Jim lombard
New member
Barafu midnight 8/20
Sabi was there as promised at 11pm to make sure we were awake. It took us nearly 40 minutes to get dressed. We all wore synthetics next to our skin then a layer of fleece followed by parka and thermal pants. Two pairs of fleece socks followed then two pairs of gloves, balaclava and hat. Putting our boots on was the last thing and then we emerged into total darkness. We looked up onto the ridge as a large group set off with headlamps blazing.
A thermos of hot chai was at the door of the tent and a plate of biscuits. We ate what we could. My stomach felt OK but I wasn’t about to push it. Just before midnight we headed off moving very slowly. It was cold, probably below freezing but we were comfortable enough. Once we reached the top of Barafu again we had to tackle a steeper section just beyond. The footing was great and we had no problems.
At around 1am we were at 15,500 feet, moving very slowly, not at all like the 1,000 feet an hour we do at home. By 2am my altimeter said 16,000 and we had passed several groups. We stopped so Anne could remove an extra layer, she was getting hot. I looked up and saw some of the groups that left at 11:30 well above us, their lamps were small dots on the mountainside.
At 3:30 we were trudging slowly, heads down, breathing hard and just pushing upward. Anne needed to stop; she was falling asleep on her feet. She resorted to talking to herself to try and stay awake, once or twice she stumbled and I had to grab onto her pack to steady her. It seemed to get colder the higher we climbed but we were comfortable enough.
Mohamed decided to split the group, Fitz and I were doing OK and he suggested we join Lameik while he stayed with Anne.
I didn’t like the idea of leaving Anne, she was suffering at that point and needed every ounce of encouragement I could give her. So Fitz and Lameik went on ahead while I tried to get Anne to eat some chocolate and drink some water. My altimeter read 17,000 feet and I knew Stella point was at about 18,600 or so. At the pace we were going that meant about 6:30….we were moving much slower. The footing was gravelly, and it seemed to be getting steeper. My headlamp had winked out, instead of replacing the batteries I put on my backup lamp.
We passed a guide who was sitting with a German climber, he was crying softly. I’ll admit there was nothing I’d ever done that could prepare me for climbing up a steep slope in pitch black for hours and hours at high altitude. It played with your mind; it played terribly with Anne’s. That guide said 1-1/2 hours to Stella, it was 4:30am, perhaps her was trying to encourage his client. My altimeter said 17,600, I did the math, it was 2 hours at least.
By 4:50 Anne got very sick and nearly lost consciousness. She was staggering and we both had to grab her as she was falling and help her sit down. Less than an hour and a half to daylight but it was as black as pitch and the terrain ahead seemed to be steeper. I looked at Mohamed and then shined her flashlight into Anne’s eyes. She was terrified and saying something about dying on the mountain. Then she was violently sick and I knew her summit bid was over.
The German hiker and his guide were coming up behind us then. I told Mohamed we’d better get her down and he agreed. He said, “Why don’t you join up with this guide and I will take Anne down.” I’ll admit it was very tempting, my altimeter now said 17,800 feet and I could see one of the glaciers just off to our left. I felt fine, no headache, no nausea and my legs were still strong.
But I looked at Anne, she was scared and we’d have to climb down that scree slope in total darkness and I was worried she’d keep stumbling. So they left and in a minute or two we started down the mountain. She actually did better than I did coming down, my second headlamp failed and now we only had her Petzl lamp and Mohamed’s weak flashlight. At 5:15 we met one of the hikers in our group, Jeff. He was discouraged to see us coming down.
Anne said, “Why don’t you join Jeff and go ahead, I’m OK now.” But that half hour of climbing down in the dark had taken it’s toll on me, all I could think was climbing back up to reach the point where we turned back, could I do it? I didn’t want to slow him down. Again, most of this climb is mental and I will admit I was tired by then. So he continued on up alone. By 5:30 we were moving quickly, Anne’s spirits lifted as we saw the brightening of the sky east over the spine of Mawenzi.
Below us we could see two bright lights, I thought they were camp but when Mohamed yelled something in Swahili I knew something was wrong. It was in the tone of his voice. He told us in English that somebody was heading down the wrong trail, that path ended at a cliff. We were surprised when we saw it was the woman Anne had helped days before and her guide.
She was leaning heavily on him and staggering by the time they climbed back up to the point where we were. I had one chocolate bar left and Anne took it and fed her some small pieces. We were at 16,500 ft and the sun was coming up. The sunrise was at 6:30, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
We reached Barafu at 7:15am, Anne and I went to our tent and she fell asleep instantly. I stayed awake and wrote some about our night before blacking out myself. Sometime around 9am we woke, Fitz was getting into his tent. He and Lameik had been to the roof of Africa. We didn’t bother him with too many questions, they could wait, he needed sleep.
