Roof of Africa

10/3-10/9
This seems so long ago now, so I’ve had to refer to my journal entries to refresh my memory. After we finished our exams, myself along with five of my friends (Daudi, Max, Tim, Abe, and Jemie) hopped on a bus and rode eight hours from Dar to Moshi, which is the town located at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The bus ride there was a great start to October break, it was so beautiful! It was really nice to actually get out of the city for the first time, and seeing the more rural parts of Tanzania was really exciting, because that’s where we lived for the next six weeks! A few hours into the trip, we started driving next to the Usambara Mountains, which are stunning. The shoot up out of the ground out of nowhere, and have beautiful cliffs and drop offs of rock. We drove alongside the mountain range for the better part of the day, and it was a real treat.

When we arrived at the bus station in Moshi, there was a van from our tour company - Zara Tours - there to pick us up and take us to the Springlands Hotel. When we arrived, we were swiftly whisked away to a large table in the courtyard to catch the last half of the ‘briefing’ for all the climbers departing the next morning. After the meeting was over, we met our tour guide and also discovered we had a solo climber added to our group. Her name is Rebecca, and she was climbing by herself and then meeting up with her mom afterwards to travel around Tanzania. She’s from Canada, and was a really great addition to our group. She was a very cool person, and a lot of fun, it was really awesome to make a new friend in such an incredible experience. Our guide was named Theo, and he’s the head guide for the whole company. He’s a really big guy, and seemed very professional, so that was consoling. We devoured a delicious buffet meal that evening, and went to bed early to try and get one last night of good sleep before we started hiking.

The first day we hiked from the Machame gate to the first camp on the Machame route, Machame hut. The hike was really beautiful, we were hiking through rain forest for the better part of the day, until we climbed into a new ecosystem which was cooler in temperature and composed more of bushes and shrubs, and it was much dustier. When we arrived at camp, our tents were all set up and our bags had already arrived, so we moved our things inside and gathered in the ‘food tent’ for popcorn and hot drinks. Up until this point, we hadn’t really seen the mountain at all because of clouds every day thus far. Then, after dinner, the clouds parted and we got to see the full moon rising over the peak. It was gorgeous, and so exciting to finally see what we’d be climbing!

Day two was short in length, but very steep all day. We hiked about 10km and up 800m in elevation. It was a really tough day, and I really started to feel the elevation. I was having difficulty breathing and I had to walk much slower, and when we arrived at camp I had a terrible headache despite having drunk 4 liters of water! It was a little nerve-wracking, but I was trying to stay positive. We arrived at camp a little after 1pm, and rested for a while. We stayed at the Shira camp , which is around 14,000 ft above sea level. Later in the afternoon, a bit before dinner, we hiked up to a camp that’s just up at the top of the hill. It’s got a great view of the Shira plateau and peaks, and the clouds parted just in time for us to get another great view of our goal. After dinner, we watched a spectacular sunset over the Shira peaks, and got our first view of Mt. Meru peeking over the clouds in the distance.

Day three was a really tough one. When we started out, I was feeling pretty good, but not long after we started I started struggling. We hiked around 4 hours, and it was hard for me the entire way. I felt terrible at lunch with a headache, nausea, and fatigue despite the large quantities of water I had consumed. Soon after lunch, we reached the high point for the day at Lava Tower at 4,645m above sea level. When we reached Lava Tower, all my pains went away because I felt so accomplished and proud of myself for getting to that point. We were standing above 15,000 ft above sea level, higher than Mt. Meru, and a much higher elevation than I’d ever hiked to before. That adrenaline rush helped me push through the rest of the day. The rest of the day was downhill to our next site at Barranco camp which is at an elevation close to that of Shira camp. This day’s hike is the trick to the Machame route’s success rate. Hiking high and then camping low allows your body time to acclimate to the high altitude better. When we reached camp I was feeling much better, there seemed to be so much more oxygen, despite the fact that we were still quite high. Again, the view of the mountain was great in the evening, and this night we were so close to it. You could actually see the blue in the ice of the glaciers!

