The Climb - part 3

We started day 4 with the other four climbers on "the climb for sight, and, after a good afternoon of rest, alot of enthusiasm. we got out of camp early and, with a good trail, were able to move fairly well even though there was a constant gain in elevation. brad did fine and the views were great. we were hoping to get to lava tower for a late lunch and, even though our pace slowed as the trail became alot rockier as we climbed, brad worked hard, kept moving, and we made it not too long after our normal lunch time. we were now at 14,544 ft, sitting in a saddle at the base of a big lava cone on one side and the steep western breach route to the summit on the other.

after a short lunch (which brad didn't do a very good job of eating!...not even the gu gel!), some of the guys took a short side trip to climb to the top of lava tower while brad, brian and i continued down the trail toward the barranco camp. on this afternoon, we were to now descend 2500 of the 3000 ft we had gained earlier in the day, a good way to help acclimatize to the elevation...but it made for a very long day. there were a handful of tricky downhill rocky slopes that slowed our pace considerably. the slow pace then allowed the sun to move to create alot of shadows for brad making every step more difficult...which slowed our pace some more. which allow time enough for the clouds to roll up the mountain with some drizzling rain...which slowed our pace some more. which allowed the sun to start going down for the day...which, of course, slowed our pace some more. this was a VERY difficult day!!! you talk about a chain of events. the long term problem was that with every situation that slowed our pace, that meant that brad had to visually concentrate for that much longer, putting more stain on his already wore out eyes...but he did it! day four was over and brad was able to lay in his tent and rest his eyes for...well, 'til morning. the scenery on day 4 was nothing short of specatular. huge rock walls with glaciers hanging from them loomed over our left shoulders to the north with white clouds whirling around the upper mountain as we slowily marched toward camp. as we neard camp the giant senencias and lobielias peppered the hill sides creating a contrast from the snow and rock that was incredible. it truly was a beautiful sight! our 9 1/2 hours or up and down on the mountain had visually exhausted bard for the day, so as brad rested to prepare for day 5, brian and i found out that the next day was to be considerably shorted and we starting perparing for the barranco wall.

The Climb - part 2

we had a good start on day 2. while the over hanging trees made for shadows and there were alot of roots, the trail was gradual and not too rocky. we were doing well and making descent time. about the time we broke out of the forest that all changed. the terrain got noticably steeper, the tall heather (that was everywhere) cast plenty of shadows, and the rocks seemed to grow from the trail. with this set-back, our pace slowed considerably but our spirits remained high. we were working our way up a ridge to the rim of the shira platue and as we gained elevation and could see over the trees, our view changed. we could now see were we came from, and where we were going. as the day progressed, the strain on brad's eyes increased as he intensely focused on the trail through the shadows that were starting to be more of a problem as the sun was sinking in the sky. this turned into a long day! to add to the discomfort, where there weren't rocks on the trail, the dirt was a fine powder that "puffed" up around you with every step. when we finally rolled into camp, we were all dirty and dusty and glad to have finally made it to camp. being only the second day on the mountain, we were still learning what was going to be easy for us, and what was going to be more difficult. the big picture wasn't showing us much of anything that was going to be easy!...but we had made it through the first couple days on the mountain and were resting, getting ready for day 3.

the camp was nice. it was fairly flat, not alot of rock, but dusty! i think it was brian that put his crocks on to walk the 20 yards to the dining tent and ended up with brown/gray feet and legs almost up to his knees! if we knew the volume of climbers we would be with from the next camp forward, we may not have thought the dust was too bad! this day also afforded us our first good look at the upper mountain. it was all we had hoped for, and just what we needed to keep us hungry to keep pushing up the mountain.

on the third day we were hiking across the shira platue. this was a shorter day, both in distance and in time. it was a good acclimatization day as we had gained quite a bit of elevation in the last couple days. this day we were only gaining a few hunderd feet, and the trail was the clearest we had seen so far (or would ever see again!). brad cruised today and finished the day in the "normal" time range. this got us to camp just after lunch and gave brad plenty of time to rest his eyes from the strain of the day before. though this camp would fill with people by night fall, it was a beautiful setting. a layer of clouds had formed below us on the mountain giving you a feeling of being higher than the 11,600 ft that we were. also, kibo was directly behind us to the northeast showing itself between the clouds that were rolling through with a big moon above it. it was a nice place to camp.

this was also the day we met up with the other 4 climbers on the "climb for sight". this was only their 2nd day on the trail as they had come up the machame route. they all seemed to be good guys and we were all excited to get further down the trail together. the sunset from shira 2 camp (day 3) was very nice, and brad, brian and i walked to a nice rock outcropping to watch it before dinner. had soup for dinner (but that's a different story), and got a good night's sleep for a big day 4.

The Climb - part 1

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!

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.

When in Rome.....

So you want to know about the locals? I hope you’re ready because we have good stories and memories of everyone we met. As I type this, I have a big smile on my face, as I’m recalling the memorable interactions we had on our trip.
I’ll start by talking aoubt the local Tanzanians and massai people we saw while driving down the roads from place to place. We mostly just observed these people while driving through towns slowly, or along the rural roadside away from town. Most people walk for their transportation, and there was never one stretch of hwy or roadway that there wasn’t a person walking, riding a bike carrying some large load, carrying a large load on their person, or tending to animals. Most people carry loads on their head, as they are taught this at a very early age. Better balancing comes with time, and the weight is distributed down their neck into their entire skeletal frame. It seemed that more women run errands and carry daily needs than men. It was common to see loads in the range of 30-50 # on a person’s head. Some examples of things we saw on heads were 5 gal bucket of water, hand-weaved baskets carrying miscellaneous goods, bananas, folded clothes. Some sat along the road with things to sale, trying to catch the eye of a tourist. These ranged from clothing to artwork to bananas to necklaces. Kids were seen regularly walking to or from school, and I mean miles, not any short distance. Many a child under 8 years old were seen tending an entire heard of cattle or goats by themselves. The massai people were always in their colorful tribal garments, and seen carrying a staff/stick/spear. They do not live in towns at all, and their villages are out on the plains. They are evident by the clusters of huts in the open landscape.
When we did stop along the road or in a town for supplies or to eat lunch, we were immediately approached/surrounded by someone wanting to sell you something. Kids usually along the roadway, and grownup men in the gift shops and in the town open-air markets. Be ready, because they definitely do not know the meaning of personal space. They got right in our faces showing their wares and trying to strike a deal. They never take ‘no’ for an answer, and will continue to cut prices or barter to make a deal. I was quite comfortable dealing with this, though I didn’t know at first how I would react. Brad has always been a good negotiator; he could sell ice to an Eskimo. However, the locals would always be in his face, not knowing about his blindness; and I’d get aggressive to quickly ‘move’ them back, explaining his condition and demanding more space if they wanted to discuss items for sale. They always listened, and I can say we all were happy with our purchases. We tried not to barter down too far, as we understood the economy we were in and that these sales usually meant food on the table. They were quite good at the ideology of ‘divide and conquer’. Immediately upon us entering into a store, a ‘Salesmen’ would start to follow us and help us with information. Prices were always spoken in a quiet voice, as they didn’t want each of us to hear the deal that the other was making. Brad taught me well, but Kirk didn’t fair so well the first day, inthat he ‘agreed’ to many initial prices. After visiting other stores on other days and hearing much lower prices for the same type of gift, it became apparent to him that he definitely ‘helped’ the economy more than others. However, we all agreed that it was very enjoyable to have these dealings.
Next, we got to interact with the many people that are employed to simply carry things for visitors to the area. There were people to carry your bags to the car from the airport, people to carry your bags from the car to you room at the hotel. It was a bit uncomfortable for us at first, since this was the first international travel for all three of us. It was difficult to determine how much to tip each person, and it seemed that we were almost always digging in for a tip for someone. I guess we got used to it after a while.
To help with our communications, we drilled our guides on how to say certain words and phrases. Swahilli is the language used in Tanzania, and I thought we did pretty good at conversing, though most any local in a service job had to know some English. Positions such as guides, waiters, etc had to know much more English. I’ll try to remember some of our most often used words and phrases- remember, spelling definitely doesn’t count in this exercise.
Jambo- surface level hello, as you would say to a stranger on the street
Mambo- hello used by friends and acquaintances
Poa- ‘cool’. Typical response to Mambo- when someone asks how you are doing… I’m cool man.
Jou- up, as in heading up the mtn
Chenny- down, as in going down the mtn
Asanti- thank you
Asanti sana- thank you very much
Mwamba belle- Rock on!
Coonwa maji- drink water
Poa cachesi comandesi- cool like a banana. Similar to our saying- cool as a cucumber
Pole, pole- slowly, slowly
I wanted to save the best for last. The majority of our interaction came on the hike on the mountain, since we spend 2/3 of our trip there. When we started, Kirk, Brad and I had 8 staff to help us on the mountain. We had 2 guides, and 8 porters. Every single porter on the mountain was a man, and all are Tanzanian. The guides Douglas and Alfred were with us the entire day, and the porters carried the majority of the trip supplies, including tents, food, etc. We were very fortunate to have a great staff. We got along well with our guides, and enjoyed all of our interactions with the porters. Our favorite by far was Simon, who was the food runner/waiter. He always spoke softly but in a high pitch, and would announce his entrance by stating, “hello”. He also woke us up each morning in our tents, as a custom on the mountain is to start you morning by being served hot tea in your tent… sort of like breakfast in bed, but more to help wake us up and get moving a bit quicker. I can assume this is because of the cold weather and daily fatigue usually has most climbers moving a turtle-speed. We learned most of our porters name, as we all wanted to be able to say hello and address people on a first name basis. We had David, Simon, Jonas, Brospa (need to roll the tongue on the “r”), Pasco-our cook, and Seraphim. It was amazing to see these guys carry the gear, etc up the mountain. They are as nimble as billy goats, and as swift as if walking on flat ground. Now, don’t forget that everyone carries loads on their heads, so the nimbleness and swiftness was taken to a whole notha’ level by adding in the loads up to 50# that each carried. Now before any of you think we didn’t carry anything and just ‘strolled’ up the ‘hill’, let me describe a bit further. We each carried our food, water (3 liters), clothing, etc for the day, plus a bit more for some (kirk and I have a difficult time taking the bare minimum, as we always like to be prepared for all occurrances). As such, Brad carried 25# and Kirk and I usually carried close to 40# in our packs. All other gear was carried by the porters.

