57th Day Assault on Kilimanjaro - Tanzania

see all photos »

After a long absence, I have managed to get access to this blog again, it was not possible in Ethiopia at all, so you will have to wait to hear about the adventures there. For now i will tell you that having flown over the trouble in Kenya, we are settled in Arusha tanzania for our enforced rest from cycling.

In a rash moment i decided to join five others for a leisurely stroll up Mount Kilimanjaro, it was a 6 day trip with the final assault on 9th March climbing from 4500mtrs to 5892mtrs.

Fear and Pain

These are some rough notes from then:-

The strong gale that was blowing yesterday afternoon when we arrived at the 4th campsite was still blowing when i woke up at 11.30 last night for the midnight hike to the summit, I checked the thermometer next to me in the tent and saw that it was reading 0 degrees C. After my lowest ebb yesterday i had serious doubts about the wisdom of the attempt, our route was to take us along a ridge to the rim of the crater and then a further 100mtrs to the highest point in Africa. The fact that our borrowed equipment seemed less than adequate, and that we were to do the climb in the dark so as to be at the top for sunrise also did not inspire me, to be frank, i was scared, and i seriously thought about quitting, i was still scared at 1am when i finally set off with the others. in the pitch dark to climb two mountains, the one in front of me, and the one in my mind. I just didn't have the right mind-set, i wasn't happy, and my equipment was not prepared, i had decided to use both climbing sticks tonight, instead of just one like i had for the previous days, but in my hurry i didn't set the second one up correctly, so it was to long and difficult to use. The wind was blowing from the right with a vengeance, it was cold, very cold. I struggled on for a while until we came to what looked like a serious of round boulders stacked on top of each other, i had been distracted and hadn't noticed how the others had got up, and was told by the guide behind me to just go straight up, a task that i completed with all the grace of an arthritic elephant with two logs tied to his front feet. That was when Jeremy the head guide realized what i already knew, and came to sort me out, i was given a different headlight as mine needed new batteries (another thing i hadn't prepared), he took my backpack off me , and moved me to the front of the line to nurse me along.

The root of my problem was my fear of falling off the edge, as we were climbing in the dark, i could only imagine that the blackness to my left and right hid shear drops, that i would plummet down to a very messy death if i so much as slipped or put one foot wrong, and so it was this fear that kept me going.

Along with this i still had the headache that had been with me since we had reached 3000mtrs three days before that was part of the altitude sickness that most of us were suffering. I also started to feel sick, so with my shoulders bent, and my eyes fixed to the ground in front of me i desperately trudged onward and upwards, placing each stick left and right, left and right, fighting down the vomit and the fear....not knowing that three of the others were in just as bad a shape, in fact, some as it would turn out, in far worse shape.... to be continued