day 7- summit day-high camp

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Summit day was obviously the hardest day of the trip. I woke up at 10pm after about a 2hr nap from dinner to get ready. It had been snowing, and there was fresh 1/2" of powder on the ground. At 10:30 we quickly ate something and then started hiking up to the summit. I had on every single layer I brought with me (and slept in them as well), and not much more than my poles, 2 liters of water in bladder, and 1 liter in a nalgene in my pack (for when the water in bladder tube freezes). The hike started out amazing under a full moon that lit up a big portion of the route up. As we started getting higher, the cold really set in and made everything harder. Our rest stops were very slow to keep the blood moving and after a little while, the guides even started singing as we were all feeling the pain. While trying to get to stella point, I did get a little wobbly on my hiking. After chugging my nalgene with electrolytes, I was able to keep going though the night.

Around 5am are so we finally reached Stella Point. From here, to the summit, it's not very difficult. All of the very steep elevation gain has been done, and it's an about an hour long hike from here to Uhuru point. As I started off from Stella Point, the sun started to rise with little to no cloud cover. The cloud cover came over night with the snow, and cleared in the morning. The sun rise above the clouds is something to behold and can't really be described. After hiking over a very small portion of snow, I finally reached the summit around 6:30am. By then, the sun has risen, and the heat from it felt amazing. The summitt wasn't really populated a lot, partially because my group got there early, but also because the pandemic has kept crowds down.

From the summit back down, is just a long slow trudge. Partially because it's very steep and hard on your knees, but also because you're exhausted. After a 1 hr nap, you eat lunch, pack your stuff up, and hike down to High Camp. Once reaching High camp, you basically collapse and rest for the length of the day.

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