate.
The guides and porters often put on a short "show", so to speak. This fellow was like the caller in a square dance and they all sang. We were presented with certificates at the bottom ...
Would we do it again ? No. Are we glad that we did it ? Yes. That's my answer and I'm sticking to it !
3 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful adventure- a once in a lifetime experience. Thanks for sharing.
Nice write up Dave - Congrats to Sandy = quite an accomplishment - now she is as crazy as you! Glad you enjoyed it
Fabulous Dave and thanks for sharing!! Gerry at KW shared videos from another one of his climbers and I'm so excited to get to see it for myself this August :). Haha hope I stay together enough to take notes half as good as yours :). Bonne route to your next adventure!!!!
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