Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro

Today is the start of a four-day weekend (it’s a Cameroonian holiday: Youth Day), so I’m going to try and finally get some photos posted from our Tanzania trip.

We left Yaoundé on December 19 and met up with our friend Nic Milani in the Kenya airport.  (Nic went to high school and college with Brian and now lives in Detroit.)  There are two main options for getting from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania: an 8-10-hour bus ride or a 50-minute flight.  Since we’d be starting our hike the following day, we thought the flight was a much better choice.  When we saw the actual plane, though, we had our doubts. 

It was a 12-seater, and we were the last three people to get on.  Nic jokingly asked the pilot if he could sit shotgun, and the pilot said sure, no problem.  Awesome…but is that really allowed? 
We actually tried not to think about several aspects of that flight until we were safely on the ground.  Luckily there were plenty of interesting distractions, including our first view of Kilimanjaro poking through the clouds. 
Here is another shot from the drive from the airport to our hotel in Arusha—pretty crazy to think we’d be at the top of that mountain in only a few days. 

Before I start detailing the hike itself, I want to put in a major plug for the company we used for both our climb and for the safari afterwards, Duma Explorers.  Our friend Santos had raved about them after he did the climb last year, especially about a certain topic near and dear to our hearts: food.  Santos told us stories about homemade soup, pineapple fritters, chicken stew, and omelets.  Already sold, we became increasingly convinced as he talked about their knowledgeable guides, top-of-the-line equipment, and flexible schedules.  Now that we’ve traveled with Duma ourselves, we second Santos’s enthusiasm.  Every part of the trip was so well organized, and it made us feel like every penny we paid (which was a lot for our teacherly budget) was worth it.  Ok, now on to the hike…

DAY 1

There are several routes to choose from when climbing Kili, and we went with the Machame route (aka the “whiskey” route) after hearing it was the most scenic and not as crowded as the easier Marangu (“coca cola”) route.  Here is the Machame gate at the trailhead where we met up with our guides and porters. 
Kilimanjaro is one of Tanzania’s national parks and consequently has many regulations in terms of hiking; the key rule is that you are required to travel with certified guides and must use porters.  We assumed this meant we’d have one guide and three porters—one for each of our larger bags.  You can imagine our surprise, then, when we met our guide, assistant guide, cook, waiter (yep, I said waiter), and NINE other porters!  This began our running joke: how many Tanzanians does it take to get three Americans up a mountain?  J 

After our head guide, Thomas, got us registered at the gate, we started the first leg of the hike through the forest.  (This is our assistant guide, Oscar, in the photo with us.) 
Kilimanjaro has several “zones,” each of which has its own kind of beauty.  The forest level is notable for its beautiful plants, including one species known as the elephant flower (see the trunk?), which only grows on the slopes of this mountain. 

When we got to our first campsite, Machame Camp, we registered at the rangers’ hut (as would become the routine at the end of each day’s hike). 
Other routines were also established, including afternoon teatime with popcorn, cookies, tea, hot chocolate, and coffee.  Everything was great except the instant coffee, but Nic had that covered with his several packages of Starbucks on-the-go he’d brought from home. 
You can see Nic’s traveling pharmacy in the bottom corner of the photo.  While he took quite the cocktail of pain relievers, muscle relaxants, and vitamins, all three of us benefitted from prescriptions for the generic version of Diamox, a pill that helps prevent altitude sickness.  (Another little plug: if you ever decide to climb Kilimanjaro, take this medicine!  We saw so many people who just looked miserable as we got farther into the climb, and almost without fail, the other groups we chatted with who weren’t feeling sick were all taking Diamox.  We figured it was a trip we’d never be able to afford again, so we might as well do everything we could to be sure we made it to the top.)

Turns out Santos was right about the food, by the way, as we could tell from our very first appetizer.  Let’s just say we don’t usually carry whole avocados when we backpack. 
In fact, there were a lot of things about this climb that went against Brian’s usual rules for “roughing it” in the wilderness.  Since he usually takes great pride in things like drinking our dish water (I refuse), the several-course meals we had on this trip were initially hard for him to justify.  I, on the other hand, found that I adjusted quite nicely.  J

DAY 2

Another daily ritual that seemed ridiculous at first but which we quickly began to look forward to was “bed tea;” this was when Hamisi (our waiter) woke us up at 7:00 each morning and brought us hot tea to drink in our sleeping bags.  Half an hour later, he’d bring hot water for washing, and then we’d finally drag ourselves out of bed for a breakfast of porridge, eggs, and sausage.  Like I said, pretty easy to get used to, as you can see by our relaxed morning smiles in this photo. 

Here’s a view of the still very distant summit as we began our second day of hiking. 
We were out of the forest by now, and the terrain was mostly heather and shrubs. 

