The sun was blocked out by the mountain when we woke up so it was quite cold around camp in the morning. Probably about 25-30 degrees. We left camp at 8:15 and the sun was still not over the mountain so we left in the cold shade. Our first 1/4 mile was down a waterfall of sorts. Basically just a rocky path with running water gliding down parts of it and snow on the other parts. However, since it was still so cold...all of this was frozen so we were essentially walking down an ice covered rock path. It was definitely the slowest and most dangerous part of the trek thus far. Which is probably why I enjoyed it thoroughly. One of the assistant guides led the way with me right behind him. He went slowly and tried to find the best path down while breaking up the ice as best he could. A couple people slipped and fell, including the lead guide, but luckily nobody was hurt or anything. Three of us with the lead guide went down much quicker and got to a flat, non-slippery part to take off some of the warm layers as the sun was now shining on us and it got a bit warmer. We all met up briefly at that flat spot and had some water and some jokes about the ice. Then the others that showed up after us wanted to rest a bit longer but we were ready to go so we headed off with the assistant guide and kept on trekking. We had a decent way to go to get to the Barranco Wall, which is a famous part of this route. It is stated as the hardest part of the trek besides the summit climb. Which of course makes me very excited because I love climbing rock walls. It is however somewhat disheartening to have been so close to the top this morning and now be going quite a bit down...from camp at 15,015' to the base of the Barranco Wall at 12,870'. We do go back up again by climbing the wall and then in and out of a couple valleys, but overall we will lose 1,815' because camp today is at 13,200'. That being said, it was definitely worth going down just because of the wall climb itself, which was quite enjoyable.
When we got to the base of the Barranco Wall, the three of us were absolutely speechless. Erik and I looked at each other and just laughed. I was picturing a wall maybe 20 feet high with big cement block looking rocks that we climb up and that's it; I think Erik was picturing something similar. Well, this wall was a 990' high wall and it was extremely vertical. We spent 3/4 of the climb using our hands and legitimately climbing our way up and the other 1/4 of the time we were walking up a very narrow, very steep path. If you were to take 1 step to the right...you'd fall off and down to your death. Which the guide said has happened to many porters over the years. This is by far the most dangerous part of the trek in terms of climbing and hiking. Summit day is very dangerous too but only because of altitude, not actually hiking or climbing.
We had to wait at the base of the wall for the others, about 45 minutes behind us as we were motoring down the path to this point. The other guy with us wanted to wait for his wife who was in the later group and the guide couldn't split us up so we all waited. Shortly after they got there, we all quickly joked about the giant rock wall in front of us and how daunting it was. Then Erik and I went with the same guide we had and the others kind of lagged behind to rest and regroup. We both thoroughly enjoyed the trek up which took about an hour probably. That included two water/pee breaks. When we got to the top of wall, if again felt as if we were on top of the world. It was hard work to get there and we were both feeling pretty good about ourselves. We had a packed lunch today since it was going to be a long day of hiking so we started our picnic and waited for the others. About 20 minutes after us, the rest of the group joined us and we all had lunch together on top of the wall. Pretty awesome experience.
After we were all done eating, it was time to leave and we still had a ways to go until we reached camp. The others were taking a while to get ready because everybody was putting on rain gear since it was getting cold and cloudy and it either hailed or rained every afternoon so far. I already had the gear on since I finished lunch earlier so Erik and I headed off with the others a few minutes behind us. One of the others caught up to us so we were a pack of three with the other four not too far behind. After about 20 minutes of walking, it started to hail..pretty hard. We were in the middle of the open on top of a dormant volcano in the middle of Africa and it was hailing quite hard on us. What a place to be! The hail was coming down so hard that it was hurting my hands holding the walking poles so I tucked my hands under my hunched over chest and just carried the poles like that. The hail wasn't too big, like very small pebbles, but it stung coming down. After about another 40 minutes in the hail, we could see our camp. The only problem was that it was about 1/4 mile across a giant and deep valley. So we had to go quite a ways down to go back up to this height but on the other side. Plus it was beginning to turn to rain so it was slippery and steep. More dangerous hiking...perfect! It took us about 25-30 minutes to get to the base of the valley and we slipped and slid our way down wet rocks and sliding mud to get there. We were now completely drenched and my knees hurt from going down a steep, slippery slope. The way up the other side wasn't as bad because going up was easier than going down and not as slippery but it still took us about 30 minutes because it was pretty steep. The three of us eventually arrived at camp and headed to our tents. Erik and I both took off our wet clothes in our "mud rooms" which were a small area not in the main part of the tent but still in the entire tent...kind of like a doorway. We both just layed there for a short while, kind of tuckered out from a long, tough day and the annoying hail and rain we had to do it in. However, it was definitely a helluva fun day overall and a good test. My headache left shortly after laying down, probably from the rest, plus being at a lower altitude probably helped it too. We got here while it was still very cloudy and raining so we weren't sure what the view was except for there were a ton of tents at this giant campsite. Two of the other 3 routes converged with our route here which made it quite busy.
Overall we walked for 6 hours today, which is a decent amount less than the others, who arrived at camp soaking wet about an hour after us. However, when we were called for tea (right before they showed up) and we emerged from our tents...WOW what a view of the mountain we had. The skies had cleared and were now bright blue and the mountain was literally directly in front of us. It looked as if we could reach out and touch the top. We hung our stuff out to dry in the sudden warmish sunlight and enjoyed the views. You could see the real world down near sea level way out in the distance and it was hard to not just stare at the mountaintop. The weather on this mountain completely unpredictable and ridiculous. We all took our chairs out of the tent to enjoy the sunshine and chatted for a bit. Before and after dinner, we all played more UNO and enjoyed yet another great meal for dinner. At our briefing, we were told that tomorrow would be a short 3-hour day but would involve a lot of sleeping since our summit climb begins tomorrow night at midnight...ahhh so close!! It would be a pretty steep walk and ascent to our summit camp which will be at 15,180'...our highest of the trek (about 165' higher than lava tower last night). So our climb tomorrow will be 1,980' and all of the walking will be going up...no more valleys or dips. We should get there around 11 and have lunch. Then we were told to take naps before tea and another nap before dinner and then go to bed after our 5:00 dinner where we would get our summit briefing before awaking at 11 and leaving at midnight. I'm getting pumped!!!!!!! I feel great and am so excited to be going for the peak tomorrow night.
*If you look closely at the pictures of the Barranco Wall below, you can see bright colored dots high up. Those are the porters climbing the wall. Crazy.
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