The day after my adventure with the twins, I embarked on my Kilimanjaro trekking trip. I was so excited that I woke up a half hour early to get all my stuff ready and be prepared for when the taxi arrived. I had to travel to Moshi (a city about a half hour away) from Arusha and was accompanied by a man named Dula. Unfortunately, we had to spend an hour at the bus station to find out that again the bus drivers were striking so we had to either wait two hours for the next available bus or take a private taxi. After talking with the guide, he told us that we wouldn’t have time to wait for the bus, so we had to take a taxi (which 10 times more expensive). After driving to Moshi, waiting another 2 hours for guides and the rest of my group to show up (again, Africa is teaching me a lot of lessons in patience), we finally headed to the Machame gate. At the gate I met my two new partners in crime, Camie and Tyler, a couple from the US who would be my hiking partners for the next 6 days. We became fast friends after we watched a huge Blue Monkey dig through the trash while we ate our lunch-after that we named ourselves “Team Trash Monkey.” After waiting another hour or so for the guides to arrange the crew, pay for our park permits and check our gear, we finally started our trek!

Dula and the taxi driver waiting with me for 2 hours...they taught me the phrase "Faruheia meisha" meaning "Enjoy Life"

Machame gate-day 1!!

Day 1, 4.5 hours of hiking, rainforest, rainy, approximately 50 degrees F, rose to 9,958 ft: Day 1 started from the Machame gate (the route we followed was called Machame Route) and began with a huge gravel road surrounded by rainforest. The route immediately started with a few gradual hills, and I was really, really worried when I was already sucking wind after the first hill.  Fortunately, I adjusted to the elevation in heart rate and Camie, Tyler and I were able to chat and tell our life stories. It turns out Camie and Tyler are both lawyers in the military and are currently living thousands of miles away as Camie works for the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and Tyler is still living in the states. They hadn’t seen each other for 5 months, but nonetheless were insistent they were excited to have another person on their trek (I’m still not sure if I ruined their couples trip or not, but either way they made me feel like they were really excited to have me along!). Our guide, Living, (who calls himself Livingston because a lot of clients thought he was saying “Hi I’m leaving” and then become confused) let us set the pace the first day since the elevation wasn’t that high and the route was relatively easy trekking as it was mostly a gravel path. After about 3 hours of trekking through the beautiful rainforest Living told us that we were “very close to camp.” It turns out Living’s definition of “very close” is not the same as our American definition so we were shocked when we didn’t reach camp for another hour and a half. We arrived to our first camp wet from the rain and a little tired, but still excited that we had rocked day 1. Living told us he was very proud of us and could tell we were a strong group. After we met some of the rest of our crew including Thomas and Shira, our ‘waiters’, Mashack the cook and our assistant guide, Sanga, we had a wonderful dinner and tucked into our sleeping bags for the night. We were a little disappointed because we couldn’t see much else besides our immediate surroundings and mist for most of day 1, however, when I got up at 4 am to use the outdoor lavatory, I saw a stunning view of the snow covered peak of Kili. It was the first time I had seen it and I could barely sleep the rest of the morning because I was so excited. 

Rocking the poncho-this would become my uniform for the next 6 days

Living and I

Day 2, trek to Shira camp, increase from 3,100 m to 3,850 m, approximately 60 degrees, mostly rainy, moreland topography: Day 2 started promising as it was sunny and we had an amazing view of the peak of Kili. The beginning of our hike started with a steep incline and climbing over huge rocks and boulders. This was actually a lot of fun and made us feel like we were actually climbing a mountain. After about an hour of beautiful weather and fun climbing, the heavy mist started creeping up the mountain and within minutes enveloped us (it is exactly like the mist in the Hunger Games except it doesn’t kill you). By lunch we were shivering, soaking wet (my poncho ripped all the way down the middle) and ready for camp. After a couple more hours of hiking in the rain, we eventually made it to camp. We huddled in the mess tent for tea and honestly, we were really scared of how cold, tired and wet we were. We were supposed to hike up to 4,600 m and come back down to camp in order to acclimate, however, we were too tired and wet so we decided to rest instead. After doing a short walk to some caves where guides and climbers used to stay before tents were invented, we all tried to rest and warm up in our tents.  That night we still were pretty damp (no fires are allowed on the mountain so there really is no way to heat up anything with the exception of the gas stove they use to cook our food with) and our morale was pretty low as the rain showed no signs of stopping and we were preparing for a 7-8 hour hike the next day. The guides helped us increase our spirits a little and again, when we woke up in the middle of the night to pee we saw an amazing view of Kili (frustratingly, the rain always cleared at about 3 am and held off until about 9:30 am which is when we always started hiking), which again helped us get excited again.

Kili!!!!!

