This trip required some significant planning: two weeks of kids-free travel had to be efficient! We saved up money, researched different hiking routes and companies, trained physically, spent time at elevation, had vaccinations, started malaria and high altitude medicine, and bought the appropriate gear.
We were weary from travel right away. 5 hours of driving from CB to Denver, then flying to Washington Dulles. We had an overnight layover there, which we spent at Grandma's house (even though she was in CB). Friday we had a 13.5 hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then another 2.5 hours flight to JRO Kilimanjaro International Airport. We were very thankful to have a Zara Tours representative meet us inside the airport with our names written on a board, ready to pick us up at 2pm on a Sat afternoon. All of our luggage also arrived intact, which was awesome.
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| Plane wing and Mt Meru, Arusha |
Many people would have arrived Sat and started trekking Sunday, but we built in one rest day so our trek started Monday. This was a difficult decision, as days were numbered, but a good one in the end. Jet lag made sleeping difficult after such a long journey, and we wanted to make our hike as successful as possible. It also took some organizing to pack and re-pack, making sure we had the right gear for the trek, and leaving safari gear in hotel storage.
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| viewing Mt. Kilimanjaro from Moshi, at 3000ft |
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| Our hotel, which was awesome |
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| These kids all wanted to touch us and hold our hands |
Monday: Day One
Met our jeep and guides at 8:30am. Drove about 3-4 hours to the park gate. We saw zebras on the way, and looking out the window to watch the African world go by was awesome.
We arrived at the park gate to a busy scene of permits, groups, many jeeps, much gear, and porters everywhere. We ate our packed lunches while watching the scene. Porters are only allowed to carry 20kg of group gear each, plus their own gear. There were park rangers weighing packs and each porter had to pass this 'weighing' and balancing game of the group gear before proceeding. We met other travelers from other places, as well as a few from Colorado. Excitement and nervousness filled the air.
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| Lemosho gate and registration to the park |
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| Porters lining up to have their items weighed in |
Our hike started at 11,200 feet along a jeep road in the warm sun, and then on to single track with a little bit more climbing. We walked with our lead guide Mr. Babuu, who was calm and quiet and professional, but able to speak English well enough to tell us about himself and the park. He encouraged us to walk 'pole, pole' or 'slowly, slowly' as that is the theme for the whole mountain experience. There is no rushing on the hike for tourists, and they encourage very slow going to make a successful summit more likely.
Camp was fairly busy, with tents everywhere and a little walking distance to the camp toilets. We got used to the walk to go squat into a hole in a tile floor several times, as we were encouraged to drink 3-4 L of water per day.
Our tent was already set up - a 3 person tent with a large vestibule that had a small eating table and two chairs inside. Shortly after arriving at camp and signing in, we were served popcorn and hot tea, and then our first dinner.
Meals were huge. For dinner we might have soup, bread, rice, chicken, vegetables in huge quantities. Our 'waiter', named Ben, just kept coming with more food! We weren't quite sure if we should continue to eat and stuff ourselves, so we did our best. People talked about loss of appetite with increased altitude, so we ate all that we could to have energy for the summit day.
It was chilly when the sun went down, and we were eager for sleep after still having some jet lag. I had purchased a new sleeping bag for the trek that could serve me down to -20F, and I was thankful for this awesome warmth at night. Jason was a little chilly in his -7F bag, but did fine throughout the rest of the nights.
Tuesday: Day Two
Tuesday was the first real test of altitude, and we were excited to note that we felt well as we climbed up. We climbed from camp at 12,800 feet up to the Lava Tower at 15,200 feet for lunch. It snowed lightly and was cold up high, but the landscape was cool. At lunch, our assistant guide, Mr. Mango, whipped out a thermos of hot tea for us to keep us warm in the cool weather.
It was also fun entertainment to have the porters and other hikers going by on the trail. As we went 'pole pole', porters carrying stuff would go by.
Tourist: "Jambo." (Hello)
Porter: "Jambo."
Tourist: "Mambo?" (How are you?)
