Just got back from Tanzania. After climbing Kilimanjaro
(amazing) we headed to Zanzibar (gorgeous) for a couple days before returning
back to Cameroon. I can’t believe how developed east Africa is compared to west
Africa. Tanzania made Cameroon look really bad. In any case, I only have about
3 months left and have tons of work to do, but my mother has persistently urged
me to provide a write-up of my experience.. so here is a shoddy yet final
version!
The moment of truth had finally arrived. As I boarded the
plane for Tanzania in Yaounde, Cameroon, I felt grossly unprepared. Though I consider myself decently athletic, I
am not at all what you’d call an ‘outdoorsman’. In fact, I’m much the opposite. I’d never been camping, and certainly had never
undertaken any task of this nature. Fortunately Caleb, my climbing buddy, loves rocks grass dirt and Eddie Bauer, so he balanced me out.
Caleb and I had spent
countless hours planning the climb up mount Kilimanjaro, and even more time in
organizing our fundraising campaign, Climb Kili for Literacy. We had
successfully been able to raise all the funds thanks to several selfless
donors. We even had a website with all the details of our project and endeavour.
It inevitably became a very public affair. Now if I don’t make it to the top, it would be beyond embarrassing.
We flew to Nairobi and then to Kilimanjaro International
Airport in Moshi, Tanzania. Minutes before touch down, we caught the first
glimpse of our adversary. Mount Kilimanjaro looked massive, towering well above
cloud cover. It seemed difficult to fathom that I’d be attempting to summit there. We
touched down in Moshi and found the tour company we’d been corresponding with.
Every climber is obligated to hire a guide, and we went with the budget tour
package offered by Tro-Peaks.
There are several routes one can choose from when summiting
Kilimanjaro. They range from easier hiking routes(Marangu) to very difficult
technical climbs (Umbwe). We went with one of the difficult hiking routes,
Lemosho, known for its beauty. We tried to negotiate a 6-day package with
several tour companies (so we could have more time in Zanzibar after the
climb), but were advised against it due to difficulty and had to settle for a 7
day instead. We actually ended up completing the climb in 5 days, though we came
to fully understand the tour operator’s advice! We arrived in Moshi on July 7th
and stayed in a hotel there the same night. We planned to depart for the
mountain about 9am the next day.
Day one of the climb, we ate breakfast, assembled our gear,
rented a tent, sleeping bags, and a couple other items, and left for the
Lemosho trailhead with our crew. Our crew consisted of porters, a guide, and a
cook, all of whom we got to know pretty well over the length of our climb. Once
we arrived, we strapped on our day packs (20-30 lbs) and began. The first day was spent
entirely in the rain forest where we got to see tons of unique vegetation,
Elephant tracks, even more Elephant dung, and lots of monkeys (the black and
white colombos monkey and blue monkey). We arrived at camp about 3.5 hours
later and settled there for the night. Our cook, Kombo, prepared a delicious
meal of potatoes and tilapia.
The 2nd day was rough. We got out of camp at about 7am and
started our way up the mountain. We had slept at about 8,000 feet the night
before and would be settling at about 12,000 feet on the second night. We
trekked through more gorgeous rainforest, then at slightly higher elevation,
moorland (which are dense short shrubs), then finally entered semi-arid desert
by the end of the day. The diversity of ecology throughout the climb is one of
the things that makes Kilimanjaro so incredible. What made the 2nd day tough were
the extreme inclines and declines throughout the trek. We had to traverse what
was left of an ancient volcano that had exploded; first hiking over the rim and
then down into the crater, known as the Shira plateau. At about the 6th
hour, I felt a sharp pain in my knee, right about where I had torn my LCL in
college. I was pretty worried because it was only the 2nd day and we
still had so long to go.. I thought it would only get worse. The last hour I
practically limped to camp. Our camp was above cloud cover and allowed an amazing
view. That night was very cold… as was the 3rd and especially 4th night.
The 3rd day we got up and out of camp again at
about 7am. The cold nights made it nearly impossible to sleep but I still felt decent. I took some Ibuprofen and wrapped my knee. I decided to use a
walking stick (I had picked it up on the second day in the Moorland area) to
ease the pressure. We hiked up to Lava
Tower, a volcanic plug, at 15,000 ft, ate lunch there, and then hiked down to
our next camp, Barafu, at about 13,000 feet.
