Start: Mweka Hut; 3,100 meters

End: Gate; 1,700 meters

Hiking time: 2:00

It was a short, downhill hike to reach the gate and we said our goodbyes to Kilimanjaro.

We had seen an exuberant Italian family a couple of times over the past week. They were always in good spirits, even when our group was feeling low. The afternoon before we summited, Kerry was not at all interested in leaving his tent to go to lunch. Just as he was called to lunch, he groaned, and then heard the Italians next door being summed to lunch. “Lunch time? Fantastico!” So we laughed when we realized the Italians were right in front of us on the hike. The twelve year old boy eagerly greeted every single porter who passed him in his Italian accent Swahili, “Jambo!” Seriously, if I had a cell phone, I would make that kid calling out “Jambo!” my ringtone! And then his teenaged brother (yellow backpack, below) busted out his ukulele and started to play Bob Marley songs, substituting the name of their guide into the lyrics. They were a riot! I found myself almost running to keep up with them (they were so fast!) so that I could take video of their quirky family antics.

Before I knew it, we’d reached the gate. Most of the porters made a beeline for the bathroom where they started to wash up for the first time in days.

I took out a Snickers bar I had saved for the summit. It definitely looked like it had been to the top of a mountain and back, but it tasted fine!

It was a short drive back to our hotel and Captain G, Jimmy, and Bob presented us with our summit certificates and fantastic homemade ribbon and bow garlands.

It was a little sad to split from G, Jimmy, and Bob! We had been in their company nonstop for the past week and they had done a top notch job of helping us every step of the way.

Once we had all taken preliminary showers (one shower was enough to get off the superficial layer of dirt), the four of us headed into town to pick up some souvenirs. In one store, the touts must have thought we didn’t understand how to bargain because they explained how two parties are supposed to negotiate and then informed us it was called “Tanzanian business.” We took a taxi to the hotel and lucked out by getting the nicest driver in the whole world. He was delighted beyond words when I paid him 4,000 shillings ($2.60) instead of the agreed upon 3,000 shillings ($2).

Since my stomach had been more or less ok, I had a massive dinner at the hotel while a couple in the group were much more gentle on their stomachs. And I can’t begin to tell you how nice it felt to fall asleep on a mattress…!

Start: Barafu Base Camp; 4,680 meters

End: Mweka Hut; 3,100 meters

Hiking time: 2:25

We got up from our post-summit naps to have lunch and then hit the trail once more. We had another fifteen hundred meters to descend before the day was done. It was a steady and steep downhill hike that took us out of the arid conditions of high altitude. We saw our first trees in the past couple of days! I realized I was dehydrated because my Camelbak had frozen over while summiting so it felt great to have some shade as we hiked.

Once we got to our camp, I took another nap and joined the group for our last dinner on the mountain! Bob, our beloved waiter, had obviously worked hard to fold our napkins and even brought us a bottle of Coca-Cola! Too bad none of us were really pop drinkers, but we appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

Start: Barafu Base Camp; 4,620 meters

Summit: Uhuru peak; 5,895 meters

Ascent time: 6:20

Descent time: 2:00

At 11:30 pm, the four of us stumbled out of our tents, had a snack, and were on our way towards the highest point in Africa. The moon was out but it was still unbelievably dark and, more importantly, cold! I wore almost every single piece of clothing I had brought on the hike: leggings, thermals, pants, and rain pants for bottoms and thermals, a wicking T shirt, a light jacket, a heavy fleece and a rain coat on top. I had on a balaclava, a toque, my headlamp, and my raincoat hood pulled up to keep my head warm and for my hands I had on my trusty Swiss Air socks and thick mittens, plus a hand warmer in each mitten. There was hardly enough room for my feet in my hiking boots with two pairs of wool socks and liner socks on! In my backpack, I had over a liter of water, a couple of ClifBars and other snacks, my camera, hiking poles for the descent, and, of course, Mini Bear.

It’s hard to say how many people made their way to the summit that night, but it was probably in the ballpark of sixty hikers plus guides. We all looked pretty ridiculous wearing so many puffy layers, but I got a kick out of seeing a couple of the guides wearing reflective vests over their outermost layer. They looked like rogue crossing guards, leading their charges way beyond the other side of the road.

Since so many people were setting out for the summit, the trail was crowded initially but it thinned out quickly enough. For most of the hike, my group played leapfrog with a handful of other hikers.

Because it was so dark out, I couldn’t get a sense of what the trail was like, other than to assume it was uphill. Only when my eyes followed the snaking headlamps up the switchbacks could I tell how steep the looming climb was.

During a quick break, I rested against a big rock and was suddenly dizzy beyond belief. I was worried that altitude sickness was finally hitting me, but it turned out to be nothing more than a touch of the dizzies and I was fine from then on. Our foursome split up before too long and Shailey went with Captain G at her own pace while Viraj, Kerry, and I stayed with Jimmy.

