Friday, July 30, 2010

Water and Hydration

One of the most frequent suggestions that you hear about dealing with altitude sickness is to keep drinking. Our guide suggested 3 liters a day, plus the liquids that we drank during meals. That much water means that much peeing - four times in one night, and ten times in one day were my personal records. I used a Camelbak combination water system and daypack, and I found it quite effective. It holds 70 oz (about 2 liters) and by sipping on the tube as I hiked, I was easily able to drink 3 liters a day. In addition to carrying the Camelbak water, I carried a 1 liter and a .5 liter bottle, with Tang or Gatorade mix in them. During our breaks I drank the flavored water for a change.

However, I did not use the Camelbak on the summit - our guide had warned me, and I had also read about the tendency of the tube to freeze up. I did not want to be carrying water that I could not access. What we ended up doing was very satisfactory. Our cook heated water and filled the five liter bottles that we had brought along. Each bottle was insulated, either with a heavy sock or a fancier insulation holder, and the guides carried them all. Dave and I each had just a half liter bottle that we carried in a pocket. We would sip as we climbed, and whenever we ran out we would call a break and get replenished from the guides' supplies. The water remained warm throughout the climb, which made it nice to have a warm bottle in your pocket!

As for the purity of the water - we were told that the cook boiled all of our water. We did not observe whether or not he faithfully did, but in any case, we remained healthy and free of any digestive upsets, so it seemed to be a system that worked. We met and talked with other climbers, and no one reported any GI problems, so I feel confident in saying that outfitters have figured out a way to keep the water clean.

Weather and Summit Clothing


Mt Kilimanjaro seems to be perpetually clothed in clouds. The first two days we were in fog and mist much of the time. There were times in camp when you could not see the other tents, it was so foggy. The dampness gets into everything, although we were lucky to have a large vestibule attached to our tent, so all of our gear could remain out of the mist. Once we got to the high camp (Kibo Hut) we were above the clouds, and the sun could be intense at times. However, seldom was the entire mountain out of the clouds - when we had sun, we were often looking down onto a cloud cover of the lowlands. As you can tell from the photo of Dave on the left, it was foggy and misty, but not terribly cold.

The summit was quite cold and windy - I am guessing perhaps -10F. There was a fine mist which had coated the rocks with frost, but the footing was adequate, not too slippery. During the ascent below Gilman's Point there were times when the wind got chilly, and times when I was hiking in a T shirt, long underwear top, light sweater and lightweight long sleeved shirt (in other words, rather lightly dressed). I did not put on my heavy parka until about 3 hours into the climb. At the same time, I removed the sweater and shirt, so I went to the summit with a T shirt, long underwear top and heavy parka. I had a light weight balaclava, a wool stocking hat, and heavy wool mitts. The parka had an excellent hood that I would use intermittently.

Descending, we once again entered the cloud layer and remained there until we left the mountain. We descended on the Marangu trail, so were in cool rain forest for the final day and a half - quite a lovely way to end the trip.

Mweka Descent Route

We learned from our guide that the Mweka descent route has been much improved in the last 5 - 7 years, which means that if you are taking the Machame route, the descent is quite decent. All the information which we had (much of it dated) had suggested that the Mweka descent was a muddy, steep hell. Apparently no longer. Please note, however, that we do not have first hand experience with this route, so double check with a recent trip report from someone else.

Our Route

We followed what we call a modified Rongai Route in climbing the mountain. We took five days to ascend and three days to descend. The guide made a few changes before we started, and one major one after we started. This is our final, actual itinerary:

Rongai Gate - Simba 3+ hours
Simba - Cave 2 4 hours
Cave 2 - Kikelewa 3 hours
Kikelewa - Mawenzi Tarn 3+ hours
Mawenzi Tarn - Kibo Hut 4.5 hours
Kibo Hut - Summit - Horombo 6 hours to Uhuru summit, 3.5 hours back to Kibo, 2.5 hours to Horombo
Horombo - Mandara Hut 4 hours
Mandara - Marangu Gate 2 hours

We had originally planned to spend a second night at Kibo, after summiting, but the guide nixed that, and we later learned that no one is allowed to spend a second night at Kibo. It is a water-less site, which means that porters have to carry all water up from a lower camp. Also, it is a heavily used site, and there is not enough room for parties to linger - there are always new groups arriving. Unfortunately the outfitter led us to believe that a second night was possible, so we had an uncomfortable conversation with our guide after descending from the summit. It turns out that the Marangu trail is well graded and well maintained, so descending was not as hard on our legs and knees as we had expected. Nonetheless, we were not happy to have an unexpected additional 2.5 hours of hiking at the end of a long day.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Success!























It is just a few hours since we returned from our eight day climb. The internet connection is slow, so I won't be able to give you many details, but the most important information is that we were both successful in getting to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro (26 July 2010). It was surprisingly easy, given the hugeness of the mountain. It was easy because we trained well, because we allocated enough days to acclimatize, and because we had a good guide and team supporting us. Edward, our guide, had a deliberate pace that he maintained for the entire time. In demonstrating, day after day, that we were able to meet the anticipated time goals by going at his speed, I came to trust him to lead me up the mountain. So on summit day I just trudged behind his red gaiters, step after step, and listened to my iPod music, and eventually we got there! Fortunately we did not have any serious problems with the altitude, which was a real gift, since many people do. Initially the outfitter had suggested that since we were "old", that we would take longer to get to every stage, but we made the summit in 6 hours, and passed quite a few other groups along the way, so that felt vindicating.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Arrival in Moshi

The skies have been uniformly overcast since we landed in Nairobi on 16 July 2010. Supposedly our bedroom window looks out over Mt Kilimanjaro, but we have to take the manager's word for it. The upside is that it is not too hot. The downside is that it is quite possible that we will labor up the mountain for five days, only to summit in clouds. Oh well, we are not doing this for the views.

Since leaving Colorado earlier in July we have not had many opportunities to exercise - too much driving, flying and riding on buses. Dave is valiantly climbing steps in our hotel, but I lack his dedication. Tomorrow begins our climb - I figure that I will have sufficient opportunities to use my leg muscles on the slow ascent.

We have met with our outfitter, Kessy Brothers, and will meet our climbing team later today. So far everyone seems to be competent and knowledgeable. We have passed their gear inspection, and will be packing up our stuff tonight. We do not have to put everything in one large container - they will take our smaller stuff sacks and gym bags and put them into a larger, waterproof series of bags for the porters. I am glad that we did not bother with backpacks - they would have been superfluous.

We had one recovery day in Nairobi, and two here in Moshi. I am glad that we factored in these extra days - the simultaneous effects of jetlag and adapting to a very new environment have made both of us a little slow and sleepy. Our hotel in Moshi has been wonderful (A&A Hill Street Hotel - sajjad_omar@hotmail.com) - clean, private bathroom, hot water, well ventilated - what more could you ask for?! I have posted reviews on the Thorn Tree forum on the Lonely Planet website, if you want more details.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Photo of the two of us













My wonderful husband and climbing inspiration, Dave Heitke. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary last September.