The Rooftop of Africa

Well, this blog is a little overdue, but I thought that it was about time that I posted about my mountain climbing adventure!

So, on April 3, my friends, Allie and Ari, and I started our climb. We drove up to the Machame Gate and waited for all of our porters to divide up the gear before we got started.

Machame Route

Our first day of hiking wasn’t too bad. It took us about five hours to reach camp for the night. We did get rained on for about an hour and got pretty wet even with all of the coverage from the trees.

Kilimanjaro Flower - Only grown on the mountain 

Day two was one of the harder days for me. Maybe I was trying to go too fast or maybe I just wasn’t expecting so many steep rocks, but I definitely struggled a lot. We were only hiking for about four hours, but it seemed like much longer.

Day three was about five hours of hiking up to 4,600 meters. We stopped to have lunch along the way and then climbed down the rocks surrounding a waterfall so that we could sleep at a camp that fell under “climb high, sleep low.”

Day four was the wall. And yes, I really mean we climbed a wall! It was called Barranco Wall and it was a lot of very steep rocks right on the edges of the cliff. We didn’t have any kind of ropes or safety equipment, just our guides holding our hands or pushing us if we froze (like I did!) because we were afraid of heights. Not going to lie, if I would have known that there was rock climbing involved like that, I’m not sure if I would have actually signed on for that climb!

Barranco Wall

Ari, me, and Allie before climbing the wall!

Day five took about six hours. It definitely did not have a wall like the previous day, but it was starting to get steeper. Plus, the three of us girls were starting to get a little nervous for the final summit. After we reached camp, we had lunch and then laid down for a nap. We got up for dinner and then went back to our tents to put on our snow gear for the summit (mind consisted of five pairs of pants!). Then we napped for a few more hours before we got up to start our final ascent at 11:30 p.m.

As we started our climb, I looked up to see the stars. It was the clearest and most beautiful view that I have ever seen! You could see every star with no clouds in sight. The shooting stars were amazing! The only other light that we had for our climb was our individual headlamps. About an hour into the hike, Allie started having some problems with altitude sickness and stayed behind for a while. Ari and I continued with our guide, Musa, and another porter. Around 2 a.m. I started struggling with breathing; the decrease in oxygen was really starting to get to me. Shortly after sunrise, Ari and our porter went ahead of Musa and I because my breathing was getting even worse. About an hour away from Stella Point (which is the steepest part and only another hour away from Uhuru Peak) I asked Musa if he thought I was going to make it to the peak. He never really answered me, but he kept encouraging me to at least get to Stella. By the time I reached it, I was convinced that I was done. I didn’t think I had any more energy left in me to keep going. Then a group of Canadians we ran into throughout the week was returning from the peak. They started cheering me on and encouraging me to go for the peak. Of course then I started crying because I was so exhausted, but I wanted to do it so bad. Musa took my hand and started slowly walking with me. The rest of that walk was much easier then climbing Stella, but I was just very tired. But, after a very long hour…

I DID IT!!!!!

I made it to Uhuru Peak - Africa’s highest free standing mountain and the fourth highest mountain in the world! It was an absolutely incredible feeling and I’m so proud of myself for climbing 5,895 meters (over 19,000 feet)!

Musa & I at Uhuru Peak

I asked Musa what time it was and he told me that it was 10:30 a.m. It took me eleven hours just to reach the summit, but every minute of it, as hard as it was, was absolutely worth it!

Stella Point (I HATED climbing this part!)

It took me about three hours to come down the summit, probably because I fell down most of it! The route we took down the summit was a lot of snow and gravel and you were supposed to just “ski” down it on your hiking boots. Well, I guess I wasn’t very good at it since I spent most of it lying down, but I’m sure it was pretty entertaining for Musa to watch!

After making it back to base camp, we had lunch, took a nap, and then had to climb two more hours back down because we had to get to the next camp for the night because there was no more water because we were too high. I was so tired that night that I was passed out by 7 p.m. I even slept through dinner!

The following day we climbed six more hours down and made it to the bottom. To celebrate, our crew brought us a bottle of champagne!

Allie and Ari – You girls are absolutely wonderful and I’m so glad that I got to share this experience with you. It was definitely nice to have girls to complain with since we were completely surrounded by the boys!

Musa and Adam – You were the best guides I could have ever asked for. You always made sure that the three of us were taken care of and you never stopped pushing us to keep going. Musa, thank you for putting up with me on the summit. I know I complained a lot because I was so exhausted, but thank you for getting me to the top and not pushing me off the edge!

The Crew – Thank you for all of your hard work over the week. You all did a wonderful job and we really enjoyed getting to know you over the course of the week!

The Best Kili Group I could have ever asked for!

It was a pretty long week to say the least, and we were all very excited to get home and take a very long, overdue shower! Physically, climbing Kili was definitely the hardest thing that I have ever had to do and I don’t ever plan on climbing it again, but it was an experience of a lifetime and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to do it!