Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro

I did see Mt Kilimanjaro on my way to Malawi, however the first time I thought of doing this was back when I heard stories from Eric Saavedra in Yemen. The worst headache of his life is what he called summit day, and for some reason I still wanted to do it. I knew it would be a long way, but to go to the top of this iconic mountain has remained in my thoughts for 20 years. I was glad I waited that long. I needed all the camping tricks and cold weather experience over the preceding years to make it. Every day it rained and then it actually snowed 4” the the night we summited.  You’d spend most of the day wondering “What the heck am I doing here?” and then you’d get a glimpse of the mountain, dry your gear and be inspired again. Physically, I held up far better than I thought I would the entire trip. That was a huge relief. I just had to slow my pace and stay within myself. Poli, poli is what all the guides said. Little by little and you will get there is what they meant.

The day we went for the peak, the 16^th, we left at midnight for a total of 13 hours of hiking that day. Whew. Being on top of the mountain and seeing the sun come up felt different from any sunrise I had ever seen. It was beautiful and humbling. It is also one of those things that I’m glad I’m done with; I doubt I’ll be one of those who does the 7 summits. I'll never forget it though.

All the videos are now posted.

Honest and I at the start. The skies opened up with rain 30 min later.

Evening tea with the porters.

Waking up at Machame Camp. You can see Kili in the background.

These porters are amazing. They carry their own gear and yours so you only need a daypack.

Shira Camp where we spent night 2. You can see our tents if you look closely.

Some brilliant sunsets in the mountains after the day's rain. That is Mt. Meru in the distance.

Day 3 up to Lava Tower. Again, all praise to the porters

Lava Tower in the background.

Barranco Camp where we slept the third night.

Every once in a while the clouds would clear and you'd get this. What a vista to pitch a tent at!

This porter put on a dancing show for us under the mountain.

If you notice, the mountain gets more snow with each day. Still. Wow. 

Here's the elevation map for the day of the climb and before. This is for you Shaun Sava.

It was a brutal hike from Barranco Hut to Barafu Hut. Three huge climbs of more than an hour. And it rained all day. Spending all day sopping wet knowing you are going to try and summit in the cold at midnight is an anxious day 4.

On day 5 we woke up at 11:00 pm at Barafu Hut to leave at midnight for the summit. 6 hours up to get there at sunrise. The incessant rain turned to snow and I awoke to 5'' of snow. This is what it looked like when I got back to the camp after the summit.

Honest and I made it just as the sun came up. We were in the first group up. I felt amazing the first 2/3 of the morning. The last 1/3 the wheels fell off. I was moving like a grandpa with a walker. Either an inhale or exhale with every step. 

It was far colder than I imagined it would be. I thought it was around 7 degrees F, while Honest thought it was single digits below. Glad I was a Nordic coach and knew how to dress for it.

It was worth it though.

On the way back down.

That is the glacier that is melting in the background (not this day, however).

The rest of the groups from two separate routes now start to arrive.

Going down, we now were able to see what we came up through as we encouraged other groups. Going up it was six hours of only being able to see what your headlamp illuminated.

On the way out.

Mt. Kilimanjaro Trek Starts Wed

On my way to Malawi, I had a layover in Nairobi. That morning the pilot announced we'd be able to see Kilimanjaro right after take off. I darn near trampled a few folks to get this picture.  I remember thinking, "How great would it be to see this plane from the top of the mountain?" Well, I've booked a trip to try and see it. I'm leaving Wed, Feb 11, taking the Machame route and should summit on the 16.  I'll be looking for this flight. This has all come together so fast. The time is now if I'm ever going to do it.

Towards Power All Day

The slogan.

Malawi's power company, ESCOM, used to have a slogan that just read "Power all day- every day." Legend has it they were sued because they didn't live up to the motto. So, they added the "towards." I don't even know if they are living up to the towards part anymore. With the rains fouling up the intakes with debris on a key hydroelectric dam, the past week we've been dealing with power on and then off for 12 hours every day. This looks like it will continue until the rains end in the spring.

Here is the load shedding plan for the Lilongwe region for Monday. This
will not be ending anytime soon. I wished I had seen this sooner
as I didn't know there was a plan.

Last week I was going to stay home while M had a conference on the lake. On Wed I decided to join her after going 3 days without coffee the past week. One gets into a bunker mentality of doing odd things when the power is randomly coming on and off. One starts to think about boiling water before going to bed and putting it in a thermos or  cooking dinner in the morning for fear that you might not have power later.  At least the hotel would have coffee and a generator, I thought. And why not see a different part of the country? They had coffee, but not much power. Still it was fantastic to be on the lake.

View from our cabin at Club Makakola

On the way back we were going through Salima and looking to refuel. We thought for sure we could get gas there. The first station we went to was out of gas. The second had gas, but no power to pump it as ESCOM was out and their generator didn't work. M and I decided to sit down, get a soda and make a plan.There was as much chance of the power coming on in 15 minutes as 15 hours and we couldn't drive far. We decided we would stay at a lodge not far away from the station if it came to it. 

Somehow, once we finished the drink, the power came right back on. Talk about being lucky. Every once in a while it all works out and you can get by on just dumb luck. Saturday was that day.

On the way down, we got another speeding ticket. I couldn't
argue my way out of this one.