At 11am they got us up and tried to feed us lunch. We ate sparingly but drank allot of tea and Milo and by 12 we were packed up for the hike down Mweka trail. We felt OK; Fitz was more tired of course. He described the 7 hours to Stella and then Uhuru as the hardest thing he had ever done (he’s climbed Mt Kenya 4 times.) He’d been sick just below Stella and had thoughts of turning back but Lameik had pushed him to continue on.
He told us of the cold and lack of oxygen and how at many points he was just dragging his feet to move on. He said reaching Uhuru was a huge relief, just took 10 pictures and then headed down. When he reached Stella point again he saw a hiker who was having trouble breathing and was being rushed down the mountain. Fitz said the trip down was easy from there; it only took 2-1/2 hours.
At one point we looked back and then asked Mohamed just how far up the mountain we had been. He pointed out the huge rock where we had turned back. Stella was so close, it was hard for both of us to see. As I write this 4 people have died on Kilimanjaro this year so I believe we made the right decision.
The trip down Mweka from Barafu was also easy, the trail well placed and in great condition. We reached Mweka camp after descending over 4,000 feet. When we re-entered the upper jungle it was raining lightly which felt refreshing and cut some of the ever-present dust. It was about 5:30pm, we washed up and had our last dinner on the mountain. We all slept great that night.
Mweka camp to Mweka gate 8/21
Sabi woke us up, Mohamed had wanted to get an early start so we could sign out without having to wait too long. There was a large number of people at camp, we quickly ate breakfast and started down the mountain. It was a lighthearted walk out, we were happy to have spent 5-1/2 great days on Kilimanjaro. Hopefully I’ll be back to revisit the mountain again. The only bad thing about this last day was working our way past the people hawking every kind of t-shirt, stick knife, curio, etc. I don’t know how many times I said, “I don’t have any money!”
We signed out at the gate, didn’t have to wait too long and then we were off for Moshi and a hot shower and swim in the hotel pool. We spent the next two days at Lake Manyara and Ngorogoro National Parks, HIGHLY recommended!
Sabi was there as promised at 11pm to make sure we were awake. It took us nearly 40 minutes to get dressed. We all wore synthetics next to our skin then a layer of fleece followed by parka and thermal pants. Two pairs of fleece socks followed then two pairs of gloves, balaclava and hat. Putting our boots on was the last thing and then we emerged into total darkness. We looked up onto the ridge as a large group set off with headlamps blazing.
A thermos of hot chai was at the door of the tent and a plate of biscuits. We ate what we could. My stomach felt OK but I wasn’t about to push it. Just before midnight we headed off moving very slowly. It was cold, probably below freezing but we were comfortable enough. Once we reached the top of Barafu again we had to tackle a steeper section just beyond. The footing was great and we had no problems.
At around 1am we were at 15,500 feet, moving very slowly, not at all like the 1,000 feet an hour we do at home. By 2am my altimeter said 16,000 and we had passed several groups. We stopped so Anne could remove an extra layer, she was getting hot. I looked up and saw some of the groups that left at 11:30 well above us, their lamps were small dots on the mountainside.
At 3:30 we were trudging slowly, heads down, breathing hard and just pushing upward. Anne needed to stop; she was falling asleep on her feet. She resorted to talking to herself to try and stay awake, once or twice she stumbled and I had to grab onto her pack to steady her. It seemed to get colder the higher we climbed but we were comfortable enough.
Mohamed decided to split the group, Fitz and I were doing OK and he suggested we join Lameik while he stayed with Anne.
I didn’t like the idea of leaving Anne, she was suffering at that point and needed every ounce of encouragement I could give her. So Fitz and Lameik went on ahead while I tried to get Anne to eat some chocolate and drink some water. My altimeter read 17,000 feet and I knew Stella point was at about 18,600 or so. At the pace we were going that meant about 6:30….we were moving much slower. The footing was gravelly, and it seemed to be getting steeper. My headlamp had winked out, instead of replacing the batteries I put on my backup lamp.
We passed a guide who was sitting with a German climber, he was crying softly. I’ll admit there was nothing I’d ever done that could prepare me for climbing up a steep slope in pitch black for hours and hours at high altitude. It played with your mind; it played terribly with Anne’s. That guide said 1-1/2 hours to Stella, it was 4:30am, perhaps her was trying to encourage his client. My altimeter said 17,600, I did the math, it was 2 hours at least.
