The Climb - Summit Day

here we go! though i'm writing about our summit day, i need to start by back-tracking and get you some info from the day before. brad had worked hard, done great and we made it to barafu hut in good time, but there were some obvious concerns about the next 24 to 36 hours. over "soup" and sandwiches in the dining tent, we discussed our options with the others on the "climb for sight". starting off, though they all had a strong desire for us all to get to the top together, we made it clear to them that it would be best if they stuck together as a group of 4 and made a good shot at the top with or without us. then brad voiced his strong, and valid, concerns of what was ahead of us. to summarize, brad was visually spent! in his opinion, even if he kept the pace that we had been moving at for the last several days (with less visual tension than he was having now), it would take us somewhere between 22 and 28 hours to summit and then descend to the next camp. but with the position of his current visual state, and the fact that there would be at least 6 to 8 hours in the dark that he would be climbing by merely following reflective tape on brian's or my legs and boots, it made the effective "life" of his eyes decrease dramatically. this was a very discouraging thought for brad...but somewhat accurate. though he wasn't done, brad wasn't sure how much was left (visually) and was concerned that he would "get in the way" of my and brian's attempt of the summit. i believe our answer to him was to "shut up"! we were there to do this together, and that's exactly what we were going to do!

so...in the wee hours of the morning, with the full moon lighting up a cold, crisp night air, we three (and our great guide douglas) started for the summit of mt kilimanjaro. our intent was to go 'til brad couldn't. and from that spot we'd watch a sunrise from a point higher than anywhere in the contiginous united states.

the climbing right out of camp was tough. it was rocky, with some small bouldering, and switchbacks and more rock. but...it truly was a beautiful night. though the air was cold enough to make your lungs burn, the sky was clear and the full moon SO bright that it lit up the whole sky, making only the brightest of stars visible. as i looked at the stars i recognized orion. he is a winter constollation in the northern hemisphere, but was laying (somewhat upside down) right there in africa in early august. wow! anyway...we climbed for several hours, having to stop more and more regularly for brad to rest his eyes and head. brad was right, it was obvious that he was visually exhausted, but with our encouragement, he kept plugging away at the rock in front of him. it got to the point that brad needed to stop every few minutes to rest his strained eyes. we'd ask him for alittle more...and he'd give it. time and again. then, just as we topped a ridge that would give a clear view to the east...he couldn't. so we made our way to some good "sitting" rocks...that was it. so, somewhere close to 16,500 feet, we waited. quitely. in the strange combination of darkness and rugged beauty we waited for the sun. this was a time of reflection for us all. i can only speak for myself, but know that both brian and brad were as moved as i was. i thought of all that had happened to get us there. of the training. of all the preparations. of the bonding. and then of the trip itself. of the massive mountain and this wild place on the other side of the globe. but mostly i thought of what brad had endured and accomplished to get to this point. other climbers gave what it took to get to the top of this majestic mountain, but brad had given ALL he had. it was an emotional time for me, to think how my life had been blessed to be a part of something so rare. then, as the first rays of light made their way over the layer of clouds far below us, it was like God himself was there hugging us and high-fiving us, letting us know that we had done it...we had summited!

the sunrise itself was great. as the morning colors swept across the clouds, the moon continued to light up the west sky above kibo. in the daylight, we made our way back to camp at barafu hut in short order, stopping mostly to gauk at the difficult terrain we had passed through on the way up. we knew, due to our slower pace, we had a long day ahead of us, so instead of catching a few zzz's, we packed our gear and headed down the mountain, as we had another 5000 ft to descend that day! the trail, and the sun location, made for quick moving for the first third of the way to our next camp. but the rest of the trail, the last third particularly, made up for the easier sections. we had to work down through a cloudy, misty layer and over some of the rockiest trails of the trip, but made it to camp well before the sun went down. i think brad may have just closed his eyes and hung on to brian's pack at this point:) upon arrival to our camp in the rain forest we were all pretty tired, but brad was in real need of resting his eyes and head. brian and i stayed around camp and in the dining tent to congratulate the other climbers on their successful summit as they rolled into camp.

what a day! it had been a day to remember for a lifetime! but we still had another day of descent to get off the mountain. keep checking back, we'll get off this mountain yet!