Porter: "Poa." (cool)
Tourist: "Poa Poa." (cool cool)
Porter: "Pole pole" (slowly, slowly)
Tourist: "Asante" (thank you)
We had a similar conversation every few minutes, with smiling Africans all around. Some other tourists were struggling more at the high altitude than we were.
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| Lava Tower 15,200 feet |
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| Our guide Mr. Babuu, staying warm with Masai blanket |
On the descent down from the Lava Tower, Jason showed the guides running downhill on the single track, since it's actually a little easier for him to descend fast than to plod along slowly. The guides thought he was crazy, and continued to encourage us to go 'pole pole' to be safe. Jason's leg (he had broken his left tibial plateau badly on March 5, 2017) held up well on the descent down into camp, with no problems at all.
We met two other groups from our same company coming into the Barranco Camp (13,100 feet) that evening. We met a couple named Ali and Gordon, from Scotland. Ali kept stopping and looking around, saying 'isn't this beautiful?' and 'this is amazeballs!' and other fun positive expressions. The landscape here was gorgeous - glacier on the hidden mountain in clouds above us, thin waterfalls nearby with cool alpine desert plants and a few flowers scattered near the trail. Gordon had just celebrated his 53rd birthday, and they were using this trip to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer's, which Ali's mother was suffering from at home. The couple hadn't been sleeping well any nights on their trek so far, and were still happy and smiling despite lack of sleep.
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| tea, popcorn, peanuts for snack shortly arriving at camp |
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| that's a lot of down, warm, puffy material! |
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| our company tents |
At camp after the storm rolled in, I was wearing two puffy jackets, long johns and puffy pants, with warm hat, rain jacket and warm gloves. But we didn't see any of the locals at camp wearing gloves. Many of the porters wore jeans and sneakers and hoodies with a warm hat, but there wasn't much Goretex or quality gear around.
That evening we also saw another two friends we had met when we arrived at the airport. Steph was a girl about 30 years old from Namibia, and traveling with another friend named Nic from New Zealand. They had still been hiking down during the hail storm, and were both feeling ill with headaches from the altitude.
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| Ali and I both wearing a lot of clothes at camp (evening) |
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| Mr. Babuu, with summit not quite visible behind |
I started feeling more confident about our altitude situation, although the unknown of going from 15,200 feet up to the summit at 19,300 feet was anxiety-provoking. I started worrying a little more about the cold, and how I would possibly stay warm enough in the middle of the night hiking up to that high altitude.
I slept really well that night for the first time since my arrival, finally kicking jet lag out and happily warm and dry in my sleeping bag and tent. Jason and I enjoyed the stars overhead on our overnight walk to the outhouse, and wondered if the people up above us aiming for the summit were also enjoying the starry sky.
Wednesday: Day Three
Leaving Barranco Camp we said goodbye to our friends, as they were going to base camp that night and would start the trek at midnight. We had an extra day, so we only hiked a little bit further along this day.
We started out of Barranco Camp with a steep climb called 'Breakfast'. Unfortunately, there was a little bit of drama because a porter had fallen and hurt her back, and she was limping back down to camp, obviously uncomfortable. I wished I could have done something to help her, and especially had a soft spot in my heart for the female porters. There were only a handful of female porters on the mountain - definitely a male-dominated job - and I secretly cheered for any progressive female roles I could while we were on our trip.
For example, our company, Zara tours, was on of the larger Tanzania-based tour operators for safaris. The company, which included 150 lead guides, 2000 porters on staff, a charity, a preschool, and two lovely hotels, was owned by a female. We saw many successful women business owners on our trip.
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| Heading up 'breakfast', out of camp |
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| Our guide Babuu on left, Mr. Mango on right |
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| Top of climb for the day |
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| clouds come in and out above |
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| Mr. Mango, out assistant guide |
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| Treating water with steri pen |
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| Karanga Camp, about 13,250 feet |
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| We sleep on the right and eat on the left |
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| evening view of the mountain above (summit not visible) |
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Karanga (which means peanut) Camp was on a hillside, with some new views of the mountain above us coming in and out of the clouds. We arrived at camp by lunch time to see Ali, Gordon, Steph and Nic leaving after their lunch, and wished them well on their summit push that night.