By 4:50 Anne got very sick and nearly lost consciousness. She was staggering and we both had to grab her as she was falling and help her sit down. Less than an hour and a half to daylight but it was as black as pitch and the terrain ahead seemed to be steeper. I looked at Mohamed and then shined her flashlight into Anne’s eyes. She was terrified and saying something about dying on the mountain. Then she was violently sick and I knew her summit bid was over.
The German hiker and his guide were coming up behind us then. I told Mohamed we’d better get her down and he agreed. He said, “Why don’t you join up with this guide and I will take Anne down.” I’ll admit it was very tempting, my altimeter now said 17,800 feet and I could see one of the glaciers just off to our left. I felt fine, no headache, no nausea and my legs were still strong.
But I looked at Anne, she was scared and we’d have to climb down that scree slope in total darkness and I was worried she’d keep stumbling. So they left and in a minute or two we started down the mountain. She actually did better than I did coming down, my second headlamp failed and now we only had her Petzl lamp and Mohamed’s weak flashlight. At 5:15 we met one of the hikers in our group, Jeff. He was discouraged to see us coming down.
Anne said, “Why don’t you join Jeff and go ahead, I’m OK now.” But that half hour of climbing down in the dark had taken it’s toll on me, all I could think was climbing back up to reach the point where we turned back, could I do it? I didn’t want to slow him down. Again, most of this climb is mental and I will admit I was tired by then. So he continued on up alone. By 5:30 we were moving quickly, Anne’s spirits lifted as we saw the brightening of the sky east over the spine of Mawenzi.
Below us we could see two bright lights, I thought they were camp but when Mohamed yelled something in Swahili I knew something was wrong. It was in the tone of his voice. He told us in English that somebody was heading down the wrong trail, that path ended at a cliff. We were surprised when we saw it was the woman Anne had helped days before and her guide.
She was leaning heavily on him and staggering by the time they climbed back up to the point where we were. I had one chocolate bar left and Anne took it and fed her some small pieces. We were at 16,500 ft and the sun was coming up. The sunrise was at 6:30, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
We reached Barafu at 7:15am, Anne and I went to our tent and she fell asleep instantly. I stayed awake and wrote some about our night before blacking out myself. Sometime around 9am we woke, Fitz was getting into his tent. He and Lameik had been to the roof of Africa. We didn’t bother him with too many questions, they could wait, he needed sleep.
At 11am they got us up and tried to feed us lunch. We ate sparingly but drank allot of tea and Milo and by 12 we were packed up for the hike down Mweka trail. We felt OK; Fitz was more tired of course. He described the 7 hours to Stella and then Uhuru as the hardest thing he had ever done (he’s climbed Mt Kenya 4 times.) He’d been sick just below Stella and had thoughts of turning back but Lameik had pushed him to continue on.
He told us of the cold and lack of oxygen and how at many points he was just dragging his feet to move on. He said reaching Uhuru was a huge relief, just took 10 pictures and then headed down. When he reached Stella point again he saw a hiker who was having trouble breathing and was being rushed down the mountain. Fitz said the trip down was easy from there; it only took 2-1/2 hours.
At one point we looked back and then asked Mohamed just how far up the mountain we had been. He pointed out the huge rock where we had turned back. Stella was so close, it was hard for both of us to see. As I write this 4 people have died on Kilimanjaro this year so I believe we made the right decision.
The trip down Mweka from Barafu was also easy, the trail well placed and in great condition. We reached Mweka camp after descending over 4,000 feet. When we re-entered the upper jungle it was raining lightly which felt refreshing and cut some of the ever-present dust. It was about 5:30pm, we washed up and had our last dinner on the mountain. We all slept great that night.
Mweka camp to Mweka gate 8/21
Sabi woke us up, Mohamed had wanted to get an early start so we could sign out without having to wait too long. There was a large number of people at camp, we quickly ate breakfast and started down the mountain. It was a lighthearted walk out, we were happy to have spent 5-1/2 great days on Kilimanjaro. Hopefully I’ll be back to revisit the mountain again. The only bad thing about this last day was working our way past the people hawking every kind of t-shirt, stick knife, curio, etc. I don’t know how many times I said, “I don’t have any money!”
We signed out at the gate, didn’t have to wait too long and then we were off for Moshi and a hot shower and swim in the hotel pool. We spent the next two days at Lake Manyara and Ngorogoro National Parks, HIGHLY recommended!
