Day 5 - 02 January 2011

Writing something in real time is a novelty I have no clue what day it is other than the 2nd, it was my second full day on diamox. It really makes you pee is all I can say up 4 times and never left the tent way too cold a gallon zip lock works great and can be quickly emptied out the front of the tent. I usually wake up early but today I stayed in my bag as long as possible to allow the sun to come up. My headache was back and if you move to fast you get that dizzy feeling, morning tea showed up and I am tea'd out I switched to Milo, I quickly packed and moved my pack outside to fill my winter version of the platypus only to find the hose frozen, I laid it in the sun and headed to the mess tent which was being moved outside with the mountain & sun to our backs after breakfast we received a demo of hyperbolic chamber and 02 if ever needed.

Morning teas was at 0800 with a 0845 or 0900 departure up to Arrow Glacier Camp

I hiked from 15.2 to 16.2 to the arrow glacier camp it was constant fog and mist zero photos, hopefully Meg & Ethan took some as the clouds and mist formed around us and was so thick you could not see someone 3 feet away, a long pole pole hike, I added two layers, switched hats and added gloves during the short hike. I was greeted by my porter who picked out a great spot for my tent after stashing my Pack and grabbed my big mittens before dashing to the mess tent for tea and none too soon as the rain/sleet moved upon our camp. Today's lunch was tuna salad filled tomatoes I am so so glad I brought the Justins almond butter and hazelnut spreads in the individual packages add honey and bread instant lunch at 15960k along with a few veggies and Milo. Back to my tent to catch up on writing (not) I fell asleep woke up 2 hours later cold and damp feeling, off to the mess tent for another shot of Milo. I found Lacey & Prasanna playing a strange game called banana something like scrabble without a board after 4cups of Milo the called it quits and weighed to last card played with a normal deck plus the joker something like UNO.

Back to Lacey for a minute, I have always said how small the planet we inhabit really is, I was talking to someone about wintering at the south pole and she piped up that she also wintered working for our mutual friend cookie John. So pretty wild that two people who wintered at the south pole pick the same tour operator and date to climb Kilimanjaro. What makes this even more funny is that they use pole pole in Swahili to mean go very slowly.

It's really bad I have lost 2 days writing in my journal, I will have to rely on photos to jar my Memory and piece things back together.
It is nearly freezing and super thick fog with rain and sleet making nice sounds on the tent. 1630 dinner will not be until 1800 or so and we have to leave by 0500 hard departure time to make it up the western breach. If you leave later the rocks will thaw and can cause a slide, helmets required.



As we make our way to crater camp at 18.5k and then to the summit






-


Nothing like a picnic lunch in the clouds



The top of the western breach lots of oh shit's but everyone made it safely





Crater camp was very warm little didmi know the wind storm from hell was only hours away


The best news was i felt great and was ready to summit



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Arrow Glacier Camp

Day 4 - 01 January 2011

I woke up around 6AM and started to pack while still in my sleeping bag. It was Randy's daughters Kristine's (hope the spelling is correct all of the SPS paper work said Randy's daughters) so another singing celebration and I know that Randy recorded the entire event smiling and dancing as the crew performed. It was the easiest of the climbs to 15,214ft this week and we had lunch in camp for the first time and it was IMHO the best lunch of the trip grilled cheese with veggies and a soup which they called minestrone but I think more like a watery tomato. After lunch I laid in the tent for 2 hours writing in my journal, while Iyar my iPad it was too much work in hind site it should of stayed in the lodge 6 lbs I did not need to carry to nearly 20k. After resting to nearly 3pm I joined some of the others for a nature hike to lava tower, I chose to accompany Ben and Mariania to keep walking while other scrambled up to the top of lava tower. My head was still hurting and I wanted the time to acclimate to 15k plus and then back to camp. Dinner was pasta, veggies and I even ate the egg plant (I must be sick). I had a massive headache and I just wanted to crash, however Lemma informed us that we would be celebrating the 4 birthdays along with the New Year! What happens next was not expected 4 bottles of French Champagne Brut and little metal cups, two cakes appeared one saying happy birthday and the other happy new year, sorry no photos as I have not been carrying my camera to dinner. We opted to give the new years cake back to the crew. Finally after muCh singing and talk I headed to my tent to crash 2015 45 minutes later than yesterday

Lava tower


Moss on the rocks



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lava Tower

Day 3 - 31 December 2010

I woke up at 13.9 with a splitting headache and my neck hurt, I knew it was going to be a 6 plus hour day of hiking to the lava tower.