It was again a 6-7 hour hike. Luckily my knee held together and I felt
pretty good. On the way to our 3rd
camp, we crossed a valley full of a plant species endemic to Mount Kilimanjaro.
Very cool. The camp the 3rd night offered the
most spectacular view I’ve ever seen. We were right under the snowcapped peak
of Kili, with a green valley watered by glacier water on our left, barren rock
on our right, and a sea of clouds downhill behind us.
I woke up the 4th day with a headache and feeling a
bit sick. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the altitude or the frigid
temperatures at night. Either way, I
found this day to be downright miserable. We again started very early in the
morning and climbed up the Baranco wall, which was a high ridge on one side of
the valley where we camped. It involved some ‘scrambling’ and moderate climbing
but nothing too extreme. I had fractured my right arm a couple weeks back and
it was still healing, so I avoided using it and awkwardly made my way up. We
then hiked up and down a bunch of ridges, approaching the base of the summit.
We finally settled at Baranco camp at 15,000 feet, from which we would climb
straight to the summit at over 19,400 feet.
We arrived at the camp at about 3pm after about 7 hours of hiking. We
tried to dry our clothes and prep for the summit attempt which would be the
same night. I felt especially crappy and went into the tent and got into my
sleeping bag. I took some meds and went to sleep at around 9pm, hoping to feel
better within a couple hours somehow.
We woke up at 11:30 pm the same day and had some tea and biscuits. Miraculously, I felt normal again. We packed on every single layer we had and tried to insulate ourselves as best we could. I am going to pause here and tell you about our ghetto gear situation.
We woke up at 11:30 pm the same day and had some tea and biscuits. Miraculously, I felt normal again. We packed on every single layer we had and tried to insulate ourselves as best we could. I am going to pause here and tell you about our ghetto gear situation.
Caleb and I are Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa
without access to many first-world amenities; such as cold weather clothing.
Our “gear” was basically a random assortment of whatever we could find at the
Ngaoundere fripperie. Thus, on the night of the summit, we were both wearing
about 4 layers of random long sleeve shirts with ski jackets. On our legs, we
were wearing about 3 layers of pants, one of which the tour provider
fortunately contributed. Out of all the
white people on the mountain that day, we looked, by far, the most ridiculous
and ill-equipped. I wouldn’t have it any
other way.
Unpause. We left at about 12:20 am. Caleb had the good
fortune of falling ill at this point; I’ll save you the unsavory yet comical
details for now. The hike essentially felt like a death march. At such high altitude,
every step took more effort and breathing was labored. This is probably the
only time during the excursion that I felt like I really might not be able to
do it. Caleb and I barely spoke at all.. instead focusing on just trying to
make it up. The most ridiculous thing about the summit night was that the peak
was deceptively far. I remember looking up to the top of the ridge to see how
far we had left. We’d arrive at the top of the ridge about an hour later,
completely exhausted, only to find an even steeper and taller ridge than the
last. This happened several times. Finally, we
arrived to Shira point, which is at the lip of the volcanic crater of
Kilimanjaro. We then had to walk around the lip of the crater about 45 minutes
to Uhuru peak, at 19,400 feet, the highest point in Africa.
By the time we reached Uhuru peak, it was about 4:45 am.
Caleb and I were freezing, exhausted, and a bit delirious. So much so that we
stayed at the peak for no more than about 90 seconds, took as many pictures as
possible, and promptly began the descent.
The descent from summit was MUCH better. Caleb and I were completely
pumped that we’d made it to the top. Our guide took us down the ‘express route’
down from the summit, which was a side of the mountain essentially composed of
volcanic gravel. We basically skied down
in our hiking boots, though Caleb was much better at this than I was.. I bit it
at least 7 times. On our way down we also caught a spectacular sunrise and
amazing view. We reached the base camp at about 7:25am and recuperated while we
waited for breakfast.
We rested, dried off, ate breakfast, and at about 9am,
decided to continue all the way down the mountain. We were completely drained,
but since we still had the entire day ahead of us, we really had no
excuse. The way down was very painful on
the feet and knees. My knee pain had returned and was super irritating. Although the increase in oxygen did wonders for us. We
hiked down a different part of the mountain this time, and got to walk through
a beautiful cloud forest. We arrived at
the gate at the bottom of the mountain completely starving and fatigued at 3:40
pm, concluding about 13 hours of hiking for the day and our long awaited climb of mount Kilimanjaro
Payce
