Hike - Day 7 - Summit day
Oct 17th - day 7
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It was going to be an early start, so our coffee was ready by 3AM, breakfast by 3:30AM and after a gear check by our guides we began the longest and steepest ascent we had attempted so far. We set off at 4:20AM under the cover of dark, with just our headlamps and a full moon showing us the way. The first hour was all about traversing, side-stepping and climbing rocks as we reached upper basecamp. Just in time to view the majestic sunrise over jagged peaks of Mawenzi Peak.
It was the most beautiful sight as the Sun came up and you could see the different shades of red, orange, yellow, purple and blue with rays expanding out, with an un-ending cover of clouds beneath our feet.
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It was worth taking a break to sit back and admire the view. Ever see the sun rise and the moon set at the same time? We did that day.
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The next 4 to 5 hours were some intense switchbacks on a packed sand and gravel path. It just kept going and going and never seemed to end. But ‘pole pole’ was the name of the game. We took it slowly and as the air started to thin it was affecting our breathing, but we kept going, one foot in front of the other.
The higher we went the views got better and better. By this point we had passed the clouds, which were way down below us. After the switchbacks (or maybe sometime during) we entered Zone-5 (Arctic). It zigzagged on for a while before another straight steeper climb up to the first major marker for today. We could see it, but it felt like forever and this last bit was by far the hardest as I was getting lightheaded, hungry and nauseous again. Remember we started at 15,100 feet and we were already now well into the 18,000’s and it had also been a while since breakfast. With our energy levels dwindling we managed to drag ourselves to the top of the crater’s rim, also called Stella Point (18,885 feet). We really needed to sit down and just breathe to acclimatize for a bit and have lunch. The uneasy feeling in the head and stomach meant I could not really eat much, but whatever little I did helped and so did the break. From this point you could see right into the vast open expanse of the now dormant volcanic crater. There was nothing there other than volcanic rock, gravel, sand and patches of snow.
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All of us needed that since we were not done yet. We could see the summit in the distance from Stella Point. Another ~450 feet of altitude gain to go. We dropped our backpacks there and with just our Nalgene bottles started towards the summit. We had to walk around the craters rim in a clockwise direction, steadily climbing. It started to get misty and colder as we got closer to the summit. Along the way we passed what was the last remaining glacier on our left. At one point the entire area near the crater was covered in glaciers, but they are all gone now.
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The surrounding mist (not clouds), was thick enough to shroud the path beyond 10-20 meters, and combined with the absolute greyness of the soil and surrounding rocks on the craters rim it was like walking on a dead planet.
Slowly as we inched on, the end was finally in sight as the black and yellow boards near the summit came into view. What an amazing feeling, to make it all the way to the top of the mountain.
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We did it! Standing on top of Africa (quite literally) at 5,895 meters / 19,341 feet, which is the highest free-standing mountain, having conquered one of the 7 summits of the world. Plenty of pictures taken and lots of fists bumped to mark the achievement.
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Back to Stella Point, from where we split out into 2 groups. I picked the faster descent option. At first I was extremely skeptical about it, but it turned out to be
kind of fun. The guides called it scree-ing. Imagine sliding down the mountain side on loose gravel, in a constant continuous motion. It was just like skiing, but without the snow. The motion of moving your legs from side-to-side as you come down in an S-shaped path was what we did. It did kick up a lot of dust though, so we had to space ourselves out. But we came down 3,000 feet in no time at all. There was a lot of slipping and falling in there also.
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The remaining distance to the camp was hiking down through the same rocks we had come up as we reached camp. It took us about 6 hours to summit, but just under 2 hours to come back down. Taking those boots off after that and cleaning up a bit and hot tea was the most relaxing thing to look forward to before dinner.
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We were all done by 2PM, so the rest of the day was just to relax and recoup. What a day! After 6 days of hiking, we made it to the summit, to the very top of Africa!
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Dinner was at 6:30PM where we got our vitals checked as usual (O2 – 83; Heartrate – 93) before bed. The night was cold and windy, so that multiple trips to the makeshift toilet in another mini tent wasn’t a pleasant experience, especially given the rocky terrain. That tent zipper was starting to get to me also… it was getting stuck and in that cold!!
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We started at 15,100 feet and after 6 hours successfully summited Mt. Kilimanjaro at 5,895 meters (19,341 feet), before coming back down to 15,100 feet.