Top of the World

Well after an epic eight days hiking and climbing Kilimanjaro I have returned to Moshi having climbed the tallest mountain in Africa, and one of the famed seven summits. I along with five others in my group trekked through the rainforest, dessert, clouds and cliffs.

Looking back on climbing Kilimanjaro right now and it seems like a dream. A good dream. A surreal dream. A dream accomplished.

A few months ago I booked this climb with Ultimate Kilimanjaro (who contract out Tanzanian based Zara Tours) as the kick off to my travels for my first mini-retirement, celebrating ten years of working. I trained hard, researched the risks and geared up appropriately.

The trip started from Moshi, Tanzania with a 3.5 hour back crushing truck ride to the Londrossi Gate of Kilimanjaro. This gate is actually quite far from the mountain itself, but hiking in allowed our group, all from the U.S., to acclimate slowly and see more of the mountain area.

We were initially directed to pace ourselves, Pole, pole (Swahili for slow, slow or chill, chill)…not realizing this pace would be the same pace used for the summit ascent when we would need to go this slow. We were all raring to go and this paced seemed silly, but grew quite enjoyable once we let go of trying to get there fast.

The next few days were filled with gorgeous hikes through various different ecosystems. It felt like different Star Trek alien landscapes. We would hike to higher altitudes to get our bodies acclimated and then sleep at slightly lower altitudes.

We had a considerable staff which included a guide, assistant guides and porters. While we were responsible for carrying our daypacks, our porters carried the rest of gear, tents and food. They even cooked, waited on us and set up our tents. Their strength, speed and toughness were inspiring. Our group couldn’t help feel a little soft for the huffing and puffing we were experiencing.

The climb did get technical at a couple points, including scaling the Boroncho wall. There was actually a bit of a traffic jam of porters and climbers where the wall converged in one climbing lane up, and the danger of this crowding were palpable.

As we got higher on the mountain the weather got considerable cooler and more moist as we camped in the clouds at first, and then above them. I absolutely loved taking pictures being above the cloud line.

We had a short three hour hike the morning before the summit day we camped at base camp which was 15,000 feet. By this time I was acclimated for the most part, aside from shortness of breath. A couple days before I experienced a little euphoria, lack of focus, and apparently had a big grin on my face – maybe adjusting to the altitude wasn’t all that bad 🙂

After lunch on day six we were told to go to sleep until dinner, then eat, sleep and then we’d wake up at midnight to being our ascent. The ascent is better at night because you can’t see the peak clearly (so climbers don’t get psyched out), it’s cool (actually downright freezing – my camelback froze) and the peak is normally free of clouds in the morning allowing for the best views.

We had a six hour hike ahead of us in the dark straight up. It was close to a full moon so we had pretty good visibility. I even turned my headlamp off at times. Our guides would sing African songs to keep us all awake, alert and keep our spirits high.

All of our group experienced the effects of altitude in different ways. One member at 17,000+ feet at Stella Point had to go back. Her brain was literally not working right anymore. Another in our group was fighting to stay awake and yelling at himself to climb through the exhaustion. Our guide told us, both of these conditions were probably due to lack of sleep, hydration or food. I experienced a headache that concerned me, but since I didn’t have any other symptoms kept going. My fingers and toes were numb as it was so cold outside and others were experiencing the same. An ipod tunes in one ear helped to keep me motivated.

All effort was saved for the next steps – even getting water or getting more food seemed too difficult at a certain point. Once the sun started to rise everything started getting better. We could see the glaciers, see how close were were to the top, and knew were going to make it. The beauty of being on top of the world, the feeling of exhaustion and the lack of oxygen all created a unique euphoria that added to the strange joy of it all.

After a few pictures and moments taking in Uhuru Peak at an altitude of 19,341 feet, were were on our way down as staying at the altitude is dangerous. Skiing down the skeet (loose rocks) was a lot of fun, and I didn’t even mind taking a little tumble. Even when we got to base camp we were still a bit discombobulated and exhausted. We had a two hour nap, food, and then a four hour hike to our next camp site.

I couldn’t help of think of the metaphor of this mountain for any big goal one would have. First there is the commitment to the abstract goal, then the preparation for executing the goal. Once we started we felt we were so far away and we wanted to hurry there. Guidance and experience let us know the right pace, and the right way to hydrate, sleep and eat for success. Proper guides are key to reaching goals, since they know the way well and know what to look out for. Lastly the key was to concentrate on the next step ahead of you and not look up at the summit too much. This advice was given to us by climbers that returned before us. Concentrating on the gap from your current position to the summit will only hinder that progress, but by looking at just the next small step, trusting in your guide and believing progress is being made is the recipe for reaching the top successfully.

More pics here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150290506731448.334551.659741447&l=01a71e0f05&type=1