Kibo Hut Campsite (Day 5)

The following depicts our journey to Kibo Hut, the last campsite before we ascend to the top of Kilimanjaro. The plan was to spend the night at Kibo, wake up at about 5am in the morning, have breakfast, then start the ascent at 6am. However long it took to reach the summit we were to come back to Kibo Hut and spend a second night there to rest and renew our energy. Little did we know that Murphy was lurking around the corner to change the climb team’s well laid plans.

The climb team leaving Mawenzi Tarn to reach our final campsite, Kibo Hut, before ascending to the summit.

Kibo Hut is where many of the Kilimanjaro trails converge before ascending to the top. During the busy season one can find caravans of hundreds of climbers on the trail leading to Kibo Hut. In fact, there were several expeditions ahead of us even on our climb including a group of 25 climbers trekking ahead of us to Kibo Hut.

 

On our way to Kibo Hut we passed a small plane that had crashed in 2008 where four passengers had died, but the pilot survived after recovering from serious injuries.

I’m being helped to climb the last few feet to reach Kibo Hut. I was totally exhausted, not able to carry my own day pack (a porter carried it for me for the last hour of the trek) and almost not able to even stand on my two feet. The two guides had to hold me by the arms on each side supporting and walking with me one small step at a time. I was thinking, at the time, that I should have started my training a year ago. As it was I only started intensive training 4 months prior to our leaving for Kilimanjaro in September. Little did I know that it was pulmonary edema working its way in my lungs and filling them with fluid causing me to be short of breath and coughing constantly. I thought my coughing was due to the dust whipped up by the wind on the mountain.

As you can see in the pictures above I was totally exhausted and unable to stand upright. You could also hear the exhaustion in my voice. And my inability to speak louder while doing my camp site report for the day in the following video.

The wind and the cold temperature at Kibo Hut's approximate 15,000 feet did not help any. We had reached the camp at about 6pm. The sun was coming down slowly but surely which meant it was going to get colder with the wind chill factor thrown in. By this time, we all were wearing our down parka jackets with multi-layered clothing underneath. That evening all of us slept with all our layered clothing on, several pairs of socks and wearing our parka down jackets under our heavy duty sleeping bags. It was warm but the cold would get you if you had to get out of your sleeping bag for any reason at night.

That evening, I was not able to sleep. My cough became more severe and my breathing became more shallow.  The pulmonary edema was creeping into my lungs in a serious way. From midnight onwards, my cough had gotten worse. My cough was increasingly constant and to my alarm I heard a gurgling sound on every exhale. The plan was for the climbers to wake up around 5am, have a quick breakfast then start the ascent around 6am. Unfortunately, when the senior guide checked my lungs his conclusion was that I had to head down the mountain asap given the fluid level in my lungs. The longer I stayed at the current altitude the worse my condition was going to get and I was not to go further on the climb to the top.

Our team was taken aback as we had hoped all of us would be able to ascend to the top together. We had talked about what to do if any of us was forced to go down the mountain due to altitude sickness. Little did I know that I was going to be the one who had to head down and not ascend to the top. One alumni climber had said it short and sweet, ”One either goes down or dies when hit with a serious altitude sickness issue.” ...and I had one of the more serious attacks. Disappointing as it was I recognized that it was out of my control and down I must go and let the rest of the team carry both the specially carved Alzheimer staff with Lana’s name on it and The Answer Company flag to the top without me.

This picture depicts the crowdedness of Kibo Hut where many climb Teams converge to summit Kilimanjaro starting from this campsite. There are buildings and huts at this campsite for those who had registered to bunk in one of the buildings instead of staying out in the cold in tents. We had not made any such arrangements so our climb Team weathered the cold and high wind in our tents.