Hakuna Shida Kilimanjaro Summit 19.5k 10/1/18
I was really nervous when we laying down to go to bed last night. I have been thinking about this day for many months I am wondering if I can do it, and knowing I had to do it. We went to bed right after dinner then told us to wake up at 11:30, drink some hot tea at midnight, and be ready to start the hike at 12:30. My alarm didn’t go off but no problems because Jaffa was on top of it. It was really cold last night but our sleeping bags kept us warm. The cold helped us put on our 5+ layers of clothes that we needed for the hike today we drink our tea and ate biscuits trying to be ready for what was ahead.
It was time to go, Ben left with us and Michael was quickly getting ready. We started walking through camp in the dark with our headlamps, heading toward the trail. We could see many headlamps already on the trail of the mountain. Ben calculated our departure time based on how fast he thought we would walk, pretty quickly, and us reaching the peak around sunrise. We both had our parka on and those in addition to all the layers we had on, it was pretty hot when we started walking. I thought I had overdressed for the occasion, especially as we passed the first group of hikers. The first part of the hike was steep rocky trail of about 300 feet. Ben told us to be prepared to pass people, to hold our breath so that our hearts wouldn’t race hard and we will get exhausted. We passed one, two, many many groups the entire way up the mountain. Some were very welcoming and moved to the side to let us go by, others stayed on their slow track and we had to take a shortcut running directly up the mountain. At first it was exciting, then I got hot and I knew but it would sweat, and you don’t want to be sweating when you’re summiting a peek. However, hiking behind a group where you take a step and then stop, take another step then stop, was no way to summit either. So we stuck with Ben passing everybody except for one group.
After the first Rocky part, The rest of the mountain was sand and gravel and a very steep incline. Some parts had switchbacks, others you were just going straight up. We couldn’t see anything as it was pitch black outside, it was probably better that way since we didn’t see the incredible path ahead of us. Ben told us not to ask how much longer, but we would never do that anyways, get there when you get there if you ask that usually is bad news that nobody wants to hear. Ben prepared us that we would probably make it up the mountain to Stella point in five hours, and then an hour or so traverse to the peak.
The hike was hard and not just because of the incline but it was cold, really cold as the wind started to blow. Through the majority of a hike all I could think about was how I’m going to stay warm when we Summit. I figured I would lose feelings in my toes and likely my fingers which is a common occurrence. Then there was the fact that I needed to use the bathroom really bad. Peeing on the side of the mountain isn’t a big deal but anything else when it’s that cold out would be a problem so I just didn’t happen. We didn’t stop for water very often, not as much as we should have. We didn’t really eat either, we had a couple shot box with 50 g of caffeine.
I’ve never felt the impact of those blocks like I did on the site, it was an immediate impact and I definitely helped us when we needed it. Ben didn’t want us drinking a lot of water or have much food in our stomachs when we were doing such a big hike. As we walked up there were several groups of people who called it quits and walked off the mountain. When we were passing people the four of us just had our heads down and we kept instead we moved quickly up the mountain focused on our goal.
The hike was hard and not just because of the incline but it was cold, really cold as the wind started to blow. Through the majority of a hike all I could think about was how I’m going to stay warm when we Summit. I figured I would lose feelings in my toes and likely my fingers which is a common occurrence. Then there was the fact that I needed to use the bathroom really bad. Peeing on the side of the mountain isn’t a big deal but anything else when it’s that cold out would be a problem so I just didn’t happen. We didn’t stop for water very often, not as much as we should have. We didn’t really eat either, we had a couple shot box with 50 g of caffeine.I’ve never felt the impact of those blocks like I did on the site, it was an immediate impact and I definitely helped us when we needed it. Ben didn’t want us drinking a lot of water or have much food in our stomachs when we were doing such a big hike. As we walked up there were several groups of people who called it quits and walked off the mountain. When we were passing people the four of us just had our heads down and we kept instead we moved quickly up the mountain focused on our goal.
