I MADE IT!!! I was on top of the world!!! Well almost...but it felt like it and looked like it!
But it was not easy...in fact it was easily one of the hardest things I've ever done...possibly number one on that list; and it was more the mental side than the physical side. But I'll get to all of that...
Well my fears of not getting much sleep came true. I laid in bed from 8-10 and just tossed and turned, which is quite difficult and annoying in a tight sleeping bag. I actually got so fed up with it around 10 that I sprung up into a seating position and just stared ahead for a minute or two. It was so frustrating. Since there was literally nothing to do and nowhere to go at that point, I calmed myself down and laid back down. Eventually I fell asleep, but I was woken up probably 20 or 30 minutes later. I got just enough sleep...to feel more tired than if I hadn't slept at all. Crap. This made me a little nervous. I was so tired that I felt almost sick and was about to embark on a 6-7 hour walk to the top of the highest hikeable mountain in the world. Hmmm.
I met the others in the mess tent in my bottom 3 layers but didn't put on the big jacket yet. I had some porridge and hot chocolate and started to wake up a little and feel a little better but still not all that great. I had to break the news about Erik to the others since he was nice enough to not wake them up to say goodbye, knowing he'd see them again anyway. At around 11:30 I went back to the tent to get fully dressed and ready to go. I packed a bunch of water and some snacks and put on an insane amount of cold gear clothes. I would guess that it was about 20 degrees out but we were told it would be 0 at the top, possibly less. I was comfortable in all the clothes I had on which included a facemask, goggles, and two winter hats; but I knew that meant I would be borderline sweating after walking for a bit but that's better than being cold. We left camp at 12:05 with our head lamps on and walked for 30 minutes up a rock cliff using our hands to climb up before we got to the base of the summit trail. Once on this trail, we formed a single file line and begin walking up, up, up. Our path consisted of about 20 foot zigzags (switchbacks), all keeping a pretty steep and steady slope. We would walk 20 feet left and then turn and go right, but always going up the mountain. That was to prevent us from rushing and to try to acclimate as best as possible by walking slowly and gaining the altitude relatively slowly. The downside of that was that it was outrageously brutal to the mind. We had to keep our heads down to see where we were stepping with the headlamps on our foreheads but every time I looked up, I could see little lights of the headlamps of people above us and that's all I could see so it seemed like we were never gaining. We were just continuously chasing an un-catchable object. It was like holding a carrot out in front of a rabbit. To make it easier, I just never looked up. I kept my eyes on the feet of the lead guide in front of me and just matched his steps. The steps we were taking were tiny and slow which was frustrating as well but necessary. I can't explain how hard it was, all I can say is this: we were walking up 4,276' in the pitch black from midnight until 6:30 in the morning with the only light coming from a headlamp on our foreheads and we were doing this at an extreme altitude and in the freezing cold. If you really think about that you may be able to realize how hard it was. The physical portion wasn't that hard for me since we were walking slowly and I don't mind climbing or walking uphill. The thinning air did make breathing difficult but luckily my body continued its dominance over the altitude and I felt great. I was surprised at how hard it was mentally though. That I was not expecting. There were actually a couple times where I thought to myself, 'why am I doing this?' 'this is stupid' 'is it worth it' and 'I don't want to do this anymore.' I remember saying 'this sucks' a few times as well. I kept going of course, the only thing I've ever quit in my life was the trumpet in 5th grade. I sure as hell wasn't gonna make this number two, especially since the mountain had already beaten my friend. I wanted revenge.
There were a couple of eye openers (as to how dangerous this can be) on the way up. The first one was when we saw a guide rushing down the steep slipper mountain in a straight line downward lighting the way while another guide rushed down behind him...carrying a girl on his back whose eyes were closed and who honestly looked either unconscious or dead. She was in the middle of an emergency evacuation for acute altitude sickness, which is a step above altitude sickness and can quite possibly cause death if the victim is not immediately rushed down the mountain as fast as possible. It was a nerve-racking and scary sight. There were several other people who were sitting on rocks or just on the snow on the side of the path and who all looked pretty bad but were trying their best to rest and acclimate so they could keep going up. One girl was throwing up and was just about to be led down. It's scary how bad these people looked; similar to people who are blackout drunk. They seemed lost and confused.
We almost lost another person in our group to altitude sickness. Luckily for them, one of the guides was carrying my oxygen system in case I needed it. We were only half way up to the summit but I knew I wouldn't need it as I felt really good so I said she could use it. She was being checked on by the lead guide every five minutes or so because she was pale and shuffling her steps. She was smart enough to accept the oxygen and later on hugged me, thanked me and told me she would not have made it up if it weren't for the oxygen. That made me feel pretty damn good, knowing that I helped her get to the top.