I'd say our best experience with the porters and guides was on the last morning, they all gathered in a group and sang us several native mountain songs in swahilli. It was very fun and we all started dancing and clapping. Such a nice time.
That kind of summarizes a good bit of what we experienced.

plants of kilimanjaro

brad, brian and i spoke on the phone this evening, not long ago, and brian gave brad and i a butt chewing for not having posted our first "assigned" topics. so...i'd better get crackin'!

the climb up mt. kilimanjaro took us through a 5 climate zones. each zone having its own distinct characteristics and vegetation.






forest zone - this zone looked like a jungle! we kept an eye open for tarzan, as he and his monkey-type buddies could have swung down, through the fog, mist and moss, from any of the massive trees on the vines at any time. this zone gets upwards of 230cm of rain annually. that's alot! in this "rain forest" there were plants EVERYWHERE, with alot of flowers. one of the more notable flowers is the Impatiens kilimanjari which is a beautiful red and yellow flower endemic to kilimanjaro.

heath zone - as we emerged from the forest we climbed into a forest of heather. it was easy to figure where they got the name for this zone, as the whole of the mountain was covered with the brushy/shrubby plant. this is also the last zone that general grasses can be found virtually everywhere. the heath zone averages about 130 cm of rain each year.



moorland zone - unlike the transitions to and from the other zones, the heath and moorland zone overlap a bit and can contain many of the same plants in the overlap. the moorland is characterized by a clearer sky, though most of its 53 cm of annual rainfall comes from the mist that is almost always present on the mountain at this elevation. alpine heather, a smaller variety of "regular" heather, is often present, though two plants that are characteristic of the moorland zone are the giant senecio and the lobelia plants. both are unique looking plants that kind of look like crosses between palm trees and century-type plants you'd find in arizona. both plants have adapted to the harsh environment by using their old leaves to insulate their trunks. several beautiful flowers can also be found in this zone including a couple varieties of helichrysums.

alpine desert zone - with less than 20 cm of rain, there aren't nearly as many varieties of plants in this zone. helichrysums, however, can still be found in this zone, along with a yellow daisy-like flower called an asteraceae. although plants, and specifically flowers, weren't plentiful in the alpine desert, the contrast between the few flowers and all the rocks of different colors was spectacular and really brought out the color of the flowers.

ice cap zone - with extreme weather conditions and vertually no rainfall in this zone there is virtually no plant life. lichens are about the best we can do here. though there are sone pretty cool looking lichens of various colors that can be found all over many of the larger rocks.



on the mountain as a whole, outside of the ice cap, the plantlife was beautiful! many plants that are specific only to kilimanjaro and many beautiful flowers that have a incredible backdrop to show off there splendor!

Never want to hear again

To say that we were repetative with alot of our sayings to Brad on this trip would be an understatement! There are only so many ways to verbally guide a person on a rocky or slippery trail, no matter how creative you are. So Kirk and I could completely understand when Brad let us know that there were several things he never wanted to hear again, as long as he lived. We decided to create a top 10 list in his honor.

