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Tanzania, December 2006

Mt. Kilimanjaro

5-10 December 2006

My trip up Kilimanjaro started with a long ride on a dangerous highway, taking a daladala from Arusha to Moshi, and then another, smaller one, from Moshi to Marangu, near the entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park and the start of the trail we would take. It took hours, and I was squeezed in with dozens of people and their baggage - but it was cheap! The place I was going in Marangu had offered to arrange a taxi for $100, but this (uncomfortable, possibly dangerous) way cost less than the equivalent of $4, and was a memorable experience.

I was going to the Marangu Hotel, where I had booked my climb, and planned to stay there the nights before and after the trip. I'd be joining two other people for the climb, which I had booked through a safari company run by people whose kids were in the school where Scott taught. We'd take six days altogether. After I arrived at the hotel my gear was inspected by a stern woman in charge of making sure everyone had what they needed to make it, checking off each item on a list I had previously been given, and giving me several things she felt were lacking - and which I did end up needing. That evening I met the other hikers and we had a briefing on exactly what to expect for every aspect of the climb: when and where we'd eat, what the terrain would be each day, even how to handle tipping the guides and porters afterwards. We started to get to know each other and ate dinner alone in the hotel's dining room - it appeared that we were the only guests.

Our group that would be going up the mountain together was a Norwegian couple, Jarle and Solrun, one head guide, two assistant guides/porters, four porters, and myself. Everyone spoke English well enough to get by. While we were hiking we would carry a daypack with water, cameras, and extra clothes, while the porters carried everything else: the rest of our stuff, their clothes, and food for all of us. The guides and porters had all made the trip many times and could hike much faster than we could, even though they were usually carrying something like 40 pounds on their heads and some more on their backs. Yes, the preferred way to carry those heavy loads was balanced on their heads.

Right: Weighing the loads at the hotel before we leave

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and finished packing the mound of polyester, wool, and nylon we each took to keep us warm and dry into large sacks, which were then put into waterproof bags. The loads of supplies and food were carefully divided up among the porters and weighed under the critical eye of the woman in charge of supplies to make sure no one had too much and everything we needed was going; the loads would be weighed again at the park entrance by officials charged with enforcing the rules in the park. We took vans to the gates of the park, where groups of hopeful guides, porters, and gear dealers waited for people to show up without set plans. We signed a log book for the first of many times and set off for Mandara Hut (altitude: ~9,100 ft). We hiked slowly - "pole, pole" ("slowly, slowly") is the nearly constantly repeated mantra on the trail - and reached the hut in about 4 hours, stopping to eat our packed lunch on the way. The trail wound through a rain forest with thick moss covering the trees. We saw several kinds of monkeys and lots of birds.

Left: Solrun and I waiting to get in the van (Jarle)

Right: Jarle and Solrun at the trailhead

Left: Carrying a heavy load (Solrun)

Above left: Blue monkey on the trail (Jarle)

Above right: Waterfalls in the rain forest

Right: Arriving at Mandara Huts

The main advice offered, by nearly everyone, for dealing with the extreme altitude is to take the hiking as slowly as possible and not overexert yourself, especially on the first few days where the trail isn't that steep and it feels like hiking fast would be fine. This was a change from the way I'm used to hiking, carrying almost no weight and going quickly. The other main ways of reducing the effects of altitude are to drink a lot of water (recommendations range from 4-5 liters per day - which takes some concerted effort) and taking Diamox (Acetazolamide) - which then speeds up all that water going out, so I was getting up several times a night to go to the bathroom.

The huts are complexes of buildings: A-frame buildings with two sides of 4 bunks each, a large dining/common building, buildings for the guides and porters to sleep and cook in, and bathroom toilets rigged to flush with the water coming off the mountain. Other routes up the mountain require camping in tents, but the Marangu route is more developed, probably not quite as scenic, but a little more comfortable because of the huts. On the cold nights, we were happy to have some more permanent shelter. There are also lights in the buildings, with batteries and solar power, but we didn't use them too much since we usually went to bed pretty early. There was no other power available, but surprisingly there was cell phone service - people could call all over the world all the way up the mountain.

Since our group had three people, and the huts hold four, two of the nights we shared ours with a solo hiker. The first night it was a retired Austrian man Solrun described as "quite old," whose wife was on the beach in Kenya while he was off climbing the mountain - but he was in great shape, and had less trouble reaching the top than we did. We talked to other people climbing with other guides, both on the trails and in the huts; there were people from all over the world, and I only met two American couples the whole time.

Right: Drinking, always drinking

Above: Solrun and Jarle at breakfast

Below: Stanley, our head guide

The second day of hiking took us to Horombo Hut (altitude: ~12,200 ft), where we spent three of our five nights on the hike. The rain forest went away shortly after we started, replaced by shrubs and other plants more comfortable with the growing altitude. We stopped for lunch on the way, and arrived at the much foggier, windier, colder Horombo Hut in the early afternoon - and then took naps and rested, as we did most of the time when were weren't hiking or eating. We again shared our hut with an Austrian, this time a woman on her way down from the summit, who looked tired, but like she had really enjoyed the climb and making it to the top.

Left: Mossy trees near Mandara Huts (Solrun)

Right: Stanley and Earnest rest on the trail (Jarle)

Above left: Mawenzi peak

Left: Jarle hikes up the trail

The food we ate during the climb was good (other than small bananas that kept showing up, more and more bruised as the week went on). Breakfast was usually porridge, some eggs, bacon or sausage, and some fruit. We usually had sandwiches, fruit, and a cookie for lunch on the trail, and dinners were usually pasta or rice with curry, pasta sauce, or some other sauce with meat and vegetables in it.