We met another Colorado hiker (Luke) from our plane ride, who would be going for the summit with us along with his group of 3 other travelers (Ryan from Colorado, Jim, and a lady from North Carolina). It was fun to check out different companies, different gear, and watch the porters organizing everything.
We had the afternoon to just relax, read our books, walk around camp. Camp was windy and dusty, but we were thankful that we felt well, as some neighbors in some nearby tents were quite ill throughout the night. It was a little strange to just hang out and wait, while porters carried water to and from, and other friends had pushed on ahead. But they had a big hike that day to get to base camp, and then had to start at midnight after that big day, and we had more time to just relax above 13000 feet, drink water, and eat eat eat all the food that was given to us.
The visible part of the mountain above us showed itself more clearly that evening for a beautiful sunset, and I wondered how it might feel to climb 6000 feet higher than we were at camp. Looking up, it felt like a 14er was sitting just above us, and it didn't look too daunting. I started to get excited.
Thursday: Day Four
We woke and left Karanga Camp to climb up toward Base Camp. I was eager to get to the place where we could see the summit, and get a sense of how high it was above us. We could see to a ridge with glaciers above us, but I wondered if that was actually the top or if there was some larger summit hiding around the corner. It turns out there wasn't much more to the summit, and the ridgeline was really close to the top. When we arrived at base camp, called Barafu camp at 15,200 feet, we could see to 18,900 feet 'Stella Point', and then knew that there was just over 300 feet further beyond that point.
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| Arriving at base camp (15,200ft) |
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| Our tent, fairly high up in the huge mass of tents that makes up Barafu |
We arrived at base camp at about lunch time, and were entertained at all that was going on. I'd never been to such a busy campground. Tents and tents and tents all over the place - some down lower and some up higher. Some huge groups and some smaller groups. Some really nice new tents and some older ones.
There were people arriving at camp like us, some feeling well, like us, and some not. There were people who had just returned from a successful summit and were glowing with excitement and stories of the challenge and the cold. And then, as we had our hot lunch and watched the trail above us, we saw many people really struggling to come down. Several people hunched way over, no pack on, being carried/supported on either side by helpers, looking terrible.
We saw our friends. Ali and Gordon had successfully reached the summit and were trying to have a short rest before continuing their descent. They were very tired and just said 'that was tough' several times. They really didn't want to have to descend down to camp below, as they were exhausted and just wanted to sleep, they said. Steph and Ali had also reached the summit, although they described themselves to feel unwell right from the start, and said 'I guess that was a good experience, but we felt like total sh*t.'
We tried to rest. It was hot inside the tent with the afternoon sun streaming in. But it was noisy, dusty, and windy outside the tent and difficult to rest. We continued to drink water, but the outhouse was a little ways downhill and it took quite an effort to hike back up from the outhouse to our tent after each trip.
We had an early dinner, packed up our day packs, laid out our clothes, and tried to rest.
Thursday at 11pm - Friday night: Day Five
Alarm goes off at 11pm and we woke to get dressed.
I put on eight layers on my top: merino wool tshirt, two merino wool long sleeved tops, two fleece tops, thin puffy coat, huge thick puffy coat, Goretex rain shell. I put on four pairs of pants: fleece long johns, puffy pants, windshell, rain pants. Warm socks, shoes. Warm ski mittens with hand warmers inside. Buff over my chin and ears, warm hat on head.
How can one move when they are wearing this much?!? And if I am wearing too much and I get too warm and sweat, won't that be worse?
We were served hot water and chocolate wafer cookies. I was not hungry but tried to drink what I could.
We started hiking behind Mr. Babuu and had Mr. Mango come behind us. Mr. Babuu was not carrying anything, and Mr. Mango had a full daypack. I asked Babuu why he didn't have a pack, and he said that he could then take our daypacks when and if we weren't feeling well. Mango had oxygen, first aid, etc. and both of them were now wearing gloves, although I was still wearing 6 layers more than each of them and they both seemed cold.
The hike was steep. But there wasn't much to see except the headlamp lighting up the shoes of Babuu in front. So Babuu stepped forward and I followed his steps. Pole pole.
