Jambo, Kilimanjaro!

According to our guide, the most common translation for "Kilimanjaro" is "a big hill with some snow on the top". After being up at 19,341ft and living to tell the tale, I can assure you it's WAY more than that. As you can tell by virtue of me writing this, we made it. Kaka ("brother") Greg, dada ("sister") Jackie and I summited Uhuru peak just before 7AM on July 26, 2012. Well, the two of them summited just before 7AM. I was more like 7-something, as I, ironically, ended up being "one of those poor saps who suffers from altitude sickness" whom I referred to in my last blog entry. Awesome. Some of you (Mom) may want to know what it was like. What follows below is the story of three work colleagues, who became friends and are now family, getting to the top of the world's tallest free-standing mountain...

(Important note: My friends are much more technologically advanced than I am, and dada Jackie has this awesome device to hook up a camera's memory card to an iPad...so...drumroll please...all of the photos you see in the blog going forward will be my own! WOOHOO! Now back to the story.....)

After much deliberation and emailing back and forth with our tour agency, ZARA Tanzania Adventures, our little crew decided on the Machame Route. While Machame is typically done in six days, we had some advice from a friend (THANK YOU, RAGEPORT) that doing the climb in seven days would allow for additional recovery of any ill effects from altitude sickness incurred on the way up. Note: for all of you future Kili climbers, heed this advice. Trust us - it's worth it. Day One had us up and at 'em early, arriving at the Machame gate around 10AM, led by our handsome and energetic guide, Joseph (nicknamed "Photo" because of all of the tourists constantly asking him to snap their picture), and our assistant guide, Joel (whom we called "Joe" the entire time by mistake...um...oops). The first day's hike was a manageable 4.5 hours through dense rainforest up a surprisingly well-manicured trail. We reached the camp at around 5PM, were welcomed by freshly-popped popcorn (a daily treat), and shown to our tents. And our private bathroom. Yes, private bathroom. It was one porter's job (our buddy Jerome) to carry a toilet for us every day, all the way up to our last camp at 4,700M. Bless him. Dinner. A round of cards. Bed.
At Machame Gate, ready to hit the trail!


Perhaps a little too excited about our private toilet:


Our first dinner (Deo, our cook, totally rocked and the food was delicious):



On Day Two, we transitioned to the Heather / Moorlands region of Kili. The Machame trail is unique in that it wraps around the peak and shows off a variety of landscapes. As opposed to the rainforest, the Moorlands were much rockier, and the vegetation transitioned to coarse shrubbery and fields of "everlasting flowers", a genus (species? anyone? whatever) of flower that grows on the mountain year-round. Here's a visual:


The hike to Shira Camp, at 3,800M, was short, and we arrived by lunch time. A nap followed lunch, then we were excited to explore the one and only Shira Cave! "Wow," we thought, "a big cave right here in the side of Mount Kilimanjaro? Amazing!". Let's just say Shira Cave wasn't quite what we thought. Here it is in all of its magnificence:


Yeah. But the lack of a cool cave was TOTALLY compensated for by the view from our campsite, and the incredible sunset we got treated to that night.
View:


Sunset:


Day Three brought the heat, the cold, and the headache. I started to feel a little brain pain coming on at the end of the second day, and began to take Diamox for altitude sickness (I avidly protested this at first, thinking the meds made me a wuss, but would not have made it to the top without them...thanks, Diamox!). The third day had us hiking up to Lava Tower Rock, at 4,600M, then back down to Barranco Camp where we'd sleep at 3,850M. Pretty sure I spoke, at most, 7-8 words during the entire 7-hour hike. One word an hour. Seriously. And for those of you who have ever spent an hour with me, you know that's REALLY WEIRD. My head was pounding, I was short of breath, and felt nauseated throughout the entire day. I only started to feel better after taking four ibuprofen and lying in the tent listening to James Taylor for a few hours after the hike was over. If you haven't listened to James Taylor recently, go and do it now. I had totally forgotten about the guy, but one afternoon made me a superfan all over again. God, I love James Taylor.
Our team hiking from Lava Tower Rock down to Barranco Camp:


Aside from the horrible altitude sickness, Day Three was notable because we came to the realization that most of the words and names from "The Lion King" are actually used in Swahili. For example, people really do use "Hakuna Matata" in conversation. "Simba" means "lion". And "Rafiki" means "friend". Apparently "Nala" doesn't mean anything (I asked), but to make up for that one, our guide taught me how to say "let's go, white people!", which I happily shouted each time we got up to hike. The porters got a real kick out of that. Speaking of porters, these dudes are just AMAZING. They carry a backpack full of their own stuff, then they carry your stuff in a bag ON THEIR HEAD. And still run by you on the trail to have your camp set up before you arrive. Incredible.
Porters scaling Barranco Wall:


Day Four arrived, and I felt about a THOUSAND times better and ready to tackle Barranco Wall, a vertical rock face that marks the beginning of the trail to Karanga ("Peanut"...unclear why the name is relevant) Valley Camp. This was the most fun hiking of the trip for me. I love a good day of rock scrambling. So fun. Plus, when we got to the top of the wall, it looked like this:





We made our way across the now-barren landscape (see below) to Karanga Valley Camp, where we did an afternoon acclimatization hike and hit the sack early. Well, early-ish, as usual, since we had by this point moved into one tent due to the FREEZING COLD night temps (think Fahrenheit teens) and stayed up trading stories, telling jokes, and peeing 1,000 times from all the water we were drinking to stave off altitude-induced dehydration.
Hiking to Karanga. Pretty sure 76% of this dust is currently under my fingernails:


On Day Five, we made our way to the highest camp of the hike, Barafu, at 4,700M. We'd be waking up at 11PM to start our ascent to the summit at midnight, so we tried to get to bed early. But the porters jamming out to reggae and shouting in Swahili, the crew of middle-aged Belgians up chatting in the tent next to us, and the excitement of getting ourselves to the top of this...