The Climb - Day 6

only a couple days from my last post and i'm back at it, i must be smelling the barn! hope everyone is sitting on the edge of their seats by now, waiting anxiously for the next day's climb!

the morning of day 6 was beautiful. everything, the sky and the air around us, seemed clean and crisp. days like that don't do anything but help attitudes as you roll out of your sleeping bag. we enjoyed, and used, the help from the nice morning, but were feeling remarkably well as we got ready to start our day on the trail even if there wouldn't have been the sunshine. though brad's eyes seemed to be "wearing out" just alittle quicker every day with the day in and day out tension and stress that he was putting on them, he would start the morning feeling good, "ready to go", after a good night's rest. it was the morning of this 6th day that saw, for the first time, brian, brad and i on the trail heading toward the next camp before any other climbers. it was a good feeling for all of us to look up the trail and only see a few porters ahead of us. not that it would last long:), but it was a good start! this day was a shorter day, but almost every step was up. really, i think there were only about 200 yards or so of slightly downhill movement. and the last half mile was pretty rough. steep and rocky with a couple slightly exposed areas just before camp. and sure enough, even though it took us longer to make the climb than brad had hoped, we made it to the barafu hut in good time, giving us plenty of time to rest in the afternoon. brad really did great this day! he had made it to the highest camp of the trip, at close to 15,000 feet. but although brian and i were proud of what brad had done, it was increasingly obvious that the visual tension and stress that he was dealing with was effecting his physical performance. physically he was fine, but the "quick stops" needed to rest his eyes and head were becoming more and more regular with slightly longer stops need as the day progressed. we were glad to get to camp early to give him the opportunity to rest his eyes as much as possible, as we were to leave EARLY the next morning for our summit bid.

like i said, this was a high camp. being at a high elevation regularly brings with it wind, cold and rock. this camp was no exception! there was rock EVERYWHERE, and no chance of anything level to pitch a tent on. as a result, it was, by far (in my opinion), the worst night of sleep of the whole trip. waking up every 20-30 minutes finding myself coiled up like an achordian at the downhill (downcliff) door of my tent was far from that good night's sleep i was hoping for before our early departure! anyway...i've gotten ahead of myself. let me backtrack just a bit. when we arrived at our rocky ridge they called camp, brian headed to the ranger hut to sign the 3 of us into the camp while i found a place for brad and i to sit as the porters busily hustled around camp putting up the last of the tents. as we were sitting there, i notice that the 2 remaining tents are brian and brad's tent, and my tent. after looking around, i informed brad that it didn't look good for either of us, 'cause there's not a flat spot within a mile! shortly i see brian and brad's tent going up right there near us, in close proximity to the dining tent and toilet tent, which seemed to put brad at ease, but i didn't see an area that was big enough for my tent anywhere around. about that time, the porters had put my tent together and were carrying it around looking for a place to put it and happened to spy a nice site just a very short piece back the trail. i wish i had gotten video of what ensued, but instead stood there as a spectator in awe of what was developing. it seems as though a rival guide company and porter team had "claimed" that spot already, though there sure wasn't a tent on it at the time. so, as an arguement about the "ownership" of the little halfway level pile of rock got underway, and the volume increased, porters from both sides streamed in to defend their position. wow! it got heated. they were swahili-ing back and forth like i hadn't ever heard! and though my swahili is limited (very limited), i could make a fairly accurate guess as to the words that were being spoken! now there's 6 porters to a side. now 8. now 10. now 11, no wait, maybe only 10, it's just so hard to count when they're pushing and shoving and rumbling like that! if they would have held still i'm sure i could have gotten a better count! anyway, after all the mayhem, noone got hurt (too badly) and in the end the ranger gave the spot to the other group, though i think our guys had a better case (and could have "taken" the other guys if that dang ranger wouldn't have gotten control of the situation). i'll tell you, it was really something. and to think, they were fighting over my tent! those porters really were a good bunch of dedicated guys! the bummer of the whole thing was that my tent ended up being set up on a very steep angle (thus the achordian thing).