I wasn't cold. But we also were going so, so slowly that I wasn't exactly generating much heat, either. I gave my handwarmers to the guides as my hands were too warm. I unzipped some layers as I warmed up some.
We passed the 'high camp' of base camp, which took about 45 minutes to walk to from our tent. Some people will camp up a little higher to reduce the distance of the walk, but there are no facilities up there so only the fancier camps with portable toilets were up there.
At some point early on, we stopped for 'maji' (water). I unlocked the valve to my camelback hose in order to drink, but the plastic valve broke in the cold and part of it went flying away. Jason helped close it so it wouldn't drip everywhere, but I didn't have the ability to drink from the hose anymore. I did have a Nalgene of water in my daypack, so I switched to drinking that, and just carried the other 2L of water in my bladder around for fun after that.
Pole, pole. One step, then another.
We didn't speak much. Our two guides spoke back and forth much more than usual in Swahili, which helped keep me more alert as I was sleepy.
The moon (about half full) rose up, a little higher, little higher.
We still felt good at 16,000 feet. We did fine at 16,500 feet. Still happy at 17,000 feet. The stars were beautiful and the moon encouraged us along.
We saw little lights from hikers above us and from many more below. You could make out the shadows of a ridgeline above, but it would come and go and I wasn't entirely sure how far away our target ridge was above us.
Jason kept himself awake by counting to 100 with his steps, then counting again in different languages. I just tried to stay awake. At 17,500 feet I felt sluggish, but not unwell, and felt quietly excited about that.
I was equally excited about sunrise and the promise of warmth and light as I was about reaching the 19300 foot mark. I started calculating that we ascended about 500 feet every 45 minutes, give or take, and just tried to celebrate every 500 feet as a little bit closer to the top and closer to sunrise.
At about 4am, I remember thinking that a sunrise at 6:20am still seemed like a really long way away.
At 18,000 feet Jason had to find a rock to hide behind as a toilet, and our friends Luke and Ryan passed us, giving us high fives and everyone excited to be feeling well. Their other two companions were a bit lower down below.
Shortly after those high-fives, things went into much slower, steeper, windier, and colder mode. I added new hand warmers to my gloves and zipped up all zippers of all layers and coats. I followed the footsteps of my guide ahead, and dreamed of stopping to rest and have more water. I was getting into a cycle: stop for water and a gel or some sugar and feel good, feel happy, feel excited. Start walking and things slow down, feel sluggish, move forward, wonder how much longer until the next break, wonder if I will start to get a headache or feel sick or what as we go up, think it's been a long time since our last break and surely it's time to stop again. Ask for a water break, and go 'a little further' with the guide toward the next set of rocks and then have water, have some sugar, and feel much better again.
Jason (who had given me his warm ski mitts and had on less warm winter cycling gloves) was starting to have to work harder to keep his hands warm.
Stella Point is at about 18,900 feet, and the end of a steep ascent. The climb is adjacent to a large glacier that shines in the moonlight. But the shadow of the ridge, the little headlights above, and the snow of the glacier didn't seem to get any closer and we kept stepping forward. It seemed pretty endless, like the ridge above moved away from us just as we thought we might be getting closer.
At some point, maybe around 18,500 feet, we stopped and our guides said encouraging things. We were both tired mentally and physically. I think I knew we would make it and I was happy I wasn't ill, but it did seem relentless in the dark, cold, steep, windy forward progression. Then Mango magically handed us each a cup of hot, sugary tea. I was thrilled for a little longer rest, as I could have curled up for a nap right there. But Jason was stoked about this tea. Not normally one to drink hot drinks, he chugged his tea, stood up with a huge smile, warmed from the inside out, and seemed like a new man - ready to get to the top!
We arrived at Stella Point and there was much relief. The steep climb was over. There's a sign there that welcomes you to Stella Point, and we merged with other hikers coming in from the Marangu route. Our guides hugged us and told us were were doing great. I was thankful to find a large rock that offered some wind block and get out of the noise of the wind and catch my breath. I felt foggy. I had a little bit of a headache.