It started clouding over that afternoon, and we kept saying we should stop to put on pack covers and rain jackets, but then it would clear up again.  Eventually, it started to pour, and we got pretty soaked.  Luckily, I’m married to Brian—Mr. Prepared for Anything.  When we had packed for the trip, I teased him for bringing his bear line that we use to hang food when we’re in the western U.S., and he shushed me by saying you never know when you’ll need rope.  He was right, and the bear line turned into a wet clothes line which we strung around the mess tent. 
Speaking of the mess tent, here’s how our campsite was set up.  In this photo you can see the guides’ tent in the background and the tent where we ate and hung out in the front. 
The two yellow tents below are where Brian, Nic, and I slept, and the little gray thing in between them is the toilet tent.  Yes, the porters hiked up a toilet for us.  Well, technically it was a bucket, but it was our own private bucket, and it was quite the luxury! 
Finally, this is the tent where Matata (the cook) prepared all the meals, and it’s also where the other porters slept each night.  It’s actually a huge tent—it goes out pretty far in the back—but it’s hard to really see the scale in this photo. 

After several hours of rain, it cleared up around 5:00 that day, and we decided to walk around the camp for a while.  Hamisi was distressed that we were going to be gone for teatime, so he insisted we eat some popcorn before we left. 
We enjoyed all of our crewmembers, but Hamisi was our favorite.  We ended up going out for dinner and drinks in Arusha with him (and our guides) after the trip was over and just had a great time chatting about this and that.  He’s training to be a guide some day and learning German to make himself more marketable—with his warm personality and sense of humor, I know he’ll do a great job.

It was a beautiful evening, and Nic was happy to be out exploring. 
This will be a theme for this post, but Kilimanjaro is just an amazing mountain.  It’s so big!  Not just in terms of height, which is obvious, but in terms of surface area; the diversity of the terrain consistently amazed me.  Shira Camp is still in the heather region, and there are several little streams like this one all around it. 
The mountain seemed to go on forever, though, as you can see here—that’s ALL part of Kilimanjaro! 
The whole area is just gorgeous.  Here’s a sunset view of Mt. Meru in the distance. 
As the sun went down on our second day, Brian took this shot of the still faraway peak. 

DAY 3

This was our longest day of hiking other than the summit day, and it began with a stretch of boulder fields.  There were many cairns along the way, and Brian made sure to take some photos for his father-in-law, who has an obsession with them.  No Andy Goldsworthy, though—sorry, Dad. 
Day 3 was the most important day for acclimatization; we hiked up to about 15,000 feet but then went back down along a different side of the mountain to around 13,000 feet to camp.  As we gained elevation, it started to snow!  Brian and I hadn’t seen snow for two years, so we were thrilled; although it didn’t stick, if you look closely you can see it falling behind me. 
The highest point of the day afforded us this incredible view of the summit—pretty daunting. 
The porters surprised us by hiking the cooking tent up to this point. 
We felt pretty spoiled with our lunch of tortilla soup and grilled cheese with peppers…especially when it started sleeting outside, and we were all cozy and warm in the tent! 
This part of the hike is known as Lava Tower because of this huge lava formation behind us.  It’s also called “the hospital” because of the height—people who are going to have real issues with altitude sickness usually feel it by now.  Thanks to the Diamox and plenty of water, we all felt fine. 
As we descended towards Barranco Camp, the landscape changed again as the rocky trail wove between these spiky little plants. 

Eventually, we were surrounded by these trees called Senecio; this species only grows on Kilimanjaro, and it looks like a cactus, except the whole area is completely rain-soaked. 
More than anything, they reminded me of the truffula trees from that Dr. Seuss book “The Lorax.” 
It was drizzling again as we reached the campsite, but this time we had been smart and started the day with our rain gear, so we stayed nice and dry. 
We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking hot chocolate and waiting for the rain to let up. 
When it finally did, we were rewarded with the best evening light of the whole trip.  In this photo you can see the Barranco Wall to the right, which we would be climbing the following day.  (You can also see the toilet tent in the bottom left.) J 
This is looking the opposite direction—I love all the mist rising off the ridge. 
And here is one more shot Brian took when the sun had almost set.  Again, what a beautiful mountain! 

DAY 4

As I mentioned, we started this day by climbing the Barranco Wall.  This meant no trekking poles, as we had to use our hands quite a bit to pull ourselves up.   As usual, though, we were humbled as we watched the porters do the same thing…carrying about five times the amount of weight. 
It was another wet day of hiking, but we didn’t let it dampen our spirits. 
Even though this was the most technical (and it still wasn’t that bad) day of hiking, it was also one of the shortest.  When we arrived at Karanga Camp, we had a Christmas Eve toast with our energy bars.  Very festive. 
It was cold all the time by this day, since we were at almost 14,000 feet.  This led to many dilemmas like this one: Do I really need to go to the bathroom badly enough to venture outside? 
It was a bit cloudy that evening, but here is a shot of the summit—we were definitely getting closer. 
That night at dinner, we all chatted about our families’ Christmas traditions and wished we were there with them.  Nic tried to get Brian and I to sing Christmas carols, but we were pretty beat.  Since the toilet was near Nic’s tent, though, he did convince me to sing backup to his rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” while I used the facilities.  It was a special holiday moment. J 

DAYS 5 & 6

Day 5 was our last day of hiking before our summit attempt.  We reached base camp (Barafu Camp—15,100 feet) by lunchtime and added some extra layers to keep ourselves warm. 
We spent our Christmas afternoon in the mess tent playing poker for Brian’s invented currency of picolochingflungs.  Here's Brian and the victorious Man of Mystery. 
Brian had started to get a headache because of the altitude, so he divided his time between cards and focused hydration.  It made me laugh the way he had strung up his water—I thought it looked like an I.V. 
We had an early dinner of green pepper soup, pasta with mushroom sauce, and fruit for dessert, and then went to bed around 6:00 to try and rest up for the big night ahead of us.

