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“Follow your heart, there’s less traffic.”
-Anonymous
Stats for the day:
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Hike from Barafu to
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Approximately 6 miles round trip Barafu to summit plus 6 miles descent to Mweka Camp; 12 miles total
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4100 feet vertical gain to summit and 9340 loss!
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Summit Zone, then descend through Highland Desert, Moorland/Heath Zones to the top of the Rain Forest Zone
Midnight start for our summit adventure. It sleeted/snowed all the way to the crater rim. At 1st the sleet was light but as we climbed it got heavier and colder. The 1st part of the climb went over some large rocks, sometimes slick and icy but not too bad considering the weather. Mick and I were joking that whenever we do a long run or hike together, it is inevitably a weather issue, usually epic. Today would not disappoint in keeping our tradition alive.
Once in awhile one of us would point out a star or the moon and we would have a momentary thought that the clouds were finally breaking up and we would get a fabulous clear night sky. But the clouds seemed to climb with us and as each star window opened, it would close up again quickly. Dismas and Paschal took turns leading. We also had a 3rd guide - Louis - who took the sweep position. Dismas and Paschal both set the pace using the rest step which I was following. Roger was just in front of me and never got a rest step going, instead he kept stopping/starting, which I have to admit drove me nuts. I finally had to get in front of him so that I could keep a rhythm going. (Sorry Roger J) Over the years, as I read and dreamed about traveling to
Taking a break: cold, dark and snowing! (Photo courtesy M. Donoff)
Our guides, Dismas, Paschal and Louis were great. Periodically during the climb they would notice if we got quiet and they would start singing or make us do these little cheers – like – “say after me: Hallelujah!, Kilimanjaro!”, etc. It was amusing.......The climb itself was unrelenting and steep. The famous Kilimanjaro scree was frozen and kind of crunchy, not bad at all to hike on. I’m glad that we climbed in the dark, at least that way you couldn’t see what was still ahead! We had to gain about 3600 vertical feet to the rim and another 400 feet around the crater to the very top. All this in 3 miles! At some point I reached an altitude PR by going over 17200, which I had been at years before on a trek in
At around 18000 feet, it suddenly felt much colder. The mist on our packs turned to frost. We stopped and added another clothing layer. My hands started getting cold and I got out some pocket hand warmers that Jane had given me. I am pretty much a wimp when my hands get cold! I gave up my poles to Dismas so that I could warm up my hands without holding the poles. Eventually Louis ended up using them.
We kept climbing pole-pole, up-up-up and finally reached Stella Point on the crater rim, almost 19000 feet. The sky was just starting to lighten; we turned off headlamps maybe 15 minutes later. We had about 400 more vertical feet of climbing and about 45 additional minutes to circle around the rim and reach the summit. Two other climbers passed us just after Stella Point. It was very cold and a little windy, but the sleet and snow stopped. Hallelujah!!!!
I admit to being pretty emotional the whole way around the rim – I’ve wanted to do this for SO long and the sky was clearing and I was going to see the sunrise! As I said above, some negative thoughts and feelings during the climb, so it was SO good to have the snow stop and the clouds start to disappear. As we got closer, I was slightly ahead of Dismas and Mick. Great tunes were playing on my MP3 player: Il Divo “Unbreak My Heart”, U2 “Vertigo”, another U2 with something about s
Unfortunately, once you reach the summit, the guides want you to start down right away. They don’t like to hang up there at all. So not a lot of summit photos, a few on my film camera, and a few on Roger’s and Mick’s digitals. Not a lot of time to just let the experience sink in either. Mick did get one shot with me holding a list of all the people who donated to my fundraising campaign and I also had a wood carving from Kathie Lang that her Mom had made – she donated in honor of her Mother. It was inspiring to be there and know that SO many people had supported my efforts and each one of you gave me a reason to climb Kilimanjaro beyond just my personal dream to do so; plus the donations will support a great organization and help make some people’s lives a little better. Believe it or not, I actually was thinking about all this as I reached the summit! There is a box below the summit sign for mementoes, I put the list of supporters/donors in, and Mick added 2 wrist bands, “Dig Deep” from the Leadville Trail 100, and George’s (Barbara’s husband) “Believe It To See It”.