...made it difficult to sleep. Just one short hour after we finally drifted off, our waiter, Adam, was waking us up with hot tea. It was time to start our ascent.

To say that it's "cold" on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro is a drastic understatement. It is FREAKING BONE-CHILLING FREEZING UP THERE. I, of course, was underprepared and totally lucked out that Jackie had made a trip to the North Face and Patagonia outlets the week before the trip, stocked up on thermals, and was willing to share. In addition, we rented down jackets from the trekking company (which resulted in me looking like a Teletubby in all of our summit photos) and were gifted some hand and toe warmers from a new friend we made on the trail (thanks, Mona!). But we were still cold. The ascent to the summit typically takes around six hours, and is mostly done in the dark, with the goal of arriving on "the roof of Africa" as the sun rises. Let's just say the sun had already risen by the time I got there. While I had been feeling much better thanks to the Diamox, the quick ascent from 4,700M to almost 5,900M in one morning (or, more correctly, one middle-of-the-night) was too much for my poor altitude-confused body. I literally couldn't breathe. Our amazing guide noticed early on that I was having much more trouble than the others, and had Greg and Jackie go on ahead with Joel while I struggled to put one foot in front of the other. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say the seven hours it took me to reach the top of Mount Kilimanjaro constitute the most physically challenging experience I have EVER had. Aside from the physical pain, the mental challenge to retain some shred of sanity when you're walking uphill for seven hours in the pitch darkness unable to breathe was pretty tough as well. I'll admit to having a few (okay, maybe more than a few) moments of silent, frozen tears streaming down my face as Photo literally pushed and pulled me to the top. Man, am I glad I never have to do that hike again. EVER. When I finally arrived at Uhuru Peak and was able to dry (read: freeze) my tears and catch my breath, I was totally taken aback by the stunning scenery. Glacial ice fields stretched out as far as the eye could see, and the sun coming up over Kilimanjaro's smaller peaks made for an impressive view from the summit. It was exhilarating to be there, and the view was almost worth the pain...almost.
Three happy Bainies at the summit (as promised, I am the Teletubby):


Sunrise over one of Kili's giant glaciers:


The desolate, icy, and beautiful landscape at the top of the mountain (note Greg, in the center of the photo, walking down the trail in front of me):


The elation we felt after reaching the summit didn't last long - we still had seven hours (yes, SEVEN) of hiking to reach our last camp, Mweka, at 3,100M. For those of you who are good at math, you'll notice we came down almost 3,000M in elevation in one day. Yeah. My knees still hurt. It was a trio of very tired, very dirty, and very happy campers getting into our tent that last night. And while we were glad to be going back to a bed and a shower on Day Seven, it was a sad goodbye to our team of 13 (8 porters, 1 toilet porter, 1 waiter porter, 1 cook, 1 assistant guide, 1 guide). They were really wonderful.


All in all, Kili was awesome. I say now that I'm glad I never have to do it again, but I'm sure, a few years down the road, I'll forget just how painful the altitude sickness was and consider trying another big climb. But for now, let's just say I learned one very valuable lesson from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro: I am a day hiker.

For all of you considering the climb, I'd highly encourage you to do it. It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and a great way to do a high-altitude climb without having to spend time and money on a lot of gear and training. If you're interested in making the journey, here are some tips, tricks, and suggestions we compiled throughout the hike:
1) IT IS REALLY COLD. Bring lots of warm layers.
2) Get a prescription for Diamox. Just in case.
3) Use a Camel Bak. These were incredibly convenient. I'm so obsessed with mine I'm considering writing a song about it.
4) Bring electrolyte gels, Gatorade, or some small snacks to keep you going on the trail between meals.
5) Baby wipe showers sound gross, but they're totally worth it. You will get FILTHY.
6) Bring a book. I did not do this. I was bored.
7) Ask your guides to teach you Swahili. Not only will they like you more, you will learn how to say fun things like, "yeah, I'm cool, I'm crazy like a banana".
8) There is ALWAYS room in your bag for ibuprofen and Pepto.
9) Do not try to either diet or tan while on Kilimanjaro. You need the carbs (even you, ladies), and the sun is brutally strong. It will get you. Watch out.
10) Prepare for the summit day to SUCK, but know that when it's all over you will have been on top of one of the world's seven continents. How cool is that?

Hope this helps anyone who's interested in getting up to the top of Tanzania, and, as always, I'd love to talk more, so if you want more info don't hesitate to get in touch. I owe a HUGE thank you to my amazing travel buddies, Greg Olwell and Jackie O'Brien....


...who were fun, entertaining, encouraging, patient, and generous throughout the entire climb. You guys are the best. Without you, I never would have received this awesome and totally frame-able certificate of achievement:



What a week. And now the beaches of Zanzibar are calling my name...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad from some awesome, fabulous, amazing, dangerous international location

Location:Moshi, Tanzania