Hello to all! i guess i'm hoping that someone out there is still following the blog at all at this point. today i'm going to get a start on a summary 
of the climb itself. there was SO much that happened on the mountain that if you'd get any of the three of us talking about it i'm sure we could go on for hours. i'll try to trim that down to something reasonable for print, though it may be difficult. just the other day i was talking to brian on the phone, looked out the window to see a full moon rising over the horizon and ended up talking about the sky in africa for half an hour! brian brought up the fact that it was exactly one lunar cycle (about a month) ago that we were watching the full moon from kilimanjaro, and climbing hours at night with the moon blazing above us before watching the sun come up over the layer of clouds that blanketed the view beyond mwenzi...but that's getting ahead of myself!
of the climb itself. there was SO much that happened on the mountain that if you'd get any of the three of us talking about it i'm sure we could go on for hours. i'll try to trim that down to something reasonable for print, though it may be difficult. just the other day i was talking to brian on the phone, looked out the window to see a full moon rising over the horizon and ended up talking about the sky in africa for half an hour! brian brought up the fact that it was exactly one lunar cycle (about a month) ago that we were watching the full moon from kilimanjaro, and climbing hours at night with the moon blazing above us before watching the sun come up over the layer of clouds that blanketed the view beyond mwenzi...but that's getting ahead of myself!the climb was great! the mountain was great! climbing on the mountain with brian and brad (and the rest of the climb for sight team) was great! you may 
be starting to see the pattern here! but even though everything about it was "great", there were definately times throughout that were difficult, intense, stressful, and sometimes overwhelming. personally i believe that it was the combination of all those aspects that helped make it "great". for the first three days of hiking we (brad, brian and i) were without the rest of the team...without anyone else around really, which made for small quiet camps and trails free from the hords of climber we would meet on the rest of the mountain. we didn't realize how nice and peaceful that was until it was gone. our first day on the trail was hiking into a rain forest, though to our good fortune it wasn't raining at the time and was a beautiful sunny day. after taking only about 18 steps on close-to-level ground after being dropped off at the trail head, we started going up. really UP! it was steep, there were roots from all the trees sticking up in the trail, and alot of shady patches, from all the trees, that made it trickier to pick out the roots and a clear trail. after training for 6 months to prepare for the climb, we had spent the last week and a half traveling and this was a rude awakening for our legs. without a "warm-up" walk to get the blood going, they were put to work, and seemed to take offense to it! also, starting out in an area that required quite a bit of verbal assistance from brian or i kind of caught us off guard too. 
needless to say, it took us alittle time to get ourselves in order and get comfortable. we were all thankful that the first day was a short one! we had dealt with the initial difficulties of getting started, hiked through a rain forest that provided poor light for brad to see with, gained over 2500 ft of elevation, saw an elephant slide, and made it to camp 1, "the big tree". we got some dinner, some rest, and felt good. now we were ready! or at least we thought we were.
be starting to see the pattern here! but even though everything about it was "great", there were definately times throughout that were difficult, intense, stressful, and sometimes overwhelming. personally i believe that it was the combination of all those aspects that helped make it "great". for the first three days of hiking we (brad, brian and i) were without the rest of the team...without anyone else around really, which made for small quiet camps and trails free from the hords of climber we would meet on the rest of the mountain. we didn't realize how nice and peaceful that was until it was gone. our first day on the trail was hiking into a rain forest, though to our good fortune it wasn't raining at the time and was a beautiful sunny day. after taking only about 18 steps on close-to-level ground after being dropped off at the trail head, we started going up. really UP! it was steep, there were roots from all the trees sticking up in the trail, and alot of shady patches, from all the trees, that made it trickier to pick out the roots and a clear trail. after training for 6 months to prepare for the climb, we had spent the last week and a half traveling and this was a rude awakening for our legs. without a "warm-up" walk to get the blood going, they were put to work, and seemed to take offense to it! also, starting out in an area that required quite a bit of verbal assistance from brian or i kind of caught us off guard too. 
needless to say, it took us alittle time to get ourselves in order and get comfortable. we were all thankful that the first day was a short one! we had dealt with the initial difficulties of getting started, hiked through a rain forest that provided poor light for brad to see with, gained over 2500 ft of elevation, saw an elephant slide, and made it to camp 1, "the big tree". we got some dinner, some rest, and felt good. now we were ready! or at least we thought we were.
good stuff! keep writing!
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