Senior pictures-day 2

Day 3, trek to Baranko Valley, trekked up to 4,700 m, then back down to 3,900 m in order to acclimate, rainy, 50 degrees, 8 hours of hiking. Day 3 was really long as the rain began as soon as we started hiking. We quickly put on our ponchos and rain jackets, but it turns our my rain jacket was not so waterproof and my poncho was not very helpful as it ripped down the middle. Again by lunch we were shivering, cold and wet but our guides really helped keep our spirits up by chatting with us, singing songs to us and setting up a hut for lunch for us using our ponchos and trekking poles. We hike through moreland and dessert and eventually made it to Lava Tower, which was at 4,700 m. After spending a few minutes at 4,700 m to get us acclimated, we started our descent back down to 3,900 m. Our descent began with us literally climbing down a waterfall (at which point I found out my gloves that were marketed as waterproof were really not waterproof at all). After climbing down the waterfall, we continued to descend through the moreland and due to the rain this basically consisted of us trying to do controlled sliding down muddy switchbacks. In the middle of our descent the rain cleared up for about 10 minutes and gave us another beautiful view of Kili. It was amazing just how much this helped our spirits and made the rest of the day much easier to handle. With sore knees and shivering from the rocky, muddy and wet descent, we finally made it to Baranko Valley and tried to warm up for the night.

Day 3 was our “testing day” to see how we handled the long trek and how we handled altitude. Even with the rain the guides were impressed with us and said they were very hopeful we would make it to the summit. They really were wonderful about taking our wet clothes and drying them as best they could, and again were key in helping us raise our spirits. They also were adamant about us eating well and drinking at least 3 liters of water per day (really annoying when you have to stop and pee off the trail every hour!!) to fend off altitude sickness. At this point, Camie had lost her appetite and had some nausea but Tyler and I were still feeling pretty good. We again shoved down some dinner (the food was really delicious-thanks Mashack!) and tried to warm up in our sleeping bags. 

Trekking through the moreland in rain

Still smiling!

Campsite...with just a glimmer of blue sky 

Day 4: trek to Karango, trekked up to 4,700 m again, camped at 3,900 m again, sun for 2 hours!! Day 4 started with all of us wet, shivering and in pretty dismal spirits as we staggered to the mess tent for breakfast at 7 am. The guides assured us we would be okay, but we were really discouraged as we just could not seem to get warm. Suddenly, right after breakfast, sun swept across our camp. Never in my life have I so appreciated the power of the sun to warm, dry and raise spirits. Within minutes the entire camp site looked like it had thrown up as we all took our wet clothes and sleeping bags and hung them on rocks to dry. Due to the sun, we delayed our hiking and just literally soaked up every minute of the sun that we could.

Eventually we started our day, which started with an 800 m ascent to the top of what they call “Breakfast Hill”. This again was a really fun climb; we were on hand and foot climbing over boulders and at one point were literally hanging onto rocks over a cliff (this rock was called ‘kissing rock’). The guides were amazing and keeping us safe and eventually we reached the top of breakfast hill with no problems. Unfortunately, it had again started raining, but we all felt better because we had started the day dry and warm and no one was feeling the altitude sickness severely yet.

After another few hours of a muddy, wet, slightly controlled sliding descent, we reach Karango at approximately 4,100 m elevation. Unfortunately, at this point Tyler became pretty nauseated and sick so we really tried hard to rest and push fluids overnight. 

So happy there is sun!!

yay!!!!! dry clothes!!!

Climbing up to breakfast hill

Day 5:  Karango-Barafut base camp at 4,600 m, then summit at midnight. Rainy all day, started at 60 F, ended at 35 F. Because Camie and Tyler decided to do the 7 day trek versus the 6 day trek, I decided to stick with them and do the summit on Day 5 instead of Day 4 (normally people bypass camping at Karango and head straight to base camp). Therefore, Day 5 was all about getting to base camp and resting as we were getting up at midnight to summit. Again, by the time we arrived to base camp we were wet and even colder as we were so high up the temperatures dropped to around 35 degrees. As we arrived at basecamp we had about 15 minutes of sun, but then were overtaken by a huge wind and snow storm for about an hour. That afternoon we napped and then right before dinner the wind and snow cleared so all the campers emerged from their tents to observe the sunset. At this point I was able to meet a couple of Denmark, a man from Tanzania and three men from New Zealand who were all going to summit that night. Almost everyone at this point had some degree of altitude sickness, and one of the guys from New Zealand had been vomiting for the past 48 hours straight.  Camie at this point was feeling better but Tyler’s nausea and anorexia had become worse. After the beautiful sunset , we huddled in the mess tent for dinner where our guides briefed us on the summit and encouraged us that even though we were still really wet and cold that they would dry our clothes as much as they could and we would make it. We were supposed to eat a big dinner, push fluids and then rest for a few hours before we woke up at 11:00 pm to start our summit at 1:00 am. I left dinner feeling too excited to sleep so unfortunately I only slept about 1 hour, but either way was really ready for the summit!