It was Aaron Mckuin's birthday the first of 4 over the next 4 days. I am sure everyone has seen a wait staff at a restaurant make a feeble attempt at singing Happy Birthday, I can tell you it was nothing like that the entire support crew surrounded Aaron and sang both in English then swahili I hope Someone uploads a video it was pretty special.
The first part of the day was just amazing clear and amazing views of MT Meru while I had a headache the scenery well off set my pain





I was happy that we saw MT Meru as the clouds, rain and fog quickly rolled in as it had every day since we started. It started to rain very hard and to date my GoLite poncho had worked flawlessly keeping both my pack and I very dry.


I was feeling like shit and low on energy I should of stopped and put on a rain jacket to cover my MTN hardware base layer or pushed up my sleeves inside the poncho but I didn't and was wet all the way to my elbows. I had been drinking 4 liters of water a day and felt I was well hydrated however after dinner I skipped desert and went to my tent I took 1/2 a 125mg of diamox to see if it helped - I was out at 7PM and woke up at 1130PM turned my IPod shuffle (a real must to block the camp noise I recommend at least 3 of them) back to sleep for 30 minutes oops it's a New Year the crew from the camp next door put on quite the show with yelling and banging pots & pans. Back to sleep another day is done and a whole new year lies ahead.




Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Moir Camp

The Night Sky

I got up in the middle of the nite for a bath room break and was just taken back by the night I saw Robin and a few others starring up at the stars in amazement' Robin said he saw 3 shooting stars I now with I some form of try pod to capture some time exposures. Back to bed.
A few shots from the door of my tent and me half in my sleeping bag

The crescent moon, I watched it rise above Kilimanjaro at 0330AM





A great thing to see


The best 250.00 dollars spent was the single supplement having my own tent made a world of difference

Location:Shira camp

Day 02 - 30 December 2010

Well at 0630AM several of the SPS staff showed up to my tent with morning tea and followed shortly by a bowl of hot water for washing.
After breakfast we broke into two groups and we headed to Shira camp at 11502 ft this day was just a long day of hiking in wet rain forest like terrain


Porters on the trail


Victor one of the head guides just an amazing person


More porters


I arrived at Shira camp was treated by my porter and shown to my tent a great day followed by dinner and off to bed this camp had many groups and was pretty noisy the next camp Moira camp should be better I hope

Location:Headed to Shira Camp

Day 01 29 December 2010

A late start proved to make for a longer day than we ever imagined not sure if this was Africa time or that one of the group was grading papers and had not shown up yet. 0915 or so and we are finally on the road. After a hour
We stopped at the last store before starting our climb.


Then we left the main highway for a dirt road that was very dusty, I was thankful for my bandana too say the least


We stopped at the first check point and some form of negotiation took place between Lemma and the officials while the rest had a bathroom break and we were off to the main check in.


It was still dry when we arrived I was in line for 30 mins each person must sign in with name, address, occupation, passport number and age and only one ledger ;-( I jumped around and took a few photos


The rules


And a few more


It started raining and it was really coming down lucky for me I was able to stand underneath the awning until I signed in, finding where the Land Cruiser had moved to was my next challenge while not getting totally drenched. As with any African transaction Lemma paying for all of us took another 30 minutes and each of us had to sign a waiver for the western breach route


Finally off little did we know what the next 7 hours would offer, the rain continued to come down in buckets, the dirt road quickly became a rutted muddy mess. The land cruisers were in low lock and what really surprised me was the all had open differentials.


The road got worse very quickly there were several vehicles stuck and our driver was very good and got us to a safe place to observe the chaos. Not many in the group had ever been off roaring so as the cruisers were sliding, tipping spinning their way up the road they were hanging on for their lives.


As you can see we picked up a few hitch hikers trying to stay out of the mudd


The road ahead was not promising the right side was deep and cut up and the left was blocked.


Then one of the 4 SPS Land Cruisers got high centered on a stump and after numerous attempts finally used a high lift jack to free the vehicle.


Less than a football field a defender was stuck and blocking the road :-(


We tried for 20 minutes to free it without any success, back to collect our packs and the porters were called down from the trail head to collect our gear. It was nearly 4PM when we started the hike


A second never went by for 7 days of amazing the porters are and what the do is beyond most peoples imagination. I was appalled to see them carrying our gear in clothes & boots given to them by previous climbers and most of it did not fit well.


Well after 4 hours of hiking we arrive at our camp showed to our tents and introduced to our porter that would be carrying our belongings for the next 7 days?


One of two mess tents


Mine was the last bag to arrive and my porter said wow that was heavy I felt very bad the trail was very difficult and muddy plus as darkness fell upon us we all were shocked that only a few of the porters had flash light none with a proper headlamp for hiking at night. Well dinner at 10 PM and off to bed.

Location:Kilimanjaro

Departure to Kilimanjaro

Looks like I may win the pool on when we will depart.

Suppose to be 0730 I took 0930 and it is 815 and not all of the vehicles have arrived.

I know African time but that should not apply on such an important day



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad