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.

Mawenzi Tarn Campsite (Day 4)

The following pictures and videos document our trek to our next camp, Mawenzi Tarn.

Again, early morning, our bags all packed and ready to head out of Kikelelwa Camp and trek to our next camp site, Mawenzi Tarn, elevation 4,315 metres or 13,937 Feet.

 

As we’re hiking towards the higher elevations vegetation is becoming more sparse, lush plants of the lower elevation disappear to be replaced by brown shrubs and rocky terrain. 

Climbing became more difficult as you can see in the picture and you can sense the difficulty in the following video. The wind is becoming more intense adding to the increasing cold temperature as we continue to climb.

 

The guides and their porters were fantastic, trekking up the mountain as if it was a walk in the park while us foreigners were “Polepole” (slow hike in Swahili). Some of them even ran past us to set up camp before we arrived.

 

Salim and Elias, our senior guide at the Mawenzi Tarn sign plus Spencer and Safiya at the signage. Do you notice anyone missing? You sure have sharp eyes if you’d noticed I was missing from these pictures. That’s because, at this point, I was totally exhausted and had crawled into my tent and fell asleep.

We had reached Mawenzi Tarn after approximately 5 hrs of hiking arriving at camp about 2pm in the afternoon. Lunch was a hot lunch in the mess tent and the plan was for us to climb to a higher elevation after lunch to acclimatize at a higher elevation. Then come back down to camp to spend the night. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted that I’d slept through the higher elevation climb. The following pictures and videos show the smaller group’s (Salim, Safiya, Spencer and Elias, senior guide) climb.

 Hiking up to higher elevation.

Spencer trekking and looking out at the mountain view.

 Another mountain view from higher elevation en route to view point.

A higher elevation view of our campsite. You can see the expansiveness of the camp area from this vantage point.

The climb team looking at the mountain view from a different vantage point.

The climb team had reached their high elevation destination point. Thumbs Up!

This video has a phenomenal 360 view of the entire mountain range at a higher vantage point. 

 

The climb team heading back to the campsite. You can see the desert like terrain. Again, the wind was relentless adding to the cold temperature in spite of the sunny weather.

We had chosen to climb Kilimanjaro from Sep. 10-18 due to the appearance of a full moon. We had wanted to time our summit with a full moon lighting our pathway up to the summit and, in this picture the full moon was beginning to form as the sun was setting down on Mawenzi Tarn.

Follow us next as we trek to Kibo Hut, the last camp before we ascend to the Rooftop of Africa!

Kikelelwa Campsite (Day 3)

The following pictures and videos depicts our trek up to Kikelelwa, our next camp site at elevation 3600 metres or 11811 feet.

A quick report as we start our day’s hike to Kikelelwa. You can see the sun is up and the day is starting out nicely. No altitude sickness experienced by anyone to speak of. As you can hear, the wind is picking up as we continue to climb to higher elevations.

You can see the terrain changing as we continue to trek up Kilimanjaro.

Ours was not the only expedition attempting to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro. As you can see, others are on the trail with their own guides and porters. The Rongai trail is one of the less popular trails. Unlike the Coca Cola trail where hundreds of climbers can be trailing each other throughout the entire trek during the months of July and August.

The Rongai trail is a very reasonably flat trail but, for sure, there are steep rocky inclines where I needed to slow down even more so than normal and needing help to navigate the terrain to prevent any sudden falls or rolling of the ankle. That would not be good. In this video the guides help me to get past a short crossing bridged by two makeshift planks.

A most popular flower on the mountain called White Everlasting Straw Flower and we can attest that it does look and feel like very strong straw that will last forever to survive the tough climate on the mountain.

The hike to the camp wasn’t too long, about 4 hrs and the terrain, although rough in some spots was still manageable. Salim and I did a short update at Kikelelwa campsite. 

The view en route to and from Kikelelwa Camp was fantastic. See Salim, Safiya and Spencer checking out the view.

Follow us as we head to Mawenzi Tarn, our Day 4 campsite.

2nd Cave Camp Site (Day 2)

The following pictures and videos depict our trek up to 2^nd Cave, our next camp site at elevation 3,450 meters or 11,143 feet.

In this picture we are packing in preparation to start the day’s climb to our next camp site, 2^nd Cave. We typically would wake up at about 6:30am, start packing our tent, roll up our sleeping bag and air mattress and take out what we need from our duffel bag for the day’s hike. We would take out any extra clothing for layering purposes, gloves for the cold if we think we need it. Once packed, our porters would carry our duffel bag to the next camp site and we would not see it until we reached the camp site. Thus, it became paramount that we took out the necessary clothing and equipment out of our duffel bag for the day’s trek. It would not do to be caught in the quick changing weather system of the mountain without proper weather gear and the weather can change in a matter of minutes up high on the mountain. We were instructed to always keep our rain jacket and rain pants in our day pack at all times in case rain started while in mid-trail to the next camp. Our day’s trek would begin around 8:30 am - 9:00am depending on when breakfast was finished.

We are on our way, hikers and guides, along the trail to 2^nd Cave. Beautiful landscape along the way. (At least, that’s what the climb team told me. Is it true?)

 

We’re at the campsite and the mountain view was breathtaking. Check out the video as I do my daily report at 2^nd Cave.

Throughout the entire trek up the mountain we had not seen much wildlife. We saw many small birds. We were surprised to find a fairly large bird walking around 2^nd Cave and managed to capture it on camera before it flew away. Unfortunately, we do not know this bird’s name or species. Anyone out there know?

2^nd Cave would not be 2^nd Cave without a cave and sure enough there is a cave and Salim and Safiya are in it. Apparently, years ago, Kili climbers would pitch their tents inside the cave but this is no longer allowed given human erosion of this natural formation. I can see why people would be tempted to setup camp inside the cave as its wall protects the climbers from the wind and rain and cold.

Spencer and I keeping out of the wind in the cave.

A phenomenal sunset at 2^nd Cave.

Follow us on to Day 3 as we trek to our 3^rd camp site, Kikelelwa Camp.