We got to Stella Point, with is the edge of the crater rim and at a height of 18,925', at around 6:00 and stopped for a well deserved quick rest and cup of hot tea. It was still pretty dark our but we could see the beginnings of the sunrise over the clouds. When I say over the clouds, I mean we were literally above the clouds. The sight took my breath away...well that and the altitude (mountain joke). Seriously though, it was spectacular. It was another 40 minutes or so to get to Uhuru peak at 19,341' so we went on our way after a 10 minute break. I had shed the facemask and goggles pretty quickly after starting but had to put the facemask back on as it was pretty damn cold up there!
It took about 40 minutes to get to Uhuru Peak but it was an unbelievable 40 minutes. I stopped every 5 minutes or so to just look in awe of the sunrise and just the fact that I was looking down at the clouds. Simply heavenly. I was taking pictures each time but one of the guides took my camera to take pictures and told me to keep going because of the danger of the altitude as well as the freezing cold. He didn't get all that many great pictures but they're not bad, that's for sure. After the sun had risen, the surrounding area got even more visible and beautiful. To my right was the crater of Kilimanjaro which was stunning, and to the left were the clouds and glaciers that were also stunning. I'm not gonna lie...I almost shed a tear. It was just so damn breathtaking! I got to the large wooden sign signifying Uhuru Peak, the highest point on Mt. Kilimanjaro and all of Africa at 19,341'. I took off my daypack in order to get in line for a picture (yes, there was a line of about 10-15 people to get a picture haha) and that's when I realized how cold it must be up there. My bag was frozen stiff with a layer of frost on it. I got my picture taken a couple of times and then reached into my bag for the golf balls I brought. I had three golf balls, two that said BECK and one that said KGB 247. The KGB 247 ball was in memory of my mom, one of the BECK balls was in memory of my dad, and the other BECK ball was was myself and my three siblings. Erik had taken the golf club with him so I just threw the balls off the top of the mountain and said a few words in my head. I then put back on my bag and headed back towards the path leading down the mountain. I was walking alone at this point and really relishing the whole experience. There were a lot of things running through my mind, from how proud I was of myself for getting to the top (and doing it without any medicine or oxygen), to my parents and everything in between. It was actually pretty emotional to be honest. Anyway, I admired the view for as long as I could as I walked down, just happy to be there.
I was only on top of the mountain for a total of about an hour and 20 minutes, and an hour of that was walking to and from the peak. Pretty funny that 7 days of walking to get to the top resulted in 20 minutes at the top enjoying the views. So worth it though. I was eventually caught up with by a couple others and we began our descent back down to camp. It was interesting being able to actually see the route we took up here in the daylight. I could tell immediately that I was going to hate it. It was very steep and super slippery, especially with tons of people trudging up the mountain in the snow. I can't stand walking downhill, especially when it's slippery. It hurts my knees and just bugs me. So I was dreading the 2-2 2/12 hour hike down to camp.
I was right...the hike down sucked. It was either slippery packed snow or a slippery deep snow/dirt combo. It really hurt my knees and was just super annoying. I actually stopped multiple times because I simply didn't want to do it anymore. I just needed a break to look around and not be walking down a steep mountain. Not to mention I was getting extremely hot in all my layers now that I was moving quickly and the sun was out. However I was much too lazy at this point to take any layers off; plus I didn't have much room in my daypack for any layers. The trek down seemed to take forever but it was only about 2 hours, and considering it was 7 hours to the top, that's pretty quick. I ended up finishing with one of the guys in our group and when we got the the camp, we were greeted and congratulated by our cook, Winfred, and the lead porter, Cast. They were genuinely happy for us which was really cool. Immediately after that, and about 10 minutes after arriving at camp, I literally fell onto the mat in my tent. I took off my smelly, wet clothes and got into my sleeping bag. I fell asleep within 2 minutes. It was 9:30...I'm usually waking up at 9:30 and I've already climbed and descended 4,276' to the Rooftop of Africa. WOW. I was woken up with all the others at 12 for brunch before setting out for another hour and a half walk down to our camp for the night at 12,540'.
A couple of us followed one guide and made it to camp quite quickly and for the first time, the porters didn't have camp completely ready yet. Granted it was a quick walk and short distance giving them less time, but still. I was still on cloud 9 about the summit so I just laid in my tent pretty happy. I was also quite happy to be done walking for the day. I walked for almost 11 hours today!
Everyone else showed up to camp about 30 minutes after us and we had some tea. After tea was another rest period before an early dinner at 6. Everyone was talking about the top and about how Erik was as if it all happened a day or two ago and not this morning. What a crazy day. It felt like 3 days in one. I heard from Florence that Erik was doing fine as well which was awesome to hear. We finally started to see some plants on our path to this camp which was pretty neat too. We are all pretty grimy and dirty and tired...but we'll be in showers and on beds tomorrow! After 5 hours of walking through a rainforest of course. I'm gonna sleep well tonight! Well at least I hope so because wake up call tomorrow morning is at 6:00!!
