Thursday, January 7, 2016

---

 

Ascent:
Distance hiked: 6.3 km / 3.9 mi
Elevation Gained (Lost): 1,181 m / 3,875 ft; End: 5,895 m / 19,341 ft

Descent:

Distance hiked: 11.5 km / 7.1 mi
Elevation Gained (Lost): (2,789 m / 9,150 ft); End: 3,106 m / 10,190 ft

Daily Aggregate:
Distance hiked: 17.8 km / 11.1 mi

Technically speaking, Day 6 started at the end of Day 5, as we were awoken at 11:00 pm to begin our preparations for the final assault on the summit. We packed our gear, ate “breakfast” and then departed camp at about 12:15 am.

Our trail lit by headlamps, we were in a strange, cold, silent (save for our heavy breathing and the crunch of the soil underfoot), moon-like world, trudging up the mountainside one small step after another. Knowing that we would be at this for at least six hours in the dark, I had to settle my thoughts into a quiet mellow place. I kept reminding myself how nice my hotel bed would be when this was all over.

Periodically we would stop to catch our breath, and I would look up at the thick canvas of stars splashed over our heads. Others were up and at ’em also, as we could see a long string of lights slowly ascending skyward above us on the mountainside.

At this point, I knew I was going to make it to the top, barring an unfortunate accident. The risk of altitude sickness had been significantly reduced, if not eliminated, because I had started taking Diamox on Day 1. This medication helps the body acclimatize much faster. While others begin to feel the effects of the altitude (headaches, nausea) at this point in the hike, I was fortunate to not have had any of these symptoms throughout the trek. It was now just mind over matter.

We finally saw the sun rise around 6:15, and while I’m not one to make it a point to watch many sunrises, this one was the most welcome dawn I have ever experienced.

We arrived at Gilman’s Point around 7:15 and took a break. An expert on Kilimanjaro says that one in four climbers throws up here due to the altitude, which is OK – as long as you are not presenting other important altitude-induced symptoms. Four people in our group – fortunately, I didn’t toss cookies, but we kept the actuarials intact. I won’t give up who painted the Point, though.

We passed Stella Point and continued on the final leg toward Uhuru Peak (uhuru meaning “freedom” in Swahili).

---

Over one last final rise, and the world famous sign was in our sights. At approximately 8:30 am, we achieved our goal. What an incredible feeling of accomplishment.

Our guide, Frank John, joins us in our celebration at the summit. We could not have asked for a better guide than Frank, who has summoned more than 100 times.

Our group also had the very unique privilege and honor to share Tom’s 21st birthday today. There are extremely few 21 year olds out there who can match that kind of celebration. I know I can’t. We had no champagne, just a few cans of Red Bull. Tom fully earned his celebration.

But in the age-old vernacular of TV infomercials, “But wait! There’s more!” Yes, we had conquered the mountain, but now we needed to get down. Not just down, but waaaaay down. So after enjoying ourselves for about 20 minutes, we turned around and began to make the much faster descent.

We worked our way back to Stella Point and then turned onto a new, quite steep path. All of the paths at this altitude are a grey, dusty dirt that is probably the result of thousands of years of erosion of the pumice from the volcano. On this particular path, the dirt is about three to four inches deep at a fairly steep decline, so descending is a mix of steps and slides. You just hope you are mixing the two forms agilely enough so you don’t lose your balance.

We arrived at a camp for a much needed R&R break around 12:30, where we enjoyed fresh mango juice and some Pringles potato chips. After 45 minutes, we were back on the trail for another two hours to our next stop – an early dinner. But this was not to be our final resting spot as we had another two hours after dinner to get to our final sleeping camp.

From the time we awoke at 11:00 the previous night to our arrival at our final sleeping camp, we were awake 20 hours and had covered over 11 miles with elevation changes of almost 13,123 feet. To give that last number some perspective, in ONE day we covered more vertical distance than from sea level to Denver, Colorado and back down again (OK, to be fair, a larger proportion of that distance was aided by gravity, but tell that to my sore knees ?).