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The next day we had a leisurely hike back to Mweka - got there around noon and had a very good hot lunch. Said goodbye to all the porters and got in the landrovers and headed back to the Keys hotel in Moshi. Ice cold beer never tasted so good! A hot shower and then off to an Indian restaurant for dinner. The group was cleaned up and partying, I heard Sean was especially in good form. Getting ready to head out on safari tomorrow! Stay tuned…
Chuck
Day 6: This was it, the time to test yourself. There was fear in everyone’s eyes that night as we gathered in the mess tents for cookies and tea before setting off into the cold and windy darkness (there, hows that for melodramatic). Happy New Year! A handful of bottle rockets and a half hearted cheer from the crowd got the train moving (or at least the caboose anyway - it seemed our group was towards the end of the caterpillar of headlamps winding up and up as far as you could see - there were others still behind us, though).
It really was dark, cold, and windy (15-20 deg. F. and 30-40 mph sustained winds w/ gusts 50-60). Even the guides said they hadn’t seen that kind of sustained winds - usually it blows like that for a few hours, but tonight it was blowing all night and into the morning. We started out hiking with our heads down, looking at the back of the legs of the person in front of you. Things went on in silence for a couple of hours. Freddy stopped us for a break at around 2am. People seemed cheery and there was more talk to be heard among the group. The next hour started out good, with the stars shining bright along with the lights from Moshi and the countryside below. You could hardly tell where the two seperated. The second half of the hour, however, things started falling apart. We were now at about 17,000′. Sean Keener sat down and said he was turning back. I must have given him a dirty look, because later he said he thought I was going to whack him with my trekking pole. Others in our group also started dropping out (mainly due to the cold and not the altitude). We also saw people that were on their way down from higher up, and some of these people didn’t look so good (one guy was even being escorted by his guide - he couldn’t walk straight). This wasn’t good for the morale, not to mention we were beginning to split up as a group - it was hard to keep people together - others would keep going and some would stop to rest. I was on my way back to the trail from a pee break when I ran into Sherry (tough Alaskan chick). She was puking, but managed to look up at me with a smile and say “hey, a little privacy, please!” I had to laugh. Needless to say, she made the summit and was still smiling. After that I wasn’t really sure who was ahead of me or who was behind me. This went on for about an hour until I ran into Freddy and most of the group stopped for a break. That was a comforting site, and they had met up with the early group! We were probably close to 18,000′ at this point and with the group mostly together, things were looking up. I ran into Cindy at this point, and she was in need of some water and light (her camelback hose had frozen up and her headlamp went out). No problem, we hiked together the rest of the way up trying to keep each other company to keep our minds off the relentless wind and the consuming exhaustion. The train of headlamps seemed to disappear a short ways up - this was Stella Point, the end of the steep, loose, sand and gravel, but still 340 vertical feet from Uhuru Peak (the true summit). We knew it was still another 45 min to an hour hike from this point, and it was a shallow slope, but that was still the hardest part of the entire climb. Fatigue was really setting in and the trail just seemed to keep winding farther and farther away. The scenery at this point, however, was spectacular! Dawn was breaking, and there were glaciers off to the left and the volcanic crater off to the right.
Trying to take photos was next to impossible (lack of energy, wind, bad lighting, etc…). Many of my photos turned out very blurry, but I think Jonathan was able to take some good ones.
Eventually the crowd of people indicating the end of the road appeared and with one final push, we made it!! Here is Cindy at the summit.
High fives were had, photos were taken, and I broke out the bottle of Summit Extra Pale Ale I carry with me for just such occasions, and shared swigs of beer with some of the group.
This portion of my quest for beer complete, we didn’t stay long at the summit. The pounding headache kept reminding me that I had a long ways to go yet that day. The hike down was mostly uneventful. Hiking down through the loose sand was kind of fun. It was like downhill skiing (or more like telemarking, actually). It was hard on the thighs, but easy on the knees, and we were cruising! Made it back to camp at 10am (8 hours up and 2 hours down). After crashing in the tent for 3 hours, we got up, packed up, and started hiking again. The hike down from there was long, but not too tough. Rolled into Mweka Camp (10,000′) at around 4pm. To our utter amazement, they sold beer!! It’s Kili Time.
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