Climbing Kili

I SUMMITED KILIMANJARO! Kili was a beast but she was also so beautiful! She is the world’s highest free standing mountain, one of the seven summits, Africa’s highest point, one of the world’s largest volcanoes and a World Heritage and Wonder of the World! She was worth the pain and she will be unforgettable!

I first want to say that traveling the world is really cool and unbelievable at times! Celebrating life, success and the accomplishment of really big goals with people from another continent across the ocean who I have only dreamt of is truly AMAZING. I am so thankful for the absolute warm welcome to Africa and for our team from Moshi sharing their mountain with us! Forming a team with a group of people who are solely there for the dreams of others is humbling and such a gift. This trek was not meant to be an all women’s group, but it did turn out that way! We had the BEST group and I LOVE getting to hang out with other STRONG WOMEN! Our new friends are Swati from Dubai and three ladies from Dallas, Andra, Limei and Kim! This world is so small!

We left Texas on June 16th and arrived in Tanzania, Africa on the 18th super excited and eager for this trip! However, I ran into a sickly, dirty mouthed Irish fella on the bus at Heathrow in London and he is surely responsible for my sickness for the last almost four weeks. As he continued to cough and sneeze behind my head in between dirty words to his fellow mate, I cringed and knew he was going to get me sick! I could see it entering my body!  And it surely did!

OUR STAY IN MOSHI!

For the first two days to begin acclimating to a higher elevation we stayed in Moshi at the Kilimanjaro 360 View Cottages! This place was extraordinary, unique and so welcoming! It was located just outside the city and was surrounded by corn crops and a coffee plantation. For two days we did not leave except for to take a walk through the plantation, villages nearby and down to the river in the jungle with Jackson and Peter, two of our very kind young hosts. The owners of the cottages and restaurant were so very generous and we will always remember them!

THE TREK-The Lemosho Route!

Our trek to Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro, began at the Lemosho Gates in the Kilimanjaro National Park and would take eight days to complete! We began with 48 km ahead of us just to reach the summit and then all the way down the mountain in a day and a half. We chose the eight day Lemosho trek for a slow climb due to the altitude.

We had an amazing team of guides and porters! Y’all, what a fantastic group of human beings who work harder than you can imagine and they are strong! They carried our gear and our entire camp passed us on the mountain and had everything set up before we arrived each day. They are fast! I cannot say enough about them!  Especially Maturo! You can see Maturo in a pic with us ladies and also in the middle of our big group pic holding mine and Kim’s hands. He woke us with coffee, hot water to wash our faces with, served our meals, replenished our waters and so much more! He was always smiling and made our entire trip fantastic!

Day 1: Mti Mkubwa Camp- Elevation @ 2650 meters- 7 km through the rainforest, super muddy, steep and the land of the ants! The ants were mighty, quick and loved fresh meat! Haha to best describe them would be to refer to the really old ant movie that overtook an entire village and ate everyone  We did see monkeys though! We also had an angry monkey outside our tent for the night!

Day 2: Shira 1 Camp- Elevation @ 3610 meters- 7 km through the Montane Forest and the Moorlands.

Day 3: Shira 2 Camp- Elevation @ 3850 meters- 10 km through the Moorlands and now ABOVE THE CLOUDS . We climbed two ridges up and down and then trekked down a ridge line to our camp.

Day 4: Baranco Camp- Elevation @ 3900 meters- 10 km of serious mountain miles while traveling through the Moorlands and the Lava Tower Camp for lunch at 4600 meters. Passing through several elevations as we go helps us acclimate as we trek! I would say that on Day 3 and 4 our legs knew the assignment, we just needed our oxygen intake to come easy!

Day 5: Karanga Camp- Elevation @ 3995 meters- 6 km up the Baranco Wall and through the Alpine Desert! The Baranco wall was a hands and feet climb for two and half hours and was the best part (see pic)! One slip and we were done for, however, it was epic!

Day 6: Barafu Camp- Elevation @ 4673 meters- 4 km through the Alpine Desert! This is BASE CAMP! From base camp we can see the ridge and final climb up to the summit!

Day 7: Base Camp- SUMMIT PUSH began at 12 am- 9 km to Uhuru Peak. Elevation starting point was @ 4673 meters and would end at 5896 meters-19,341 feet! The Roof of Africa! It took us 9 hours to summit and straight down from there. 9 hours! We summited at 9:16 am. We had maybe two to three hours of sleep before we woke at 11 pm and prepared to leave. Once you pass the ridge to the steep climb, I call the view from here the Black Abyss. You can see the head lamps of those who began before us but the black never ends until the sun rises. (see pic) And even then, the amount of false summits is daunting. Once we made it to Stella Point on the rim of the crater we still had to walk around the rim to Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the rim!

