The Kibosho Lodge was a great place to spend the night before the push to the top.
It is only 200 metre from the Umbwe gate, the start of our attempt. With all the changes to the trip, Lau had dropped the number of porters from nine to six. Also, instead of going ahead of us, they would head up Mweka, the descent route and wait for us at the Millennium Hut. With this change Lau decided to leave at 9 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. Good move.
After a great breakfast we got ready and headed to the start line. We had hoped to get away by 9 a.m. but after signing park entry forms and risk waivers for this particular route, Lau, Kidori and I finally got away at 9.15 a.m. It was hard to believe we were starting on a 24 hour, 53 kilometres, 19,341 feet adventure to the top of Africa.
There are five ecological zones to the top of the mountain: The cultivated, tropical, moorland, desert and arctic. We quickly made our way through the cultivated and tropical zones. The path was good and we could power walk most of the way. We arrived at the Umbwe camp after three hours. This is the camp site for Day 1 on the five day trips.
The next zone, moorland zone was amazing. Bright green moss, skinny trees and “old mans beard” hanging from the branches. We spotted a Colobus monkey high up in a tree. Lau told me that these primates have four fingers and the name Colobus means “cripple”. The moorland zone had a lot more challenging terrain. There was one section that was proper rock climbing, nothing too difficult, but definitely not trekking.
Soon the trees and shrubs disappeared and we entered the desert zone. After six hours of trekking we arrived at Barranco Camp, Day 2 on the five day trip. There I met Rich and Tracey from Sheffield, England. They were having a great time and so far had been handling the altitude well. This camp is at 13,000 feet and the highest I had been before was Moose Mountain at 8,000 feet. The temperature was dropping so we changed into our cold weather gear. Lau said that we had a seven hour hike to make it to the summit. Events would prove other wise.
We plodded through the desert zone and entered the arctic zone as darkness started to fall at around 6 p.m. We pulled out our head lights and geared up for the long climb ahead. The terrain was getting tougher and tougher and by the time we reached the Arrow Glacier Camp (16,400 feet) we were looking for a cup of tea. Lau went to three tents to see if he could get any. One guide asked if he had a “stolen permit” as we didn’t have any tents. Lau said no, that we were trying to climb the mountain in 24 hours for the children’s charity Right To Play. They didn’t let him in.
From one large tent I heard a British accent. I knocked on the door and went in. Inside were Andrew and Ashley, both from London, England. They told us we would make the Crater Camp in about four hours and the summit was about an hour from there. We were definitely in the arctic zone. Snow and ice skirted the trail and the temperature had dropped to minus 15C.
The climbing went on and on. Tricky rock faces covered in ice and snow.
We had been climbing six hours since we left the Arrow Glacier Camp. It was 3 a.m. I was freezing and stuck 17,500 feet up Kilimanjaro.
To be continued . . .