Wondering how much longer for us, there are no signs of sunlight anywhere in the sky I figured we had many more hours. When Ben said we have about 45 minutes to Stella Point, I was super excited, I thought oh hell yes I can really do this. When we got to the point we celebrated and gave each other congratulatory hugs, it almost felt like we had made it because we knew the last hour wasn’t supposed to be difficult. Actually, I think that last hour was the most difficult. We were at 19,000 feet, Ben was walking slowly and the sun still wasn’t coming up, it is fucking cold. Andy didn’t have gloves on, it was -5°F, but that of course did not include the windchill factor obviously had a huge impact. On my way I was doing a weird shaking walk just to try to keep warm and not lose the feeling in my extremities. When we got closer to Uhuru peak, we could see the sun starting to come up on the horizon. Thank fucking God the sun was finally starting to come up, I needed some more.
When we got to the peak the sun barely out that was not providing any sunlight. No worries, Andy didn’t have gloves on he got out his phone and was able to use flash which was just what we needed, because we needed to get pictures and get the hell down. It was nice but it was only one other small group at the top, I can imagine it would be a shit show tons of groups up there. After about 10 minutes we got off the peak. The sun was rising and the scenes around us were more beautiful than we had imagined. It turns out hitting the peak just before sunrise was perfect because as we did our celebratory hike down the mountain, we could see all the beauties the mountain had to offer with the sunrise colors. The people hiking off the mountain were not saying this I guarantee that. We took pictures of the large glacier, the interesting formations the snow had made on the ground, and the sun rising above the clouds.
As we passed people coming up the hill we congratulated them and they congratulated us back. It was such a wonderful feeling to know that we did it not to mention the beauty that we had to see on top of the mountain. When the sun came out and got warm quickly, which is what we all needed as cold as we were. The 10 min our faces were in direct sun at that altitude burned us. We had so much energy from reaching the peak that we were quickly walking down the mountain and then we hit the steep decline that we had just walked up. It’s really strange to finally see the path we were not fully able to see before in the pitch black. It was very slippery on the sand gravel because in many parts it was ice that was starting to fall under the gravel. We were also very aware of the girl that broke her arm the day before and she slipped coming off the mountain. As we got closer to the bottom, several of the porters or walking up to meet us. It was really amazing of them to make the effort that they did, they brought us guava juice and were there to take the bags Andy and I had given Ben and Michael during the ascent.
As we passed people coming up the hill we congratulated them and they congratulated us back. It was such a wonderful feeling to know that we did it not to mention the beauty that we had to see on top of the mountain. When the sun came out and got warm quickly, which is what we all needed as cold as we were. The 10 min our faces were in direct sun at that altitude burned us. We had so much energy from reaching the peak that we were quickly walking down the mountain and then we hit the steep decline that we had just walked up. It’s really strange to finally see the path we were not fully able to see before in the pitch black. It was very slippery on the sand gravel because in many parts it was ice that was starting to fall under the gravel. We were also very aware of the girl that broke her arm the day before and she slipped coming off the mountain. As we got closer to the bottom, several of the porters or walking up to meet us. It was really amazing of them to make the effort that they did, they brought us guava juice and were there to take the bags Andy and I had given Ben and Michael during the ascent.
We reach the camp and the rest of the porters were there and everybody say some celebratory songs for us. I danced and it took all of my energy and it was fun and much appreciated since they were such a big part of getting us into the peak. I had another Major headache in the works so Andy was kind enough to pack our sleeping bag as I try not to move in fear of not being able to get out of this camp. It took the rest of the energy we had to pack our bags and then we had an amazing brunch with pancakes, A mixture of eggs and french fries, a tomato and cucumber salad, and soup. We actually weren’t really hungry which was weird considering all the energy I just spent. But we ate anyways and we were glad we did as a gave us energy to get down to the next camp. We decided since it was early that we would make our way down to the second camp in the Heather forest for us. When we agreed to go to the site, we didn’t really have an idea how challenging it would be. We thought it was going to be a stroll downhill, boy was I wrong. We descended all the way down to the 9000 feet camp over boulders over uneven rock, and all of that was extremely steep. Along the way we found the one wheeled stretchers that were on shocks they use to carry ill tourists off the mountain or to a place where a helicopter can pick them up.
We were the first to Mweka Camp and it was lush and moist. We were beat and went to bed early. Glad I’ve done all those damn squats to prep for the lunges we had to do down the mountain. Going down is always harder. Today was a success and we are more than happy with our achievement.