Woo hoo!!! Me at the summit; thanks for the photo, Mick!
Roger's camera, Paschal took the photo; from the left:
Dismas, Roger, Jo Ann, Mick, Marsh, Louis in front
All too soon, we were heading down. Once we started back the guides relaxed a little. I hung in the back and was able to get my digital camera out and take some photos of the crater and rim. Louis stayed with me and waited very patiently while I kept stopping and looking around and taking pictures. He was using my poles at this point, too. One bonus, I finally got warm since I could move haraka haraka between photos to catch up!
The crater on Kili is large and you can see the ash pit in the crater itself. There are glaciers and ice fields all around the rim. We hiked on snow from Stella Point to
Kili glaciers
Into the crater
Looking back at the route to the summit from Stella Point; the high point seen on the right is a false summit
More views of the crater
Crater and ice fields
Again, all too soon, we were back at Stella Point. I was last to get there and really didn’t want to leave the crater rim! We took a break and removed a few clothing layers. The sun felt good but we knew we would be descending back into the clouds. The way down was steep, now we could see what we had come up in the dark! The scree was deep; you could kind of step and slide through it. I was taking it easy because of my knee – I hadn’t had problems so far, but it was just starting to ache as we climbed down the steeper sections. Not to mention the over 9000 feet of descent ahead of us in the next hours!
My buddy, Louis, patiently waiting while I take yet another photo!
Dismas, smiling as always
Cruising down
Looking back up
Across the clouds, you can barely see the top of Mawenzi
Dismas taking a break
At one point Roger fell off the trail, which fortunately looked worse than it was, he missed all the rocks, but still got credit for a creative fall!!! Then his pack rolled down the trail, so that was a good laugh, especially when one of the guides picked it up and didn’t want him to carry it any longer! Even with a few stops we made it down fairly quickly. About 30 minutes (according to Dismas!) from camp, we met some porters hiking up to a higher camp – many of them congratulated us. We also saw other climbers still heading up – seemed like a late start to me. Eventually saw our camp and started yelling, howling and a couple of whoop-whoops from me (in honor of C4P and H’ard!). We could see
Reached camp at 9: 15 AM. Stanley, our assistant cook (he served all our meals), brought out mango juice as a special treat. At least I think it was mango juice. Anyway, it tasted great! We rested until about 10:30 and packed up so that the porters could break down camp. Ate lunch before continuing the descent; I was feeling depleted, so the food helped me perk up. After all the food descriptions I’ve given so far, I cannot remember what we ate for this meal! Whatever it was, it worked. I do know it wasn’t anything I hate - like peas! Or beans!
While we were eating, it started snowing again! We would hike through snow and then light rain for about the next hour and a half. We left Barafu and headed down the
At some point our group got split up a little and Sharon and I ended up together in front. We had a good time talking and periodically looking back to see or listen for the rest of our group. But we were ready to be done for the day! The trail was sometimes really good and sometimes really rocky. Reached camp at about 3:30 after 4 hours of hiking. We signed in with the ranger and since this camp actually sells stuff like beer, soda, t shirts, he made a point of showing us everything! Sharon and I were like “we’ll be back”, but I knew Roger was looking forward to celebrating the summit with the appropriately named Kilimanjaro beer!
Mweka Camp is right at the edge of the rain forest, so everything was damp. We had an early dinner but, once again, I cannot remember anything I ate! I guess I was tired! Dismas also gathered our guides, cook, and porters so that we could thank them. We all took some photos and shook hands with everyone. Roger promised to buy them all a beer at the gate, which elicited a big cheer!! (Note to Roger: were you actually able to do this at the gate?)
Our wonderful group of 18: guides, cooks, porters
The entire group except Roger, who took the picture
Slept fairly well, the summit already seems like a dream. I am happy and not looking forward to leaving the mountain – except for the hot shower!
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