the camp was beautiful! rocky, but a rugged gradure that is tough to match. this was the evening before summit, and, as luck would have it, a full moon. the moon rose from behind mwenzi just as the last glows from a spectacular sunset, that seemed to last forever, were fading into night sky. there was great anticipation for the next day, summit day, that would start very early the next morning. i'm hoping anyone reading this is anxious too...and patient, 'cause i'm going to get to the summit day next time!

The Climb - part 4

hello again. time has gotten away from me as i have failed to keep writing about the rest of the climb. my bad. also, i have recently gotten my butt chewed in an e-mail, so i'd better get to writing some more!

on a side note, last night was another full moon, so i think maybe i was just waiting for the lunar cycle to come back around to help get me in the zone!(really?) so...day 5.

we started day 5 with the long day from shira 2 to lava tower to the barranco camp behind us, and, although the "wall" was daunting before us, the prospect of a shorter day was encouraging. watching the porters hustle up the wall with gear on their backs and heads was quite a specticle. the trail up the barranco wall is steep and narrow and climbs nearly 1000 feet before your eyes. as the trail narrowed, the groups of climbers slowed to a near stop at several especially steep and tricky parts of the trail. and though the trail was difficult for brad, it gave us hope to be able to stay close to the "main pack" of people that littered the trail. at one point there was a stoppage of everyone heading up the trail. shortly, like a slow line of ants, the steady movement up the wall began again, but not before a porter hustled past us going back down. we came to find out that on one of the more difficult switchbacks, that exposed the trail to a fairly sharp edge, the porter had lost the balance of the bag he was balancing on his head and the bag went over the edge and ended up at the bottom of the wall. it was to be a long day for that porter...our day, also, had just begun. through sheer determination brad made it up the wall. although we had been passed by most of the other groups during the morning's climb, we had made it! and there were only a couple times, with drop offs only a step away, that brad said he was going to have a few choice words for brian and i IF we ever make it to camp! the top of the wall was a big relief, and our guide said it wasn't too far to camp, "just over the ridge". so we walked. most of the footing that was on a level or uphill slope wasn't too bad, it was the downhill slopes that were tricky. but eventually, after hiking though some absolutely beautiful areas with the upper mountain and its glaciers looming above us, we came in sight of the camp. this was good. the tents didn't look too far away. we might be there in 20 minutes or so. what we didn't see was that the trail first dropped into a 750 ft steep canyon before heading straight up the other side before reaching camp. so...2 1/2 hours, of slick, loose rock on the steep trail with misty clouds around us that make seeing ANYTHING a challenge for brad, later, we entered camp. though it was nice to be in camp, it had been another long. and on a day that was supposed to be easy. the tension in brad's eyes was becoming more of a problem, and getting into camp, once again, so late was discouraging for him. it was time for alittle soul searching. and let me tell you it was a good place for it! this was the karangu hut. a rocky and slopey camp, but the setting was spectacular. the "mist" from our climb that day was actually a layer of clouds that was banked just below the camp. and as the sun crept slowly toward the western horizon the light would glow of the tops of the clouds (that were just sitting there below us) like colored lights shining on cotton balls. kibo was our backdrop to the north as it sat there staring down at us, welcoming us and watching over us at the new camp. this was a place of God, and we all knew it. sitting there, exhausted, a bit discouraged, (and starting to get a bit ripe:)),...there was a peace let us know that everything would be alright. ... and we slept.