Kilimanjaro

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Africa is everything you imagine it to be- people in brightly colored fabrics walking through the dusty town carrying a large sack of something on their heads, children in rags playing in the street, farmers hoeing their fields by hand.  I only stayed a couple days in the town itself before heading out to climb mount kilimanjaro.  The following is the same as the email I sent out:

Well, I made it to the top of Africa- 19,400 feet. 

The first day involved a hot, dusty ride to the starting point from town where a man with a rifle met us to guide us up until the first camp to protect us from animals or bandits.   He loaded his gun quickly when something snorted in the forest next to us, but we never saw anything.  During that first night, I heard an elephant trumpet near camp and little creatures snuffling around our tent. 

Our group of 8 people camped for 4 nights on the way up the mountain with beauiful scenery but it was very cold every night.  We hiked 6-7 hours every day uphill, then slept in tents with all of our clothes on (due to the cold) and no showers.  Don't think it was too bad though- porters carried all of our stuff, set up camp before we got there, and made food for us.  We carried our day's supply of water (2-3 liters), raingear, and a jacket- which at the end of the day did feel a bit heavy.

For summitting Kilimanjaro, we were camped at around 16,000 feet in the bitterly cold violent wind behind some huge rocks.  We ate supper and immediately crawled into our thick down sleeping bags in the clothing we would wear for climbing the mountain.  We went to sleep at around 7pm- which was no problem because we had hiked 6 hours the day before. 

Our wake up call was at 11pm and we woke up and had some tea and cookies by flashlight and candlelight, and then started the hellish trek up the mountain.  The wind was screaming down the mountain in our faces- you could not escape it.  I can only estimate the temperature, I really had no idea- maybe around 10 above with a wicked windchill.  When we stopped, we froze down in less than 5 minutes, so we never rested for long.  Most people had hand and foot warmers, and the guides would not stop often because you would get too cold.  The climbing was in the dark (but we did not need flashlights due to the full moon).  There was no oxygen and you had to time your steps with breathing in order to keep a rhythm.  Sometimes I forgot whether I was breathing in or out, and it took everything I had just to keep going.  One person of our group turned back 1/4 of the way up.  3 people in our group were having mild hallucinations- including me- I thought some rocks were sacks of potatoes or animals, other people were seeing wooden bridges.  None of us told the guides or eachother what we were seeing because we did not want them to take us back down.  My hands face, and toes were frozen.  My lungs were tired.  Through the night, I watched other climbers who couldn't make it being walked or carried down the hill past us (which was not encouraging).

Finally,  just before sunrise, after about 6 hours of steep and grueling hiking, we reached the crater's edge near the top.  It was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.  The sky was red and orange, all of the clouds and the rest of the world was below us, and the wind slowed.  Some people sat at the top of the mountain in the warming sun and cried. 

After a brief rest, we walked to the summit (the absolute highest point of Kilimanjaro) which was a 1 and 1/2 hour walk (up) from where we watched the sunrise.  It was even a more difficult trek, the hallucinations were gone, but my vision was reduced at times to a small tunnel to see out of.  The glaciers around the top were beautiful and blue, and the views all around of africa were spectacular.  When we got to the summit, we sang and hugged and took a thousand pictures, and then headed back.

Going downhill was hard too, but it was warm.  it only took about 3 hours to get down (after 8 hours to get up), and we arrived home to our tents at around noon to nurse our horrid windburn, sore muscles, and chapped everything.  We slept for an hour, then packed everything up and did the impossible:  walking another 3 hours to the next camp!  But at least it was downhill and we were in great spirits because !!!WE HAD DONE IT!!!

Climbing the mountain was the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever done, and know that it was as close to the extreme limit of what I could do.  Right now, I can say I will never EVER do anything like that again- but give it a couple months, I may change my mind.