Lynda's Hiking Adventures: On to Kibo Camp ...

Day 4 of trek - to Kibo Camp

When I woke up on day four, I knew that this would be the hardest and longest day of our trek up the mountain. We would be going from the 12,340 feet Horombo Camp, to Kibo Base Camp at the base of the mountain at 15,430 feet in the arctic temperate zone. The road would be bereft of foliage, the landscape bare. As we re-packed our bags and set out for this hike, there was excitement and anxiety in the air. There was also hunger in the air because the food was so bad most of us stopped eating anything but the bread and boiled eggs! I had also gotten a new nickname - dada kichaa (crazy sister) because I was hanging with mama kichaa and Mo, who was kichaachaachaa! Every time I'd pass a couple of porters, I'd hear them say kichaa (crazy) to me. These new friends were a great, fun group. Jambo Kichaa!

We got our water for the day and headed up, up, up into the arctic zone...

Yup ... it's getting closer!

13,500 feet ... getting closer!

Lunch stop

I think this is Juma, the porter who carried my bag the whole trip

I'm still feeling great!

In "The Saddle" - this lies between the two peaks - Mawenzi and Kibo

Animal life in the saddle

After about a 6 hour hike, we finally arrived at Kibo Camp!

At Kibo Base Camp - 6 hours to Gilman's Point!

Our sleeping quarters at Kibo

We were exhausted and knew that we would only have a few hours to rest before the last leg of our ascent. This was also the beginning of the bad. They had put our group of nine in large quarters that slept 20 people, but right after we got there, that Kilimanjaro Initiative group arrived. There were 27 in their group of adults and teenagers and they wanted the larger quarters. Because we were a very convivial group and saw that they really wanted to stay together, we relinquished our quarters to them thinking that they had somewhere else for us to stay. Well, NOT REALLY! They were apparently overbooked and the only place for us to sleep was the porters quarters. This meant that we were actually taking our porters spots. We were not happy about this, but what could we do at this point?

We set our sleeping bags up, and went for dinner in the small dining hut. We would be leaving in just a few hours for the summit. Exhaustion and excitement were in the air! I was also beginning to feel allergies kick in and one of my eyes was hurting. I took two Allegra to try to head it off.

Days 4.5 and 5 of trek - to the Summit!

We woke up at 11:00 PM for an 11:30 PM start for the summit. Headlamps lit, hiking poles ready and dressed in 5 layers up, 3 layers down with heated packets in our gloves, we started up, up, up. It's a really great thing to do this ascent in the dark because if you saw the trail and how steep it was, you might not go! We went up pole pole (slowly, slowly), using switchback trails. It was the first time I decided to use my poles. My calves and quads were hurting from the steepness and I was extremely thankful for my extra two legs (poles). I was walking slowly and trying to stay awake - not sure if it was the altitude or just the lack of sleep, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open and on the prize of the summit.

One step in front of the other - I kept thinking "this is like having a baby, there WILL BE AN END. By tomorrow I'll be back down and the pain of walking will only be a memory" When I first started thinking of doing this trek, someone said to me "it's just a walk". Yes, it's not a technical climb, but it's more than a walk. It's a walk up the Manayunk Wall x 50. It's a walk up an extremely steep mountain in the middle of the night with lack of sleep and half the oxygen going into your system than at ground level. It's a painful walk that (as I suspected) is like having a baby - you forget about it the day after as you insanely think "I can do that again on a different route".

Six hard, cold, painful hours later we reached Gilman's Point - ALMOST the top of the mountain. There will be two more hours of walking around the crater rim before we reach the true summit, Uhuru Point!

At Gilman's Point - I wanted to stop there, but Omari wouldn't let me (THANK YOU OMARI)

Probably on our way to Stella Point

It would be another hour before we went around the crater to Stella Point. Stella Point is where almost all of the other routes taken get to the almost summit of the mountain.

Stella Point - one hour to summit!

Another hour and I WAS THERE!

I can see it!

Exhaustion and blindness

Here I am!!!!

WE MADE IT!

By now the eye that allergies had affected was swollen (actually, all around it was swollen and I was extremely light sensitive). I felt like I was blind - I had made it up, but how will I make it back down when I kept having to close my eyes from the light?