The clouds were all below us, just getting lit up now by the dawn of morning and the first bits of pink sky entering the day. Night was ending.
From Stella Point to Uhuru, the terrain changes drastically as you walk along the edge of the volcano crater and ascend mildly. Jason and I switched gloves as I knew his hands were very cold. Our guides started walking along, chatting happily with each other. I wasn't really capable of chatting. It was so windy, and I was thrilled but exhausted and still not there. Still not quite sure of our final destination and if false summits were still ahead.
We walked along the crater edge and the sun slowly started to emerge. A large glacier was visible to the left. The mood was celebratory, but I didn't quite feel ready to celebrate. I felt cold, and I was irritated that the wind wouldn't lessen anywhere.
We approached the end and I saw the final destination, and then I felt like I could celebrate. We arrived to the sign as it became bathed in sunlight and the actual ball of light emerged to greet us with a good morning. I read the sign as I approached it, and started weeping. I had dreamed of seeing that sign for some time, and we had done it.
There were a handful of other hikers ahead, and a bit of a line up to take photos. Our hands were cold and the wind continued, and we fumbled to get our phones out to take pictures. Phones were slow to turn on in the cold. We took our photos, and our hands became very cold with any exposure out of the gloves. Some estimates placed the temperature about about -20 Celsius (-5 Fahrenheit), with 25-30mph winds.
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| Mango, Jason, Meggan, Babuu |
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| M and J holding a copy of CB News |
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| The sun cast a shadow of Uhuru Peak on to the clouds below. |
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| Happy, but cold and a bit out of it. Wearing so many clothes! |
I didn't want to stay up there and celebrate, except for a few hugs and high fives. Luke and Ryan were up there also, happy. It was gorgeous for sure. The sun cast a shadow of Uhuru Peak on to the clouds below, and the glaciers lit up around us. But I didn't feel well. I wanted to get down and get more oxygen and get out of the wind and into more sunlight for warmth.
I still felt weird and groggy until reaching Stella Point. But the large rock and wind block there, with a sip of juice, and the promise of a descent in the sun, was awesome. People were on their way up, and some looked good and some not so good, and we tried to offer words of encouragement. We saw Jim and the lady from North Carolina slowly on their way up, also.
We got back to camp by about 8:30am. Jason's leg had done really well with the 4000 foot descent back to base camp. Camp was dusty and windy and we didn't really want to hang out there anymore - we wanted to keep going down. But we were sleepy and hungry. It was hard to know what to satisfy first - eat, lie down, change clothes, take photos, drink water, pack up camp, use the bathroom?
We had a meal at about 9:30am, lay down for a little while, changed and got organized. As the morning progressed we saw more people coming down, and some people looked terrible.
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| Seeing base camp from above, coming down. |
We were happy to leave base camp at around 11:30am and happy to go toward a new camp with less confusion, less dust, less wind, less cold. It was a long way down. They say it's a 4 hour descent with almost 4000 feet of more drop. It was warm and that felt lovely.
The trail is rocky and dusty, with many large steps carved into the trail. Steps at an awkward stepping distance that serve to keep the trail intact during the rainy season, but make footing difficult on the way down. We hit more trees and more flowers and started to smell more greenery, which felt lovely after having been above treeline for many days. My knees were sore.
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| Trying to see if I can help a hurt foot. |
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| Our amazing crew of 10! |
That evening our group of 10 supporters (6 porters, 1 cook, 1 'waiter', 1 assistant guide, 1 head guide) sang us two songs and we took group photos.
We slept very well.
Saturday: Day 6
We left camp at 7am and continued the descent down. Porters stepped up the pace on this descent, as everyone was eager to be done and get back to homes, showers, families, etc.
We walked down through a beautiful forest, and I enjoyed the trees and flowers and mosses and sweet green smells. We saw some monkeys, but didn't stop for long to enjoy them as we wanted to get down and out.
Our van trip back to the hotel was smelly but lovely. The porters enjoyed watching the video we took of them singing the night before. Returning to the hotel to shower, eat, and relax was awesome.
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| Cool plants, green, and monkeys on the way down. |
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| Taken for Pops. |
