Climbing Pictures

Well, obviously I can't climb Kilimanjaro and NOT post a bunch of pictures. Brace yourself- it's a pile. But they tell a story...

Obviously, I decided to go, was able to pack with no notice, and was able to get into Tanzania with no trouble. The bus ride there even looked a little like Northern New Mexico, with acasia trees instead of juniper. That made me happy and less homesick.

We spent the night in Moshi at the hotel that manages the trips, and posed in front of the then-meaningless sign: strangers to each other and strangers to what "5895 M" really means...

I always thought I was a slow hiker. And I can hear Wes agreeing with me, even from here. :) But truthfully, I had NO IDEA what slow hiking really meant until this trip. The motto for climbing Kilimanjaro is "pole pole"- which can mean go slow/be careful/no rush. As our guide Moses said, "There is no hurry in Africa." He had a point. I didn't know it was possible to hike that slowly. I could have done the wedding march step-together-pause step-together-pause and moved faster. But it was good weather, not strenuous, and I was happy to walk and listen and chat with my new acquaintances. The scenery was beautiful too.

Impatience Kilimanjari- an ironic name for a flower found only here

Our first glimpse of Kibo peak on day 2; the one to the right is Mawenzi

Throughout the hike, we stayed in huts like this one.

We even got pillows on our beds. Classy, nature-toned ones.

Fortunately, there was plenty of natural beauty outside.

About halfway up, we stayed in the same hut 2 nights in a row for acclimatization, and we took a day hike to Zebra Rocks.

By this time, Marcey and I were far from strangers, and we really enjoyed each other. My favorite story: our second morning at Kibo, she had set her phone to go off a little early so she could get packed by breakfast. Now, phones here simply don't have good ringtones. They are all obnoxious, electric-sounding ditties that make you want to plunge the phone deep in a bucket of water. Or, I suppose, answer it immediately. Anything to make it stop. So yes, Marcy had thoughtfully set her alarm to vibrate 3 times before it began to ring, but she had also been listening to her ipod, reading using her headlamp, and had pulled her mummy bag tight around her head. So when it went off, I awakened to the sound of vibration on wood 3 times, some wriggling, the phone beginning to sing its merry tune, some more wriggling, a louder version of the same tune, more aggressive and determined wriggling, and finally a sweet but somewhat muffled voice saying, "I'll turn that off as soon as I can get my hands free..." In the bunk above me, she was completely stuck in her sleeping bag, helpless, cords tangled every which way, while the phone began to sing Christmas carols, I believe. It was a real highlight of the trip.

She eventually made it out of the sleeping bag, and we headed uphill as always.

The alpine desert that followed was beautiful in its own stark way.

After several hours, we made it to Kibo hut, which was the highest I had ever been at that point. Fourteeners are for wimps!

That high up, your body gets weird. Oxygen is kinda important to functioning, they tell me, and so the lack of it causes all sorts of issues. The best ways to combat these issues are to take in a ridiculous amount of calories and liquid. Our favorite method was the Drink Of Summitters: 2 spoons Milo, 3 of protein-enriched milk, 1 of instant coffee, 2 sugar, and some HOT water (the only way all that will stay in solution). Sounds gross, tastes phenomenal.

See? It makes me happy. And warm enough to take off my gloves.

We went to bed at 6, I dreamt of aliens and of middle school band (was it the altitude or the Drink Of Summitters?), and we awoke at 11 PM to attempt the summit.

The process of summiting will be a separate post, but the very short version is that we hiked from midnight until 5 AM, making a kilometer of elevation gain, seeing the most incredible stars, and going very slowly. Funny, it didn't feel slow any more. My headlamp died after about an hour; Marcey gave me hers and Mr. Pleasant the assistant guide gave her his. And on we trekked. Gillman's Point was reached before dawn, and that was the end of the serious uphill. I hope I will always remember singing "How Great Thou Art" in Swahili with Mr. Moses and Mr. Pleasant at 18,638 feet above sea level.

We hiked along the crater, and as the sun began to rise, the altitude started to affect me. I was incredibly tired and felt like if I could just close my eyes and go to sleep, everything would be OK. (Of course it would be OK- I'd go meet Jesus then...). My mother had reminded me before I left, "Beware of your strong will!" As it turned out, heeding her advice led to one of the greatest blessings of the trip.

We had been hiking on snow, and my muscles weren't behaving. Marcey was giving me her concerned/don't be stupid look, I could tell my thoughts were sluggish, and so I said to Moses, "I am too tired. It's time for me to go back." He looked at me, took my hand, and said, "See, it is just past where you can see now. I will walk with you. You can lean on me." And I did. He walked beside me, held me up, and gave me strength to get all the way to the summit.

When we got to the top, I couldn't figure out how to get my camera out of my jacket, but Marcey did and took some pictures.

You can see that I was tired, but you can also see that we made it. =)

At that point, my compelling desire was to GET DOWN, and we did. Once we were back at Gillman's point my brain felt like it was on morphine- happy and dopey and nothing could go wrong. Moses wisely hiked on the crater side of me... Another 100 meter descent and I was my normal calculus-joke-telling self.

It's hard to convey the steepness of the downclimb in a picture, but the little rectangles near the top are the lodges we stayed in the night before. Basically, it's 1 Km drop down to the lodge, but I really enjoyed skiing the scree fields.
After a little sleep at Kibo Hut , we continued to hike down for the next day and a half.

We finally arrived back where we had started.

Triumphant.
And tired.