The view, AMAZING! The sunrise, INSANE!

The climb down was THE WORST PART! We headed straight down to Base Camp, packed our gear and made it to our next camp after dark! We all skipped supper and crashed.

Day 8: Millennium Camp- Not low enough elevation. At this point, my sister had me worried and I couldn’t get her to lower elevation fast enough. We hoped for good sleep and her to be better by morning for the climb down.

Four or five hours into our descent, my knee finally gave out as I knew she would at some point. For two more hours we very slowly trekked through the mud. Thirty minutes from the gates, our guides had an suv pick us up to save me that bit of time. It was the closest road to where we were and we had walked enough!

Once we arrived at the park, we received our certificates!!!!! As an adult, these certificates meant the world to us and I carried them in my hand all the way home for three days!!

After we were dropped at our cottage, we had our first shower in eight days!!!  

THE IRISHMAN AND ALTITUDE SICKNESS!

On day two of the trek, I was beyond congested, nonstop coughing and couldn’t breathe. All I could think about was this sickness moving to my chest and not being able to summit. This would be the second mountain I have missed to sickness if this happened. I prayed to my body and I prayed to my meds to pull through for me. We double dosed our Acetazolomide for altitude (Diamox) daily and I had Doxycycline with me for malaria that I began to take immediately. Unfortunately, there are negative interactions for the two but they were not bad enough for me to not take them. My sister followed behind me in sickness on day 4 of the trek and she soon too was just as sick. The team did health checks twice a day to ensure we were all good! My heart raced so fast during these checks. I was so scared they would say I couldn’t continue. My sister reminded me to calm down so that I didn’t destroy my numbers on my own lol Now, now, our sickness didn’t end here!

With altitude, I did great except for losing my appetite at the end of day four. I could nibble food but most everything and the smells made me gag. I had zero energy from sickness, from very few calories and from my body not getting enough oxygen at high altitude. The push for the summit was tough!

For my sister, altitude gave her a pretty scary experience. We can giggle now but at the time it was worrisome. She began to hallucinate on the summit push and continued to once day broke and then throughout the night to the next day. Her hallucinations were not tiny, they were big and scared her at times. And there were a lot. (They made my eyes widen for sure! Weird stuff y’all! ) I did not realize she was hallucinating until we reached the summit and then again that evening. I can only imagine how scary this could have been for her. As we sat in our tent that evening, they became more frequent. Our best solution was for her to get sleep and to get her to lower elevation.

TEMPS & LAYERS!

Throughout the week, the weather and temperatures were fantastic! Although we expected tons of rain for the first part of the trek, we experienced only mostly mist, sprinkling and a lot of mud. Once we were above the clouds, the sun shown bright and beautiful putting off a lot of heat but the moment a cloud covered the sun or it was dusk, the heat immediately turned to extreme cold.

Depending on each day of the trek, our layers differed and changed throughout the day. From day one to day five, the layers I started with ranged from one layer on bottom with a base, a tee and my mid base or mid jacket on top. Within an hour or so, I usually came down to a base and a tee or a tee only. Pretty consistently throughout the entire trek my neck had to be covered with my ninja turtles bandana and I had to wear my gloves because the exposure was extremely hot and burned. The sun was scorching my hands and ended up melting my bottom lip. My lip is on the mend. Our noses were burnt and the sunscreen did not do much for us being that close to the sun. However, my sister definitely handled the Sun better than me!

Day 6 and the summit required us to layer significantly!

GEAR! I will post separately!

THE WAY HOME! Took three days and five plane rides! By this time, my sister couldn’t eat either and we were both starving!! Once we arrived in Qatar, we found a Burger King! I ate two whoppers and she at one and a half!! In London, we found sushi and a Coca Cola! Dallas, we went all the way and killed some quarter pounders!

This update is long and barely touches the surface! I will end it here and also end with letting everyone know that Africa has the best apples and bananas you will ever eat in your life! Hands down!

Thanks so much to my family and everyone who has supported me! Thanks to Legends Gym & Health Club for always being there for my questions and giving me a fantastic place to train. Thanks to Pleasant Grove School District for allowing me to use their track and bleachers! We wouldn’t have made it without you all!