As if it could get harder, day four definitely was the hardest yet. The morning was really tough, but a lot of fun, especially at the very beginning. Barranco camp is located right next to a giant wall, known as the Barranco wall, which you climb up immediately after leaving camp. It took about an hour or so to get to the top, and it was a very fun and challenging climb. When we reached the top of the wall, we had an absolutely spectacular view of the peak and the glaciers, definitely the best yet! It was really exciting, because we were looking at what we would be climbing in less than 24 hours. The next few hours of hiking up until lunch were very difficult. It was all very extreme ups and downs. Up a wall, and down into a big valley, and then the same. Finally we reached the top of the last wall and enjoyed some lunch. After lunch things started going downhill for me, despite the remaining hike being 100% uphill. Not long after we started up again after lunch, I started really struggling to keep up with the rest of our group, which wasn’t a big deal because they’re all really in-shape athletes and I’m not really. It was kind of discouraging, though, because I couldn’t keep up and one of our assistant guides would have to fall back and hike with me alone. After three long hours of hiking, we finally cleared a hill and could see the plateau where Barafu base camp was located. We climbed up the wall and thought we were there, but when we reached the top of the wall where the tents were located, our tents were nowhere to be seen and our guides continued to hike us up, up, up! And of course we dutifully, but very winded and exhausted, followed. After another half hour of hiking, we finally reached the actual hut and we were able to sign in and register. We all crashed in our tents almost immediately after arriving, trying to relax and catch up on sleep that we wouldn’t get that night. Barafu camp is extremely high in elevation, higher than 15,000 ft. and Mt. Meru, so it’s difficult to function. I was feeling okay other than just being exhausted and a small headache, but some people weren’t feeling so hot. A few people threw up quite a few times between arriving at camp and when we began our summit hike. I went to bed immediately after eating dinner, which was around 6:30 pm and tried my hardest to get some sleep before the 11pm wake-up time for the midnight summit hike. I found it hard to sleep not only because of elevation and cold, but because I was so nervous as well. I also got woken up around 8 to Tim shoving his stuff in the tent because Max was being rushed down to a lower elevation at Mweka hut. His oxygen levels were below 30, which is extremely dangerous, and they needed to get him lower immediately. Luckily, everything turned out fine, but it was a scary thing to be woken up to, and I had trouble getting comfortable after that.

Somehow I got sleep, and woke up at 11 for hot drinks and a snack before we started off. I put on as much clothing as possible and shuffled out into the cold. The sky was clear and the stars were spectacular, the moon was really bright, and there was almost no need for a head lamp. I could tell right after we started that it would be a long and cold morning. It’s supposed to take about 6 hours to get to Stella Point, which is the first major summit landmark before heading to Uhuru Peak. Around 3 ½ hours into the hike, we reached the halfway point to Stella. We were all really cold and feeling the effects of the altitude. I was having a little more trouble than everyone else, but everyone was being really encouraging and that helped me so much to keep myself going. Eventually, I just couldn’t keep up with Theo’s pace, and I was given an assistant guide to go with me at my slower pace so I wasn’t pushing myself too hard. The altitude was really getting to me, my lungs were dying for more oxygen, and my muscles were aching a lot from the lack of air as well. On top of that, my fingers and toes were feeling frostbitten and it was incredibly painful. I somehow pushed through the pain, and made it to Stella Point, but didn’t have the strength to get all the way to Uhuru Peak. In retrospect, had I known it was only 45 more minutes to Uhuru, rather than the 2 hours our guide had told us the night before, I would have pushed through to the finish. I was really hurting, though, and I’m proud of myself for getting to Stella, because that itself is a huge accomplishment. Almost 19,000 ft. above sea level! Everyone else, besides myself and Max, made it all the way to Uhuru, which was very cool.
When everyone had descended from the summit, we all spent a couple hours sleeping a bit and recuperating from an extremely difficult morning. We ate lunch at Barafu, and then hiked down to Mweka hut for our last night on the mountain. It was a three hour hike in pure dust, and when we reached the site, we all had sore knees and feet and were covered in a layer of dust.

The last day was a quick morning of 3 more hours of hiking down to the Mweka gate. We arrived a little past 10 in the morning and signed the book at the bottom, so my climb was official. We spent the rest of the day at the hotel, hanging around the pool and relaxing, and it was a great end to an unbelievable week.
Ultimately, it was hands down the most physically and mentally challenging and at the same time rewarding experience I’ve ever had. And despite the fact that I didn’t reach the final goal of Uhuru Peak, I made it to Stella Point, and it was worth every cent.

I’ll try to keep posting about the next 6 weeks of traveling and doing field research as internet permits. Stay tuned for more updates!