Kilimanjaro-Adventure: The Night Before & The Summit

Well we arrived in fog, enjoyed the sun and now the wind started either during or just after dinner. Departure for the summit is scheduled for 0600 which I was ready for ;-) the nite was not good high winds very cold and now a strange fear set in, call me crazy, paranoid who cares Ben was in the tent next to me and he had been very sick and sorry Ben looked like death warm over, but he is a real trooper and has battled on. I however cranked up the iPod to drown out the wind noise and this horrible thought went through my mind as I hear Ben cough over both the wind and my music, what if my lungs fill with liquid and I die in my sleep....not a present thought needless to say I laid in my bag with I am so ##*~€|^ glad I bought a -20f wraith from Mountain Hardware it was toasty everyday. I did throw a big 12 hour mega warmer down by my feet and just listened to music until 4AM . Wake up call was scheduled for 0500 with no tea service as we needed to move out quickly, needless to say I was in the mess tent at 0500 and had finished breakfast before anyone else was out of their tent, actually a good thing as my mole skin was on strangely and it took 2 attempts before I got it worked out. My adrenal levels were off the chart and I was ready to go it may of been our slowest start or it seemed so. Finally at 0627AM we departed Paul one of the assistant guides in the lead and I was close on his heals closely watching his every step, it was very cold I was kicking the ground with both feet on every step to trigger circulation, we were going beyond pole pole but several people that had been at the head the pack were now effected be altitude sickness and it took every thing each one of them could muster to make it to the summit. For the others it created the cold problem first my toes then a finger later my right thumb as I watched Paul stop and look down I had two thoughts one please speed up and the second that I have climbed another mountain and never looked down while actually climbing it.
It seemed like it would never end the climb had it all snow, Ice, frozen scree and a little scrambling and finally to the top as we pass the edge
I had another rush and I was headed to the ceremonial summit along with Clem, Lacey and Monica.

The best thing no one else was there it was all ours for over 12 minutes