Top 10 sayings Brad NEVER wants to hear again-

10- How are you feeling... Good.
9- Want a Gu? (no)... Want to split a powerbar?(no).... Want a 5 hr energy? Good.
8- Rest step Brad... Rest step BRAD... BRAD, start REST STEPPING! Good.
7- Step Up/ Step Down
6- Blow it out Brad, pressure breathe. Good.
5- Coonwa maji (drink some water). Good.
4- You need to eat something Brad- pass the soup!
3- Bend your knees. Good.
2- Trust your boots/tread. Someone spent alot of time figuring out that specific type of rubber so you can hang on that rock and not slip. Good.
1- Get your poles out in front Brad.... Get your poles out in front BRAD.... BRAD, GET YOUR POLES OUT IN FRONT OF YOU! Good.

Initial reflections on the climbing trip

Hi there. It's been a while since i wrote, and for that i appologize. Life is a whirl-wind sometimes, especially when returning from a two-week hiatus! But..... i wanted to at least give us an update of our trip and discuss a few things. Over the next two weeks, Kirk, Brad and I (Yes- all three of us, can you believe it!!!) will be entering posts on the blog site to talk about different aspects of the trip. The posts will give general facts, as well as a personal spin as to what our thoughts were on that specific topic. We will each take two topics, and will each do one this coming week, and the second the following week. the topics are: ecology/flora/climate zones; animals/wildlife; our interaction with tanzanians (guides, vendors, etc); orphanage visit; the climb for sight component of trip (others we met, accomodations, etc); and the actual physical climb itself. So please keep checking back for these things.

Kirk and I (brian) also are starting to compile our pictures. Between us we took close to 1400 pics, plus i took a great deal of video. Combine that with the pics that our buddies Tom, Paul and Jeff took, we have quite a task ahead to 'boil' them down into a managable quantity that effectively shows the beauty of the trip, the sights we saw, and the feelings we felt. We will be putting together a slide show of between 100 and 150 pics. I also have created an account with shutterfly to be able to post the video clips and some more pics. when these are done, we'll be sure to post the necessary access info for everyone to view and enjoy our pics.

I'm gonna just ramble for a bit now to give some of my initial thoughts on the trip. The trip was phenominal. We got to go on a safari (no guns-camera only), 8 days on the mountain, and we spend our last day in Africa at an orphanage for street children. It's safe to say the trip has changed all of our lives for the better. We were very fortunate to meet up with 4 other guys in our group on the evening of Day 3. They are all excellent people, and we all 'jelled' very nicely. They were all very supportive of brad's vision limitations, and were increasingly helpful in guiding Brad on the trail and around camp. It was quite touching to see their level of effort and care in this area.

We all enjoyed the staff that we had on the mountain. The first 3 days, we had 10 staff for the three of us. We had a guide, Douglas, and assistant guide, Alfred, and eight porters to help set up/tear down camp, cook, and carry supplies. I only remember 7 of their names, and spelling does not count: david, simon, jonas, brospa, pasco, and serraphim. Ok, i only remember 6 of their names, but that's because we picked three of them up at the gate/ranger station. The 5 that rode in the vehicle with us for 2 1/2 hrs, i remember them all. It was quite a sight... there were eleven of us jammed into a toyota land cruiser. we had the driver, the two guides, the three of us, and the 5 porters. Most of us were holding our packs, and miscellaneous gear. All of the large things were roped on the roof.

Once we met up with Tom, Paul, Jeff and Justin, and the rest of their staff, we had a big ole' group trudging up the mountain. In all we had 7 hikers, 2 guides, 2 assistant guides and 23!!! porters. and believe me, we were not the only ones on the mountain.

There was always a nice feeling at camp, even when several were tired or not feeling quite up to par. The 7 of us got along like we were old friends, and were very noticing of each other's mood; which normally equated to health. We laughed, played some cards, mostly drank tea and milo, and some crazy native herb flower tea they made us drink to supposedly "help with the effects of high altitude". It seemed to work for some, but we all agreed that it wasnt our top choice for 'drink of the year'. it was served warm, and had a bitter taste, and was red/purple in color. Paul said there is an herbal tea such as it in England. When we got to the cooler temperatures of the higher elevations, it was nice to always have warm drinks and warm soup to give us the initial warming of our bodies, both in the AM and in the evening. A mountain ritual that most outfitters follow includes being woken up each morning, then having hot tea served to you in your tent while 'dusting the cobwebs off' and getting dressed. It was a nice tradition to follow. Oh well enough for now. talk to you later.