Trekking Kilimanjaro Pt. 2 - From Karanga to the Summit
Despite sickness the whole group reach the top of Africa, witness the giant walls of ice and witness an epic sunrise.
Trekking Kilimanjaro 2003 - Seven friends and I undertook the most amazing trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2003. These pages recount the original diary that I kept during our trek. Photo galleries exist of the climb, the safaris to Tarangire and Ngorongoro and our trip to Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Friday October 3rd.
Day 4 — Barranco Camp (3900m) to Karanga Valley (4000m) via Barranco Wall (4200m)
I am feeling really bad. I cannot eat, I am now on Cipro. My body is rebelling against whatever bacteria has taken residence inside me. I let Aaron know privately to keep an eye out for me today. It would not be pretty — it would be sheer willpower that gets to the end of the day. They are now calling Colin “Kifaru” or the “Black Rhino” for his slow and steady pace.
We head up Barranco and onto Karanga Valley. The last bit up Karanga is sheer murder for me, I have never felt so exhausted and outright sick. Every step is a force of will but eventually I make it. I immediately retire to my tent and Aaron brings me some lunch. Same with supper. I really want to get over this sickness — it’s not even AMS though I am sure it is having an effect on me. Sujji is better and the next day will be very hard — up to Barafu, short rest and then summit attempt.
We do find out that one of the guys from the British team has been air-lifted by chopper to Nairobi. He had been suffering from a really bad case of AMS. Everyone else seems to be doing fine including our group. Still worried about Colin.
Saturday October 4th
Day 5 — Karanga Valley (4000m) to Barafu Huts (4600m)
We make Barafu in record time — by lunch. It’s great we broke this last bit in two. With my sickness, I doubt I could have made it to Barafu in one day from Barranco. I am feeling well enough to make a summit attempt. Barafu Huts is filthy. The outhouses are for the most part overflowing and people have used the rocks. At that height with no water at camp it is not good. My bowels seem to be better.
Colin gets caught in the rain and is hypothermic, we suggest that he not try for the summit as he has a fever and is having real trouble getting warmed up. I am increasingly worried and disappointed the whole crew is try for the summit. We try to get some sleep and get ready for a summit attempt — layers, balaclava, -40 socks — yay.
Sunday October 5th
Day 6 Midnight — Barafu Huts (4600m) to Summit (5895m) and down again to Barafu then down to Millennium Camp (3400m)
At 11pm we are all ready packs on standing outside our tents making sure we have all our water and the like. Colin is still not feeling better, at that point we figure he is the only one not to go up tonight — really too bad.
We all get into single file according to Victor’s orders. I found out later that he put anyone who he thought might have problems towards the front. I was near the front. With all my sickness, I am not surprised. I’m personally having serious doubts about this by now. I’m still feeling weak and did not eat as much as I could at supper.
And then off we went into the moonlit night. It is cold, brutally cold. Colder even than Edmonton in the dead of winter. My feet are starting to freeze — my socks are just not warm enough. I am continuously wiggling my fingers around poles. It is definitely “pole pole” (“go slowly” in Swahili). One step in front of the other. At one point Aaron is moved in front of me — he is having trouble walking and breathing. The pace is slow. 3hrs in Chris gets mad as at the back of the line it is so slow he’s beginning to feel the cold. Keli is looking very cold as well. Sujji is singing and ahead with Victor, boy she has boundless energy.
About an hour or two in we hear a shout that Kifaru is on the mountain. Sure enough there he comes bounding past us. Fantastic — all of us are going to attempt the summit.
After passing 5000m I start having breathing problems. I am not getting enough oxygen into my system. It is now painfully slow for all of us, three steps, three breaths. The horizon is getting light and Mwenzi peak is to our back and right. The wind is gale force. Suddenly the steep winding path ends and we are at the bottom of the scree slope leading to Stella Point (5700m)
Keli is in a bad way, she cannot breathe and she is too cold. The extra assistant guides take her pack (after much cajoling from all of us) and almost carry her up the slope. The scree is very loose, but so much easier that the slate scree in Canada. The horizon is getting lighter and the glacier wall is to our left. I have never seen the horizon that wide, that immense. It is a scene I will never forget. I am the second last to reach Stella Point, just as the naked sun rose majestically over the horizon, bathing us in golden rays. Mwenzi in the background, the glacier blindingly lit up. I don’t believe I have ever seen a more beautiful sunrise, my eyes fill with tears. I collapse on Stella Point, it’s only another 200m height gain from there to Uhuru Peak.
