The Snows of Kilimanjaro

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“There, ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro. And then he knew that there was where he was going” – Ernest Hemingway: The Snows Of Kilimanjaro.

Kilimanjaro has been one of those trips Dennis and I have always wanted to do since we were both teens, the highest free standing mountain in the world. Mom and I had talked about climbing it “one day” during the peak of our frequent Appalachian trail hiking trips in her younger years before the start of her pulmonary issues, but it just never came to pass.

I finally bought our tickets in January long before Covid was a worry, when I saw fares finally just too good to be true and impossible to pass up, leaving from a few west coast cities. Since then I’ve anxiously waited to see if travel restrictions would be lifted before I finally committed to final bookings and placing a deposit on our trek with a local outfitter. It was still a bit touch and go up until the very end, not sure if things would change, however I was pretty determined not to call 2020 a total travel wash.
After flying from Tucson to Seattle spending our first few days out on the Olympic peninsula in Washington, one of our favorite places on earth, we flew out of Seattle-Tacoma airport to Tanzania on KLM airlines. The first leg was 10 hrs with a layover in Amsterdam and then another 8 hrs to Kilimanjaro airport. All in all the flights were fairly full and travel seemed to be slowly returning to normal around the world. Wearing a mask for so long on both flights was pretty uncomfortable, only being allowed to briefly remove them for food and drinks. Thankfully the food and alcohol on our international flights was as plentiful as normal travel, unlike the spartan domestic flights.

We left for our trek the following morning after our late arrival from Moshi town to the trail head about two hours away on the Kenyan border. We met with one of our local guides/owner of Maua Adventures, Jackson, and our fleet of 9 support staff consisting of a lead guide, cook, and 7 porters. It was laughable at first to see such a large group of men to support just us, having never had experienced anything as luxurious as this. We felt like Teddy Roosevelt about to embark on some great African expedition, employing a small village. However this is standard for Kilimanjaro and one simply cannot do the climb self supported even if you wanted. We soon learned that we were the first group our outfitter had since March due to covid and they were all thrilled to be back to work. We filled an entire mid size bus and set off for the Mtn. All the men were giddy on the bus, singing and laughing the whole way, as if they were all friends going on a much long overdue and anticipated camping trip.

We departed Lemosho gate, one of several different routes you can take to the summit. I chose Lemosho as it is often cited as the most scenic, albeit one of the longest routes. Altitude sickness is a serious issue climbing Kilimanjaro so the more days one spends on the mountain the greater chance you have at a successful climb.

Our first day was a short slow climb starting at 7,155 ft to 8,340ft over 4.3 miles up to Big Tree Camp. The hike was thru a gorgeous dense old growth moss and fern covered jungle, filled with monkeys and jackals. Two species of monkey, the Blue and the beautiful black and white Colobus we saw within our first hour on the trail. Our porters, many of which carried the supplies on their heads, passed us quickly on the trail and beat us to camp, having already set up our bags and tents, consisting of our sleep tent and “hotel tent”. The hotel was a separate tent high enough to stand in and had a table with table cloth, chairs, lamp and condiments and assortment of hot drinks. Frank our “butler” was waiting with hot water wash bins and a plate of fresh popcorn and cookies, boy we felt so spoiled and definitely out of our comfort zone having anyone wait on us. Dinner consisting of a delicious spread of pumpkin soup, salad, fish and pasta. No dehydrated camping meals or ramen on this trip! The Blue monkeys hung out in camp looking for small scraps leftover from previous campers. We shared the huge camp with only 4 other climbers.

The following morning we were woken at 0600, which was to be the norm, with hot coffee and hot water wash bins by Frank delivered at our tent door. Dennis said he finally knew what it felt like to be me while camping... We had another huge 2 course meal of porridge, eggs, toast and fruit before hitting the trail by 0700. We were instructed we must eat as much as we can and drink at least 3 liters of water a day to ensure we’d stay healthy and well hydrated to minimize altitude sickness. In the following days nausea and loss of appetite would set in so we had to calorie load while we can.

Our second day we continued to ascend up to 10,500 ft over 8 miles through the jungle and up into the next climate zone, the moorlands. The moorlands are beautiful plateau of grasslands filled with moss covered bushes and fields of heather, dotted with volcanic rock. Kilimanjaro consists of 5 unique climate zones, making it such a diverse and scenic hike.

By midday we arrived at Shira 1 camp and saw our first antelope and some large black and white ravens. Here we were within a few miles of Kenya and our guide told us many of the herd animals come over to lick the rocks for salt. We had the camp completely to ourselves. One of the perks of covid travel, having these places to ourselves instead of hordes of climbers that are typical in these camps. I can’t imagine the condition of the already pretty horrendous squat toilets if there were hundreds of tourists who seem to have no ability to aim in the hole. Honestly to just go behind a rock or bush would be usually preferable.

Our third day we woke to a chilly morning with frost on the ground and our first real good view of the glaciers and summit of the mountain, which is often shrouded in clouds . It seemed impossibly far and high to reach at this point. The expansive glacier fields of the north face started to come into view.

We continued to gain elevation and hiked up to Cathedral Point 11,616 ft for acclimatization before descending down and then up again to Shira 2 camp at 11,700 ft. As we walked into camp we were met by all of our porters who broke out into a traditional African song and dance about Kilimanjaro and a successful summit. What a thoughtful and incredible surprise it was to us. Of course much to Dennis’s amusement I was pulled into the dance and awkwardly tried to emulate their dance but ended up just stomping my feet and shaking my booty. Dennis thought he was off the hook until he too was brought in for a dance off in the center of the circle with the youngest of our porters. We’ve argued ever since about which of us had less rythmn and embarrassed themselves more . To our defense we were fatigued, hypoxic and stone cold sober.

We were told that many people start feeling severe effects of altitude at this camp and turn around at this point. It felt like a small victory as we continued to feel strong and had no symptoms yet, perhaps living in the high desert in AZ at 4,200 ft and doing many hikes in our nearby mountains gave us a early on small advantage.

Day 4 was our hardest yet, a long steep climb up to lava tower at 13,920 ft. , the same elevation as our upcoming base camp. We had a long steep slippery descent down to Barranco camp through totally different scenery consisting of glacial fed streams and large lava rocks amidst various cactus and trees that looked like Joshua trees.

In order to acclimatize to these high altitudes and minimize the physical effects of headaches and nausea you try to reach a higher elevation during the day than what you are going to sleep at, the mountaineering rule of “climb high, sleep low.” The routes and the placement of camps on the mountain are designed with this in mind. Having been at the altitude we were at today helped prepare our bodies for our summit day.

Day 5 we finally joined up with all the other routes on the mountain to all climb up the same trail leading up to the summit. There were perhaps 50 people in camp, ordinarily we were told there
could be a couple thousand at times. It again was a difficult day, climbing hand over hand scrambling up what’s known as the Barranco wall. We arrived into basecamp at 1100 and thought we were going to have a long lazy day after the hard morning. Our guides asked if we felt up to pushing on to basecamp and summiting that night, a day earlier than scheduled. I laughed and said of yes of course, half joking. Our guides were confident in us and said they were “100%” certain we’d have no problems and could do it. So what the hell, we hiked another few miles onward to Katanga Camp, at 13,920 ft. arriving totally exhausted and questioning our decision. Instead of having 2 lighter days acclimating we had a long day and just a few hour nap before our midnight wake up and summit hike! We have equal parts anxiety and excitement looking up at the peak still thinking it seemed impossibly far and high to reach.

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[aqib sarfraz]

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