Hamisi woke us up at 11:30 that night, and we ate a light “breakfast” before donning all our layers and strapping on our headlamps.  We began our ascent a little after midnight, knowing it would be about six hours before we’d reach the summit.  This was by far the hardest part of the whole trip, as the trail up to the crater rim is incredibly steep; the incline combined with the altitude, the slippery conditions, and the limited light from our headlamps meant the next five hours gave new meaning to the word “trudge.”  In those five hours we gained over 4,000 feet, and although the Diamox kept us from feeling sick, we were very aware of the altitude.  It’s difficult for your body to digest food at that height, so to keep our strength up, we ate little energy gels that Nic had brought with him.  They didn’t taste as bad as I expected, and they helped keep us from feeling too fatigued—along with plenty of water, of course.

Some time around 5:30, the darkness began to seem less encompassing, and light appeared on the horizon.  We were watching the sunrise from ABOVE the clouds—unbelievable. 
The place where the crater rim starts is called Stella Point, and we reached it at just about this same time. 
We only had one hour left before the summit, but that didn’t make us feel any warmer.  Brian and I could tell we’d been softened by the weather in Cameroon—we needed our hearty Iowa blood to kick in! 
Our guides, on the other hand, are used to the weather and make this climb at least twice a month.  Here is Thomas celebrating the daylight near a glacier. 
The ethereal setting inspired us as we slowly made our way along the rim.  We only gained about 300 feet in the last hour, but we had to stop every few steps to catch our breath because of the altitude.  Here is a shot looking back along the path we’d just walked. 
We reached the summit at about 6:30—we had made great time and were so proud! 
You can see the sign better in this photo. 
Those six hours from base camp to Uhuru Peak were some of the most difficult I’ve ever experienced, but the rush of adrenaline when we realized we were going to make it was incredible.

We lingered at the summit for about half an hour since the wind wasn’t too strong (our guides said we were lucky in that respect), and we took tons of photos from the top and on our way back down.  Here is another shot of a glacier; if you enlarge it you can see how clear the blue coloring is in the ice. 
This is looking across the caldera. 
And these next two are looking back down the mountain.  I think it was a good thing we didn’t realize just how steep it was in the dark.  Yikes! 

Like I’ve said before, Kilimanjaro is enormous.  This photo shows Mawenzi Peak, which is one of the mountain’s three peaks.  It blows my mind that it’s all the same landmass. 
Here is one last shot of the descent (with Mawenzi in the background).  We couldn’t get over how breathtaking the clouds were.  I will never forget how grateful we felt to be able to stand there and see that view with that lighting.  Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 
We needed that rush to carry us through the rest of day 6, as we still had a long way to go after reaching the summit.  It took us about three hours to descend back to base camp where we had a quick snack before taking a two-hour nap and then eating lunch.  After lunch, we packed up and continued hiking for another four hours down to Mweka Camp.  This was probably the least fun part of the trip for me, as it was very slippery and my legs were still exhausted from the climb that morning. 

DAY 7

The next morning we marveled at how different the landscape was from where we’d been only a day before. 
Since this was the last day of the trip, our crew gathered after breakfast to sing us their song about the mountain where they spend so many of their days. 
Working as a guide or porter is obviously hard work, but they all said that it beats many of the alternatives, and the company we used, Duma, pays much fairer wages than many of the other ones.  I asked Thomas and Oscar if they still get excited when they reach the summit, and they both gave an emphatic yes, saying each time is different and just makes them love Kilimanjaro more deeply.

One reason we chose the Machame route back when we were researching this trip is that it goes up one side of the mountain and down another; this means every day provided new scenery and let us see another region of this vast ecosystem.  The forest was similar to where we began our hike… 
…but this section of it is inhabited by colobus monkeys.  We glimpsed several of them, and although they blended in with the trees, you can see this one in the middle of the photo (they’re black and white). 
Here’s a closer shot of a family of them. 
This last day was a fairly quick hike out to Mweka gate, where we were besieged with local kids asking us to pay them to clean our muddy boots.  We were happy to oblige, and both parties were satisfied with the results.  Now we just needed to return to the hotel and shower off seven days’ worth of grime.

Well, that about does it, and if you managed to read all the way to the bottom of this post, I’m impressed.  This is one of those occasions where writing these blog entries is just as much for me as it is for our family and friends; it’s so much fun to look back at our photos, and reflecting on the trip helps me process everything we saw.  It was an amazing week, and what was even more amazing is that our Tanzania visit was only halfway done!  Safari photos to follow soon…