Several people turn back here from the other parties. Keli is close but I help as does Victor and with one on each shoulder we carry her. I can only do this for about 20m — I am really struggling to breathe. Mike and Chris continue with her. Aaron is with me, but he can barely walk. I cannot take photos, my energy level is too low and I decide my objective is to summit, I am not capable of more. I also knew that after summitting I would have to get down quick.
I take it slow and drink in as much beauty as possible. The glacier walls, the crater plateau to my right. Unbelievable sights and unforgettable.
On the way to Uhuru I run into Colin he has already summitted with Oswald and is returning. Aaron is really suffering. Slowly I make it to the summit with the others. This is the moment I had waited for — it is a vindication of all my decisions and a recognition that I had not only gained a country, found a life, but reached the top of the world on my own steam. I collapse in tears; it is the most emotional moment I have had up to this point in my life — to achieve a dream that I’ve had since I was wee little. Even thinking about it now makes me tear up.
We take a group photo and off we came down. If Uhuru Peak was the summit of my emotion, the path down was the deepest well of despair. My blood sugar is extremely low, my water is frozen and I am feeling the effects of AMS more severely. At one point Victor is holding me and I black out and come back. Even more disturbing I’ve developed a fever. My temper is short and I immediately pass out on my return to Barafu Huts.
Aaron has to go check out one of the climbers from another group who was suffering from cerebral edema. I feel very bad for Aaron as he has had no rest. For the record almost everyone has now had the stomach sickness that myself and Sujji first got — to some degree or other. Santhi is trying different Cipro doses as are running out of the antibiotic (who would have thought all of us would have gotten sick?!).
After a couple of hours sleep, I weakly head down from Barafu. Aaron calls the outhouses there the “Pits of Putrescence”. A fitting name. I will not be sorry to see the last of Barafu. My humour and health picks up as the afternoon wears on. Even a few hours after summitting the whole thing seems to be a vivid dream, though the numbness in my toes is a constant reminder.
We reach Millennium Camp on the Mweka route fairly quickly. Vegetation is again abundant and the air now feels thick with oxygen. Amazing.
After getting settled in we get Victor to write up the list of names of every porter/cook etc. so we can arrange tips. One porter “secretly” drops a note to Chris on behalf of “all the porters”, claiming that the guides were crooks and we should give the porters the tips separately. We ignore the note. Though the next day we do inform any porters we find how much they will be getting.
It is perhaps a sign of the trip that shortly before going to bed I went behind the tent to take a piss in the woods only to find that four of us (me, Santhi, Mike and Chris) had all gone to do the same thing and here we all were in a line! We laughed!
Monday October 6th
Day 7 — Millenium Camp (3400m) to Mweka Gate (1800m)
This is the last day of this incredible hike. We descend quickly passing the high forests into the verdant and lush cloud forest. Chris and I remember that Craig Welsh had wanted to duke it out on Kilimanjaro for the right to be the best man at his wedding. So we have a “duel” with our walking sticks. He injures me by drawing blood on my hand. I retire gracefully admitting defeat.
At the gate we all sign off and I give Victor my poles as a gift. I hope he will use them on his trip to South America. Already I am beginning to seriously think an assault on Aconcagua would be doable in 2 years time. We get into vans and arrive in Springlands Hotel by 3pm. On the way Kifaru decides to drive the van much to our hilarity! He is our super-hero — the Black Rhino! At night we have supper at the Impala Hotel — supper is nice but they manage to run out of rice. How odd. That’s like going to McD’s and them running out of buns.
We also meet Tom Kwia who would have led Victor — he was the lead guide for the CTV trip and I had requested him as well, however he has been sick with a respiratory illness.
Oh regarding Tips. All the tips seem to go over fine except for the tips for the two asst. guides who joined us for summit day. They wanted to be tipped for the entire 7 days. I refused. We paid them for the one day they worked and were seen by us. I am thoroughly disappointed in the tipping system — this should be formalized.
We also discovered that they had booked the safari for 8 so Colin decides to join is for the next few days. We say goodbye to Sinead and the other British crew, we hope they will keep in contact with is. They are a fun bunch.