Also, the time makes no sense up there - 8 hours to summit, 2 hours down? I need a pair of skis or a sled on this mountain! We started making our way back around the crater to Stella Point. Omari saw that I was having an issue - the water tube of my camelback was frozen, I had drunk all of the water in my small insulated cup and I was sitting down on a rock parched and blind ... painfully blind. I felt like there were pins in my left eye and I was trying not to cry.

The way back down - but rest first at Gilmans Point

I have to let people know how amazing these guides are - Omari told me that we would all summit and he was a rock getting us all up there. Dula, Rama and Mohammed had helped one of our group who was having huge issues up the mountain by holding him under each arm - Omari knew that this trekker would be fine once he got there even though he was kind of hallucinating! Our three assistant guides had also taken each of our packs and they were each going up the mountain carrying at least three packs in addition to their own. So, when it was apparent that I couldn't navigate my way down the mountain, Rama took me by the arm to help.

It may not have been a "technical climb", but the trails were ice and snow covered from the storm the day before as were the rocks we had to go down before we got the the scree. Being 4'10" it was kind of a climb down - I'm extremely thankful that I couldn't see those huge rocks we were going up on the way up! Then we got to the scree, or as I thought when my calves stopped hurting from "skiing" down it, the WHEEEEEE! Loose volcanic dirt, you dug your heels in and slid down, right foot, left foot, right foot ... all the time holding onto Rama while my eyes were closed from the light. Stopping to rest and let our calves recover a bit before going again. What we had done as switchbacks on the way up, we were doing straight down on the way down!

Finally, after what felt like forever, I arrived back at Kibo Camp where we were told we could rest until 2:00 (it was 10:15AM at this point). The only problem was that we were in the porters quarters and a whole new contingent was coming in to summit that evening. No sooner did I get into my sleeping bag and close my eyes from complete exhaustion, that a porter came in and told us we had until noon to be out of there! What a horrible feeling to be completely exhausted and not able to rest! By this time it had also started raining again. I woke up at noon, packed my bags and headed to the meal hut for lunch. I had no appetite at all so I think I once again just had coffee for lunch and possibly a bite of a crepe. We were out of apricot jam at this point so it was a dry crepe for me. (note to the tour companies: It doesn't take much to make edible food! I was craving meat that wasn't breakfast hot dog or overcooked squab)

Then we began our faster hike back down to Horombo Camp. As we were heading back down I knew that I could go haraka haraka (quickly) instead of pole pole (slowly) and that made me happy! On the way down we watched our porters carrying our gear back, and several people being taken down the mountain on stretchers with wheels. It was a great reminder that anything could happen! At least one person had a knee injury and couldn't get down on their own and another with extreme altitude sickness. All of us made it up and down again with just a little help, we were lucky.

Quarters at Kibo

Heading back down

Arctic terrain on the way down

Exhausted, back at Horombo Hut

Arctic going into Heath terrain

It seemed to take forever to get back to Horombo Hut - exhausted from the day, I only wanted to get there and get into my sleeping bag! We arrived to find that they couldn't accommodate us as we were before. We ended up being split up into several different huts, but six of us could fit into one long thin hut that didn't have a door that stayed closed. It was cold and damp outside, but I didn't care - just let me wash with my cleansing clothes and get into my sleeping bag! Almost all of us skipped dinner that night and slept. Sweet, sweet, sleep!

Day 6 of trek - back down the mountain

Cold and rainy - that's what we woke up to on our final day on Kilimanjaro. I knew that at the bottom of the mountain it was warm and tropical, but that didn't help now! I was hoping to pack all of my cold weather gear, but no, that wasn't to be.

So ... after another bad breakfast we started down the mountain on our way through the Heath zone to Mandara Hut where we would have lunch. Haraka Haraka I was running and jumping over puddles, jumping from rock to rock. I was so happy that I could finally go "Lynda speed"! I thought nothing about what I was doing to my knees or how it would affect me the next day ... ouch! We headed down, down, down stopping for that lunch before taking the porters road down to the entrance of the park. We saw cows along the way and monkeys (although I didn't get a good picture of the monkeys)