Even though I had had a healthy appetite over the past week, I was famished on the summit hike and demolished two protein bars in the first ninety minutes. Since I was using a Camelbak to drink water, I had been told to blow air back into the tube after each sip to prevent the water from freezing. It was really hard to take a deep breath and exhale fully at that altitude, so it was just a couple of hours until the water in my drinking tube froze. Fortunately, Kerry had enough water that he was able to share.

Over the next few hours, Jimmy let us take four breaks. When the three of us would whine for more breaks, he’d say we just had to go a little further but of course we just continued to plod on, pole pole. In fact, our pace definitely slowed as the hours passed and Jimmy ended up carrying some of our backpacks. I was strong enough to wear my backpack the entire hike, unlike in the Himalayas last year when my guide wouldn’t even let me carry anything on summit day.

To keep my brain focused on anything other than the cold and strong gusts of wind, I mentally recited poetry, including “Roses are red” in Uzbek and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116; sang act I of Rent and highlights from The Sound of Music and Oklahoma; counted every one hundred steps alternating between Uzbek, Spanish, and French; named countries and their capital cities; practiced counting to ten in Swahili; sang any song I knew on autopilot including 80s hits, pop songs, punk songs, and even a couple of hymns from boarding school; and, for the final hour or two, I heard a coxswain in my head yelling out commands as if I was rowing in a 2,000 meter race.

I ended up being warm enough for the most part but I was incredibly exhausted. It’s not that my muscles were tired, I was actually sleepy and was a slightly concerned I might fall asleep on my feet if I let myself close my eyes. Around this time, we reached Stella Point (5,685 meters), so I knew we had no more than an hour to go until the summit. This idea woke me up and not much later, the sun began to rise. Seeing the first hints of pink and orange in the night sky warmed my soul and that’s when I knew for sure I would reach the summit. The trail was much more exposed from here on out and we encountered a biting wind like I’ve never experienced before. If I was still thinking about sleep, this wind swept those thoughts out of my head. It was like being slapped in the face with a week old, unrefrigerated dead fish. There was no way I would be able to fall asleep with this wind!

When I was close enough to the summit to see the sign, I broke out into a run. With all my layers and heavy boots and the thin air, it probably didn’t look like a run, but it certainly felt like it!

Kerry, Viraj, Jimmy, and I posed for a few photos.

Jimmy took a couple of photos of me with the glacier in the background.

The view was nothing less than stunning but neither my fingers nor my brain functioned properly and I didn’t bother to take any scenic photos, so I’m especially glad Viraj had the presence of mind to take a few!

As we turned back to return to camp, we passed Shailey and G, only twenty or so minutes behind us. We were thrilled she had also reached the summit, but we weren’t able to linger at the summit and take photos with her unfortunately.

I got out my hiking poles to use on the descent and, almost immediately, I cried out, “Wait!” with a giggle and a hint of panic. The toggles from the drawstrings on my rain pants had gotten tangled up in each other, the equivalent of trying to walk with your shoelaces tied together. I know I’m my father’s daughter but it’s moments like this that I can’t deny I’m my aunt’s niece! To think, I had managed to summit the tallest mountain in all of Africa, only to kill myself tripping over my rented pants five minutes later! Jimmy untangled me and we carried on.

Since it was no long dark, we stopped for a quick picture at Stella Point on our way back down.

The descent was awfully steep in parts and the terrain was loose gravel and dirt so I was constantly sliding and trying to stop myself from running due to simple gravity.

 

It took us around two hours to reach camp. By then, the sun was up and it was roasting inside my tent, so I stripped off my multitude of layers and put on shorts and a T shirt and took the most satisfying nap I can remember!

 

Start: Karanga Valley; 3,930 meters

End: Barafu Base Camp; 4,620 meters

Hiking time: 2:50

I opened the tent flap this morning fully expecting to see frost covering the ground. Instead I found myself looking upon a silent sea of clouds with pink crests and blue shadows so impressive that I mumbled an instinctive, “Wow,” and forgot all about the chilly temperature.

Today was the day we reached base camp. The hike wasn’t too strenuous but the incline was constant. I could hardly take my eyes off of Kilimanjaro the whole time. The trail was noticeably more crowded than in the previous days because about four different routes all join up at Barafu and use it as base camp for the summit attempt.

Lunch was a flop: another meal where everything was fried. The last time we had a fried meal like this, everyone had a miserable stomach for hours. Now that we are just hours from leaving for the summit, there was no way any of us were going to touch that food. Shailey saved me from starvation by giving me a ClifBar. Just in case you think I’m exaggerating about the fried food situation, here’s a picture of our first fried meal.

After lunch, we retreated to our tents to rest a bit and then emerged for dinner before returning to our tents. It took Shailey and I about half an hour to get ourselves set for the summit. We packed our bags with water and snacks, checked our headlamps, and put on most of our layers. I’m still not sure if I managed to fall asleep or not but I felt as ready as I could when 11:30 pm rolled around. We put on our last layers, had some tea and biscuits, and then we were off to the summit!

Start: Baronko; 4,000 meters

End: Karanga Valley; 3,930 meters

Hiking time: 3:50

Another cold morning, this time because Baronko Wall cast a huge shadow over our entire campsite. In fact, Baronko Wall was our first obstacle. For well over an hour, we made our way up the wall, using two hands to steady ourselves as we climbed and clung to the wall. Of course, porters were all the while passing us (one even wearing a Toronto Maples Leafs toque!), balancing buckets and bags on their heads.

I made up a great game while hiking but no one wanted to play it with me! In alphabetical order, you have to name an international city but the trick is you can’t use the same country twice. E, X, and Q were tough. I played my new game a couple of times and am quite pleased with it!

The rest of the hike passed by quickly and we had time to stop off and take some fun pictures with Mt. Meru.

A typical afternoon at our campsite of warm water to wash our hands and face, a snack of popcorn, a nap, and watching the cloud channel as Shailey and I have taken to calling it when we just stare at the sky through our open tent flap.

G and Jimmy led us on a two hour hike before dinner. We reached the top of a good sized hill where G talked about the history of European climbers and Kilimanjaro. The first foreigner to climb the mountain was a German man in 1889. It took him and his crew of local porters eight weeks to reach the summit! I am certainly having a great time hiking but I think our eight days will be enough for me in the end!

Start: Shira 2; 3,850 meters

Midpoint: Lava Tower; 4,600 meters

End: Baronko; 4,000 meters

Hiking time Shira 2 to Lava Tower: 3:27

Hiking time Lava Tower to Baronko: 1:20

It’s getting much colder every morning! The good news is my sleeping bag is keeping me generally warm enough at night but that makes it even harder to tear myself from it in the morning.

The altitude is starting to hit our group. A lot of us have upset stomachs and at breakfast we were much quieter than normal. I’m feeling pretty good overall so I’m just hoping this lasts as long as possible.

Today’s hike took us to out highest elevation yet: 4,600 meters at Lava Tower. We hiked on a rocky, dusty trail up a steady incline for most of the morning before we reached a sudden, steep descent. It leveled out briefly and then we climbed the last hill to reach Lava Tower, a rock wall about twenty meters tall that resembled an Easter Island moai lying on its back.

We ate our boxed lunches huddled under the towering rocks in a vain attempt to block the howling wind. I only had a thick, bulky pair of mittens appropriate for summiting, so I ate my lunch wearing the complimentary socks from my Swiss Air flight on my hands. We spent a freezing forty six minutes at Lava Tower before G and Jimmy said we could continue on to our campsite. Meanwhile, the pair of them had been sitting out in the open as if they hadn’t even noticed the wind!

The trail from Lava Tower was purely downhill so we traveled pretty fast along the mini switchbacks. My knees were a little sore afterwards because it was hard to control my speed but the soreness didn’t last for too long.

At Baronko, we had a snack and then I took a solid nap, interrupted only by snoring from the boys’ tent. Dinner was a platter of plain noodles, which probably doesn’t sound very exciting but it was perfect for me. My companions are starting to really suffer from the altitude. I can’t explain why I’m not feeling it, too. Last year I had horrendous altitude sickness in the Himalayas so I can only hope Kilimanjaro has decided to give me a pass on the altitude sickness just this once.

Start: Camp 1; 2,600 meters

End: Shira 1; 3,600 meters

Hiking time: 5:12

The sun woke us before Bob could knock on our tents. We washed up with bowls of hot water before sitting down to a big breakfast of tea, hot chocolate, millet porridge, eggs, bread, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, bananas, and sausage.

Captain G told us we would have a short hike of just a couple of hours. This was a bit of a surprise as we already had a rough idea of our hiking itinerary and expected to hike for five or six hours but we didn't question it and we packed up and hit the trail.

Jimmy had the porters' radio strapped to his backpack and blasted music as we hiked. It was pretty funny to hear Dr. Dre, Shaggy, Jon Secada, Michael Bolton, and Enrique Iglesias among others but as our two hour hike turned into three, fours, five hours, we grew weary of the noise. In his four years' experience as a guide, Captain G had learned that most clients preferred to be told to expect a short hike and then to be constantly updated that it would be just one more hour or another thirty minutes. Our group wanted realistic expectations so when we took a break, Captain G gave us an honest assessment of the remaining hike and we were much happier for it.

The hike took us through rolling plains, which I hadn't expected to see in the mountains. The Shira peaks, which are hundreds of millions of years old, were reduced during a volcanic eruption and the rocks and soil from the peaks were redeposited in the shallow spots to form the plains.

We had a hearty lunch, followed by naps and the four of us cramming into one tent to hang out before a massive dinner. I know from hiking in the Himalayas last year how important it is to keep eating and drinking when you're at altitude so I've been stuffing myself full at every meal so far and hydrating like mad.

We caught our first glimpse of Kilimanjaro tonight! It was brilliantly illuminated by an almost full moon and the sight was breath taking. It's hard to believe I could be standing on top of it in a few more days…!