Kilimanjaro in 2015

Here’s a throwback to 2015, from well before we started this blog. Our friends had the great idea that we should go to Tanzania, climb Kilimanjaro, go on a safari, then visit Zanzibar. Sure, why not? How hard could climbing a 19,341 ft (5895 m) mountain be?

The climb isn’t technical, but it is a long, cold, tiring walk. We quickly learn the term “pole, pole (po-lay po-lay)”, Swahili for slowly, slowly.

Kilimanjaro qualifies as high altitude climbing, and pulmonary edema and cerebral edema can affect almost anyone, no matter the preparation. Some of us were on a diuretic, which helps with acclimatization to avoid Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), but also ensures you need to pee in the middle of the night. Great fun when it’s freezing outside.

The Route

We started at the Machame Gate and took a well traveled route. Over the first six days we passed through several distinct climate zones, starting with jungles and ending with barren rocks and glaciers at the summit.

Our Support Team

Our guide service was Climb Kili. We thought they did a great job arranging everything and hiring enough porters and providing them with good equipment. We tagged along with eight of our friends from the Sipherd family. As a group, we chose the 7-day trip. The more time spent on Kilimanjaro acclimating to the elevation, the higher the success rate of reaching the summit. Our whole party (10 of us) summited, though a few needing a bit of help from our guides.

Our support team consisted of three guides and 27 porters/cooks etc. This included one man who set up and maintained two potty tents for the 10 of us. The permanent campsite pit toilets were, shall we say, full to overflowing with excrement, so we were glad to have the potty tents.

The porters, cooks, and other support staff did all the heavy lifting. Literally. The guests just walked with a day pack.

The Routine

Each morning, we packed up our gear bags and sleeping bags, and left them at the door of the tent. We packed our own (pretty light) packs and put them in the staging area. Then we headed to the large tent where breakfast was served. Meanwhile the porters packed up our gear and tents in large duffle-like packs and made the trek to the next campsite.

After breakfast, we headed out with the three guides. The cooking crew and some porters quickly packed up the food/cooking gear/main tent and hurried along, passing us later in the morning to set up for lunch. While we trudged along, they were literally running past us!

After lunch, we headed out again with the guides, were passed again by the cooking crew, and arrived at camp in the afternoon. By then the main body of porters had set up our tents and put our gear in the tents and even put two bowls of hot water at the entrance so we could wash up on arrival.

Dinner followed a couple hours later, and we then retired to our tents. We repeated that routine for the first five days.

We quickly adapted to the routine. Over time, the daily exertion and especially the altitude made us slow our pace. The cooks made lots of soups to keep us hydrated, along with other good food. I especially like the french fries when my appetite was waning. I remember that the egg yokes of the fried eggs were nearly white. We drank a lot of hot chocolate. The guides and assistant guides were very helpful and patient. It was really great to travel with friends so we could help each other and encourage each other.

brushing teeth

breakfast

jungles and shorts on day 1

Day 6: Summit Day

Summit day started at midnight. Cold, tired and sleep deprived, we put on all our cold weather gear and our headlamps, left Barafu Camp at midnight and started the methodical shuffle up the last 4000 ft. Ahead and behind us we could see the string of headlamps of other groups snaking upward.

My recollections are dimmed by time and the probable loss of a few brain cells while summiting. Just methodical breathing, small steps and occasionally stopping to rest. We were well above the clouds in the valley so the stars and planets were on display. The light of dawn slowly approached, and by the time we were approaching Stella Point (where the path flattens out and gets easier) it was light enough to see.

first light

a bit more light

nearing Stella Point

glacier in the distance

KIlimanjaro crater

Some more heavy breathing and measured steps got us to the summit of Kilimanjaro (Uhuru Peak) around 8 am, where other groups were already celebrating the achievement. Eventually our whole group got to the top where we also celebrated (as much as you can without much oxygen) took some pictures and just enjoyed the moment. The crater at the top and surrounding area looked otherworldly. After maybe 20 minutes, it was time to head down to Barafu camp.

Heading Down the Mountain

The trip up took around 8 hours. Travel time back to Barafu camp was perhaps 90 minutes. I collapsed in our tent, with boots on and immediately fell asleep. I think it started to rain or hail a bit. Susie was not far behind, with the guides. But wait, the day was not done. Other groups would need our campsite to summit the next day. After resting a bit, we packed up our stuff, the porters packed up camp and we started down the mountain in the direction of the Mweka gate.

We were originally supposed to make it to Mweka camp, closer to the exit gate, but we talked the guides into stopping a bit sooner at the Millenium Camp to spend the night. It was rainy, really the first time we had any significant weather.

Back to the Hotel

The next morning after breakfast we walked a few hours out to the Mweka Gate (falling a few times in the wet, slippery clay), tipped and thanked the porters and guides, and paid a local woman to clean our boots. Later our van came to take us back to our hotel in Arusha where we ate and fell into a deep sleep.

Yes, but….. the next day we had to get up fairly early because it was the first day of our Serengeti Safari leg of the trip. A day in between would have been nice, but no real complaints, the safari was spectacular.

Next blog post perhaps.

Summary: It was long, it was hard, I lost my appetite on about day 3. The summit day was grueling, perhaps the hardest sustained physical task of my life. However, it was definitely worth doing, especially with Susie and our friends.

And tremendous respect for the hard-working porters. Early to rise, heavy loads to carry, late to bed, cold conditions with less than ideal gear. All drinking water had to be filtered using a hand pump. The last two campsites lacked water, so some porters had to haul water to camp for all 40 people in the party. There were porters that we never saw, who brought in food in part way through the week. Their hard work made this trip possible.

Extra credit blog post reading: Here’s a GoPro video of our actual climb, shot and edited by Richard Harmon.