Kilimanjaro - Day 7 Summit Day!

First, I want to talk about the amazing people that were in our hiking group. As I said, there were 8 of us and 7 of us that made the push to the summit. You couldn't ask for a better group of people to have as hiking partners. We were all in this together. We always hiked together and motivated each other to continue. Everyone was full of encouragement. Not to make you think we were all saints or anything, we had some great laughs at each other's expense both during the hikes and at dinners. Great sense of humor made the difficult hikes bearable!

So, we get our wake up call from Meki at 11pm. Justin had slept pretty well for about 4 hours or so, but I hadn't slept a bit! I was nervous and excited. We dressed in our tents as it was freezing and SOOOO windy, and then we headed into the dining tent for some hot tea and porridge. We were all pretty silent as we tried in vain to put something in our stomachs, nervous and ready to start our hike. The wind was fierce! On the bottom we had on 3 layers: a thin thermal, a thick thermal layer and wind/rain pants. On the top we had 4 layers: a thermal, another long sleeved shirt, a fleece and a wind jacket. Then we carried our synthetic down coats in our packs just in case. We had warm gloves, face masks and hats on as well!

We departed camp at midnight after a short prayer lead by Jamaica. We all had our headlamps on that lit the steps in front of us as it was pitch black outside. In addition to the 7 hikers, we had 4 guides with us today: Jamaica in the lead, JJ heading up the rear and Rama and Amedia flanking our sides (Moshi did not summit with us). Whenever there was a steep slope, one of the guides was always on the side of us to make sure that no one slipped.

Step by step we went. I was just behind Jamaica, Tracy was behind me (ladies first) and then Justin and the others. We walked with our heads down, staring at the feet of the person in front of us, using the rhythm of their steps to keep us going. The wind continued to rage. I had to keep my eyes closed at times to protect them. At our first stop, after about 2 hours of hiking, Rama and Amedia ran ahead and had hot Rosella juice and ginger crackers (they help with an upset stomach and are the best food at the high altitude).

We continued into the night, step by step. At about 3 hours into the hike, all of a sudden, this hot sensation came over me. I felt nauseous and light-headed. I asked Jamaica if we could stop and he said just ahead, but I said, "no, I need to stop now" and sat down on the nearest rock. I though I was about to pass out! Here comes Rama hot juice and ginger cookies in hand. I ate 2 cookies and had a cup full of juice. I don't know if it was the juice, the will power or what but I swear that all of a sudden I felt completely better!! Back to 100%. It was unbelievable.

On we went up and up. The slope was at an incline the entire time. There were no flat parts, no downhills. About 40 minutes after my episode, Justin began to feel bad. For him, it was his stomach and head. Again, we stopped for some juice and cookies. At this point, everyone was begining to feel the altitude, but we pressed on. Finally, after about 6 hours of hiking, the sun began to rise to our right. It lit up the entire mountain with a bright warm glow. We were about 30 minutes away from Stella Point (the top of the ridge, where the slope begins to flatten and you can finally see the peak). The sunrise gave us all some renewed energy to make it to the top. Finally, we reached Stella Point and saw the sign for Uhuru peak not far away. It took us another hour to reach the peak. Slow, slow walking. The altitude made the brain a bit cloudy, so it all felt like we were in a dream. Finally, we ALL reached the peak together at 7:55am!! 5898m, 19450ft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The view was just magnificent! With the crater of the dormant Kilimanjaro volcanoe to our right and the huge glacier to our left. At the peak we only stayed about 10-15 minutes, just enough time to take photos. I have to say that for me, after the initial dizzy spell, besides the feeling of being in a dream, I was surprisingly fine all the way up and at the peak.

The descent from the peak was via a different route. It was skree/sand hills all the ways down. If we hadn't been so exhausted from the climb, it would have been so much more fun as we 'skied' all the way down!! The dirst was so loose that each step took you about 5 feet down the mountain. It was just what we needed to get us back to Barafu camp fast! We arrived back at camp at about 10:45am and CRASHED into our tents, absolutely exhausted. After a couple of hours of sleep, we had a light lunch and headed further down the mountain. Our final camp was Millenium camp at an elevation of 3700m. Here we met back up with Ralph and relived the adventure to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro