Kilimanjaro Adventure

A loooong day ! It was a tough wait at home on Monday morning: the hours crawled by, filled by going over, for the thousandth time, the itinerary, the gear, and what to expect. Drumming fingers, staring out the window, then a strange calm as departure time arrived. We picked up Mom and met Jeff, Marlene and Tristan at the airport. Fond farewells, some laughs, some photos, lots of tears and then .... GO TIME ! What followed was 20 hours of mind numbing monotonous hell. Two flights, a layover in Amsterdam's wonderfully efficient Schipol airport, and two hours of hot and crowded bureaucratic nonsense at Moshi airport. We found Peter, our driver, for the short drive to the lovely Bristol Cottages hotel in Moshi for a light meal, much needed shower and sleep. We are exhausted already. Surreal to think that this adventure is under way. Thirty years of dreaming, talking, planning and actual doing have come to this moment. We kept looking at each other, blinking, uncomprehending, remin

A good night's sleep followed by a nice breakfast does wonders for the soul. After breakfast, we met our guides, Elly and Stanford, and a driver called Frank. All are good guys, friendly and good-humoured, but completely serious about the job. A million questions about life in general and bowel movements in particular led to a growing sense of anxiety. This is going to be a test! We then walked around central Moshi. This is a "typical" backpacker town. Active, bustling, noisy and dusty, but also quite clean and friendly. The drivers here are active but not frantic as you would find in, say, India. We changed some money, took in the all-encompassing markets, had a good lunch and enjoyed the good vibe. But all the while, we had the sense that Elly and Stanford were watching, assessing, judging: they talked to each other constantly in Swahili, a cool language to listen to. At the end, we asked them how we did and they smiled and said "good." Well, I felt better a

Climbing day has finally arrived ! We drove from Moshi to Machame Gate ( about an hour's drive ) through the pastoral Tanzanian countryside. And then, through the clouds, we saw Kili, looming like a god in the heavens. Jeff and I could only stare, in the stark realization that we'd finally seen it. It whetted our appetite. Our arrival at the Gate was followed by hurry up and wait. We endured two hours of crazy frustration. Our support team arrived in a huge lumbering truck: seventeen young men poured out. We were amazed at the large number of men needed to support two climbers. These men greeted us with smiles and "jambo"s as we walked to the trail head. They would become our family for the next week. When we finally got going, the mountain asserted its dominance on us right away. Huffing and puffing, sweating, constant sucking on the water tube became our routine. Our first break came quickly, thank goodness, and, after that, we got second wind and began a magical

For me, the good night's sleep did not arrive. As a consequence, I hated today and, as I write these lines, am utterly spent. I'm so tired, I didn't perform well on the trail. I put my head down and endured, but enjoyed little of the spectacular landscape. We arrived at windswept Shira Camp around 1:30 pm, had lunch and tried to relax. I can't think clearly. I shall try to recount the experience more fully later. As for now, if I don't get some rest, I have severe doubts as to whether I'll be able to summit. I'm sure that's the exhaustion talking. I've never been this tired. Those were the words I wrote in my notebook on the evening of Day 5's climb. It sounded quite stark and depressing, didn't it? In retrospect, I chalk it all up to the fatigue. The day wasn't as bad as I had initially indicated, and, besides, there was much more bad stuff to come. But I was dealing with an exhaustion debt I have already written about and it was havin

I finally got a decent night's sleep: not a great sleep, but enough, even in the windswept barrens of Shira Camp. As a result, I felt really good in the morning. After a good breakfast, we set off at a steady uphill pace in bright sunshine. We walked through the heather zone into fields of lava rock, strangely reminiscent of Iceland. Our pace was so good, we started to pass other groups of climbers. Our spirits soared. We reached the Lava Tower around 1 pm. As its name implies, it is huge outcropping of lava rising to an impressive height in the sky. We had a delicious lunch there and took in the wonderful scenery. Elly told us that this location was the fabled "Western Breach", a well used route up to the summit. But the Breach was prone to rock slides and many people, including some Elly knew, lost their lives in past attempts. Eventually, the Tanzanian government closed the Breach and declared it a no-go zone. But Elly claimed that many still use it, without sanction

If you research the Kili climb, the phrase "The Barranco Wall" appears as a kind of gatekeeper to the secrets of Kilimanjaro. It is about 500 feet high ( not that big on this mountain ) but is in places a sheer wall of volcanic rock that involves hand-over-hand climbing. If you get through the Wall, you've really accomplished something. Others say "no big deal" or "exaggeration." I'm here to say that it is a big deal. In some spots, you have to hug the rock like a lover, pray to whatever god you suddenly believe in, don't look down, and trust your guide's instruction. When you get to the top of the Wall, you behold an incredible vista all around and a sense of elation and accomplishment: a type of "small summit" if you will. So, in our case, we took it on after a hearty breakfast and in brilliant sunshine. We hit the Wall right away and, right away, we felt the challenge. Both of us were terrified but we powered through. While