Right: Eating lunch at a picnic site, with a view of the plains below

Above center: (Solrun) Above right: Jarle in the fog at the Horombo Huts

Above: Horombo Huts, with a view of Kibo Peak

Left: South view at sunset from Horombo

Above: Inside our hut at Horombo. Our clothes are hanging up to dry and we're wrapped in our sleeping bags resting.

Right: Japanese guy talking on his huge satellite phone - probably unnecessary, since regular cell phones worked all the way up the mountain.

Another way to reduce the effects of altitude is to take more time to acclimatize, which we did by staying at Horombo Hut an extra night, taking a hike in the morning and then resting the rest of the day. It seemed like about half the people going up took that extra day, and I think it did help. By the time the next morning rolled around, we were ready to go on, anticipating the climb that would take us to the summit within the next 24 hours.

Hiking to Zebra rocks and the saddle on our rest/acclimitization day

Right: There were still flowers at that altitude.

Above left: Signpost at the pass

Above right: Another Horombo sunset

Right: Leaving the Horombo Huts on the way to Kibo

On the fourth day we hiked to Kibo Hut (altitude: ~15,500 ft), leaving behind the small plants around Horombo and finally passing into an altitude where nothing grew at all. The hiking was still relatively easy, and we continued to take it slow. Kibo Hut, unlike the others, was a stone building with large dorm rooms, and it was colder inside than outside. Fortunatly we weren't spending that much time there. After eating dinner we went to bed to get a few hours of sleep, although between the cold, the altitude, and the anticipation of going to the summit I didn't manage to sleep for long.

Right: Barren trail to Kibo Hut

Left: Outhouses near the trail

Left: Kibo Hut entrance

Left: Tea/popcorn inside the stone hut

Right: Trying to stay warm in Kibo Hut before dinner

We were awakened around 11 PM that night. After pulling on almost all the clothes we had and drinking some tea, we set off for the peak. For the final ascent there's one guide per person, so if anyone needs to turn around they can. Unlike the rest of the trail to that point, the trail was steep and loose gravel, set in switchbacks all the way up from Kibo Hut to Gilman's Point (altitude: ~18,650 ft). The sky was clear and we turned off our heaplamps, walking slowly up the steep, cold slope. Looking back we could see groups of other hikers coming up the trail, and looking ahead we could only see a jagged, dark outline of the mountain against the stars. Every so often we would stop to catch our breath, surrounded by silence, then we'd start again with a rustle of Gore-Tex and the crunch of our feet and poles on the ground. As the trail nears Gilman's it gets steeper and goes through a field of large boulders, which were hard to climb around since we were tired and cold and dealing with the highest altitude any of us had been to.

Right: Getting ready to attempt to go to the summit

The sun was starting to hint at rising as we reached Gilman's Point around 5:15. There was a sign and we took some pictures, and our guides passed out some tea and cookies. From Gilman's Point to Uhuru Peak (altitude: 5891m, ~19327 ft) it's another hour and a half of hiking. I went on with Stanley, our head guide, but Solrun and Jarle headed back down from there. I was feeling pretty tired when we got to Gilman's, but after a rest and the tea, when we started again on the flat trail around the summit caldera I felt like I could have climbed to the peak even if it was 25,000 feet rather than 19,000. As we hiked to the peak we joined a trail with a few people coming up from other routes, and then the sun rose above the clouds. We could see Mawenzi, the other peak of Kilimanjaro, Mt. Meru, near Arusha, and the glacial ice cap covering parks of the peak of Kilimanjaro. Even though I felt stronger than before, we were still at extremely high altitude; taking my backpack off and pulling out my camera was a major effort that left me panting. After some pictures and a snack we started the long descent.

Left: Solrun and Jarle at Gilman's Point

Right: Sunrise from near Uhuru Peak

Right: Mt. Meru in the distance, from Uhuru Peak

Above: Self-portrait at Uhuru Peak

Left: Summit crater, Mawenzi Peak, and sunrise

Right: Stanley and I at the peak

Going back down was easier, especially as the sun came out and it got warmer. But now other muscles were getting worked as I continually stopped myself from sliding down the loose, steep trail back to the hut. Once I got there we rested for a short time, had some soup, pulled off a lot of layers, and then continued hiking to Horombo Hut. That was a long day of hiking. The next day we went all the way back to the park gates, descending through all the ever increasing vegetation. As we neared the end we took a lot of pictures, I think because we sensed that our time on the mountain was soon over and that we hadn't taken as many as we would have liked before, concentrating more on just hiking and breathing.

Left: Resting at Horombo after the summit and descent (Jarle)

Above left: Descending back into the forest (Solrun)

Left: Reaching the park gate at the end of the trail

Right: Signing the logbook

We got to the bottom and signed the book, picked up our certificates for reaching Uhuru Peak or Gilman's Point, and then rode back to the hotel. That night we ate dinner together, this time as friends, and all felt a little giddy, I guess from being finished with the hike and being back in the thick air.

Other than the altitude, the climb wasn't that physically tough. I enjoyed the views, the company, the hiking - everything about the trip was great. Having reached the goal of the summit, I don't know how soon I'd go up again, but I'm happy I went now and experienced something so many people talk and dream about.

Above: Jarle poses our guides and porters

Below: Flowers in the Marangu Hotel gardens