Lava Tower-4700 m 

Hiking to base camp-getting so close!

Made it to camp!

Base camp

Day 6: Summit to 4,985 m and descent down to 3,100 m . 19 hours of hiking total, clear!! In true African style, the wakeup call from Thomas came one hour late, at midnight (I had been up since 11:00 pm since I was too excited to sleep). I emerged excitedly from my tent and couldn’t believe the beautiful snow covered peak above us. I fortunately was feeling amazing and besides a couple spells of queasiness and lightheadedness had had no signs or symptoms of altitude sickness. Unfortunately, Tyler and Camie were not as lucky (altitude sickness is truly luck of the draw) and Tyler especially was having some pretty severe nausea, abdominal pain and a headache. Altitude sickness or not, they both were champions and we started our summit trek at 1:30 am in complete darkness. Living kept calling on our “ja power” or moon power, which actually worked as our ascent was quiet, without strong winds and very clear (apparently a lot of times the ascent has up to 50 mph winds with sleet and snow). The moon also helped illuminate our rocky path and the 6 of us slowly trekked up through the sand and snow.  After some ginger tea, a chocolate bar and 5 hours of hiking, I saw the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen in my life. We sat on the side of the snow covered mountain for about a half hour watching it, and then eventually made the rest of our ascent to Stella point, or the “silver” peak. After Stella point, we slowly made our wait to the “gold” peak or Uhuru peak. Again, most people were feeling really sick at this point, but Camie and Tyler were absolute rockstars and despite feeling terrible, we all made it to the peak! (I somehow felt fine the whole time and am thanking my lucky stars that I was spared of altitude sickness!) At Uhuru peak Tyler popped the question to Camie and she said yes!! After taking a few pictures and giving a round of hugs, the guides encouraged us to start descending to prevent further sickness. I stayed for a while with my guide Thabit, but eventually we headed down back towards base camp.

The descent was actually the hardest part for me as we took the exact same route down as we took up, which meant a lot of controlled sliding with trekking poles and trying not to fall all the way down the mountain. The sun also came out in full force without me realizing it and soon I felt my face and hands were so sunburned and I was sweating profusely. After about 2-3 hours we made it back to camp for a short rest and lunch. At that point they broke the news to us that even though we had hiked 7 hours up to the summit, and 2-3 hours back down, we had another 5 hours of descent to go. They really wanted to get us out of base camp as apparently altitude sickness is accumulative and the longer we stayed at base camp the more likely we would all suffer. The 5 hour descent was really painful for me as it was rocky and steep. My knees and quads were really sore when we eventually reached camp around 7 pm, but fortunately Tyler’s headache and Camie’s nausea had resolved. In total we had hiked 19 hours that day and as such I could barely eat dinner without passing out. I went to bed at 8:30 pm exhausted but so proud and happy that we had all summited and made it back down safely!

Ginger tea break 

On our way to the top at 2:00 am

Ongeza kichwa

We made it!

Trekking to Gold

Sunrise!

Day 7: Full descent back to Machame gate. At 6:00 am Thomas again woke up me with coffee as we prepared for our final descent. At this point, I felt like something was wrong and soon realized (after taking some selfies because I didn’t have a mirror) that my entire bottom lip had swollen to 4 times its normal size. Luckily, by the time breakfast had come around the swelling decreased somewhat, but I was still kicking myself for getting so sunburned. After saying our goodbyes to our fellow trekkers and having a sendoff song for our crew, we started our final hike toward Machame gate. This descent was a little smoother and after a few hours we arrived to the gate. The end was definitely bittersweet as I was still exhausted from the day before and could barely walk another step but was sad the week was already over. Typical for me, I was also really sad to leave my Kili family and had some sad goodbyes with the crew over a Kilimanjaro beer.

The end of 19 hours of hiking

Our crew!

Back down in Moshi safely!

Overall, even with the 6 days straight of rain, the cold and some of our team being sick, I was so proud of Team Trash Monkey! I am so thankful to all of my guides and the rest of my team for getting me to the top and could not have done it without them. I can’t say enough about the tenacity of these guides, porters and cooks. Every day they carried about 50 kg (or just over 100 lbs) of gear, food, gas, water and supplies for us. While we were sucking wind just carrying our day packs which weighed approximately 15 lbs, they were carrying at least 4 times that and were passing us without even blinking on the trails. Two of our porters actually became lost and almost lost their lives due to hypothermia and were sent down from the mountain. However, the entire time they are smiling, taking care of us and making sure our experience is enjoyable. Again, I cannot thank them enough for their work!

The experience was truly one of the coolest but toughest things I have done mentally (mostly because of the cold and rain), but worth every step. As my guide Living kept saying, it was “cooler than a crazy banana in the fridge”.  I learned so much about myself, my stamina and my breaking points along the way, and some of the lessons I learned I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life!

We made it!

Uhuru peak! Gold!!