It was a beautiful clear night, with a star filled sky. A half moon lit up enough of the environment so we could make out the shape of the mountain around us.
Frederick set the pace. It was an almost zombie like shuffle: place one foot half a footlength in front of the other one, scraping it in the scree. Pause a brief moment, then repeat with the other foot. The friction with the scree is supposed to keep the feet warm longer. The slow pace made the difficult climb tolerable. But were we be going to have do this for seven hours? It's amazing what the mind can get the unwilling body to do.
The path was relentlessly steep as we had seen the day before and it didn't get easier after the junction. It was cold. I should have put on a fourth layer. At times the volcanic scree gave way to large boulders and we had to take large steps and use our hands and feet to climb over them. These patches broke up the steady rhythm and tested our resolve. Where we going to be able to make it?
At 4:50 am we reached the crater rim at Gilman's point. The moon had already set. Pitamalia offered us some hot tea. He had lugged glass cups and a thermos with hot tea all the way up to here. What a treat! A nice cup of hot tea at 5681 m. It was too cold to stay very long at Gilman's though.
From Gilman's it is another two hours along the crater rim to Uhuru peak, some 200 m higher. It was more difficult and longer than I thought. I can imagine why so many people give up here, even if it is not as steep.
Dawn started to cast a faint light over the magnificent glaciers around us. We could now see the sheer enormity of the crater and the ash pit at its center. Marc and I had toyed with the idea of adding a detour through the ash pit, but in our mind it became clear that that was not in the cards. What looks like a small distance on the map, turned out to be an enormity. The glaciers on the opposite side of the crater looked like a distant mountain range. How I had underestimated the enormity of this mountain.
Just before we reached Uhuru peak, the sun emerged from the horizon, casting a brilliant light on the glaciers and the snow-covered volcanic ash.
We took pictures until our fingers were frozen, then marched the final ten minutes to the peak.
We had made it!
We stood on the top of the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free standing mountain in the world. The plains of the great rift valley were a full five kilometers below us. To the North lay Kenya, to the South Tanzania. To the West was Mt. Meru. Just to the left of Meru, the rising sun cast a huge shadow of Kilimanjaro in the atmosphere around Meru. A most magical sight.
It was too cold to linger around very long. We had to head back down: another 18 km of walking lay ahead, with a dizzying descent of 2.1 km!
On the way to Gilman's we passed two other groups of climbers on their way to the top. The last ones looked in a decidedly bad shape.
The route down was so much easier (except on the knees). And faster. When we reached the volcanic scree slope, we learned a new sport: "screeing" (think skiing on gravel). We flew down the slope. In no time we were down at Kibo huts, from where most people reach the summit.
We rested a bit, had lunch, and then set out for the long walk across the Saddle to Horombo. It was another 11.5 km, but as it was mostly down, it wasn't too strenuous. It was part of our day 3 in reverse: the Mawenzi ridge, the Last Water Point.
At 2:30 pm we reached Horombo huts. We had walked 24 km, climbed 1.2 km, then descended 2.1 km. What a day. We unrolled our sleeping bags and slept until we were woken up for dinner.
This was our last dinner on the mountain, but we were too tired to enjoy much of all the efforts our crew put in making us feel comfortable. By 7:30 we were in bed. Civilization was approaching rapidly.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Uhuru peak, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Welcome back to civilization!
ReplyDelete"screeing"! I learn a new word every day :)
Congratulations!!! what a great holiday!!!
ReplyDelete