Pole pole [slowly]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We laughed, we cried.

No pain, no gain.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

But really...enough with the cliches.  On April 3rd, I set out to hike up Mount Kilimanjaro -- the tallest point in Africa at 5895 meters above sea level -- and on April 7th at about 7:00AM, I reached the summit.

The itinerary that I posted last week was pretty spot on, but I figured I'd give you my own personal account of what really went down.

Day 1 (8.1 km):  We left the hotel at 9:30AM but after driving to the gates and settling all of our park fees and gear rentals, we didn't start hiking until 2:00PM.  It took 3.5 hours to make it to Mandara Huts (2720m), where we ate dinner and slept for the night.  We had amazing weather, and were able to hike comfortably in shorts and t-shirts. The pace started out really slow -- "pole pole" (pronounced pol-ay pol-ay).

This first day we spent walking through the rain forest. At times, it looked magical and I felt that there should be little fairies flying around.  There were also a lot of really neat trees that looked like they belong in a Dr. Seuss book.

At night, we stayed in little 4 to 6 person huts like this one:

Day 2 (11.6 km):  We continued our ascent up to Horombo Huts.  This hike took quite a bit longer -- 6.5 hours -- but I was feelin' good and we had great weather again!  By the time we got to Horombo, we were all pretty exhausted (I was asleep by 8:30PM!).

From these huts, the summit didn't look all too intimidating... I guess that might be because we were already 3720m up.  It's just a little lump of snow, right?

The view down was pretty nice, too! 

Day 3 (7 km):  Acclimatization day!  An easy-peasy hike to Zebra Rocks. Yes, these are rocks that look like zebras.  It was a nice short walk -- only 3.5 hours. Still feeling mighty energetic at this point!  

We had a great view of Mawenzi Peak, which looks like somewhere that a wicked witch should live.

Day 4 (9.6 km):  Hiking through the desert to Kibo. This hike took 5 hours, still going pole pole. We were getting to the altitude where vegetation no longer likes to grow, so basically it looked like we were walking on Mars.  It started raining about an hour from Horombo, which made us want to go a little less pole pole. Lunch on this day was particularly delicious and nutritious: a deep-fried butter sandwich (white bread, of course!) and a Snickers bar for protein.  Mmmm.  When we got to Horombo at about 3:30PM, we crawled right into bed to warm up and take a nap, knowing that tomorrow was doomsday. We were woken up at 5:00PM for dinner, which I promptly threw up due to the altitude.  Once again, mmmm.  After dinner and puking, it was time for bed again! 

Day 5 (a gazillion km):  This is the day that matters most.  After waking up at 11:00PM the night before, we were ready to start our final ascent at about 12:15AM.  Thankfully we had rented the proper gear at base camp... down jackets, snow pants, balaclavas, hiking poles, etc.  In case you can't tell, I'm the one all bundled up in the middle.

I've never hiked under the stars before!  It was really neat, though I think I would've appreciated it more had I not been so exhausted.  A lot of people were struggling hard with altitude sickness.  Many of my group mates had pounding headaches, many were nauseous, and many found it incredibly difficult to breathe.  As for myself, I was just trying my best to keep my cookies down!  One step per breath was the the general guideline, but sometimes I forgot to breathe because I was so focused on not falling off the mountain -- this was a problem.

There were a solid few hours where all I could think was "what the heck am I doing this for?"  But getting to the top made it so incredibly worth it.

It only took about seven hours to the top.  It was a tough seven hours, but so, so, soooo worth it.  I must admit, I teared up in the moments before reaching the summit.  I was about to be standing on the tallest point in Africa, the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, a mountain that I have wanted to climb for years.  We made it to the summit just after sunrise, and the scenery was absolutely stunning.  Unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Below is a picture of the view on the way down.  This is what we were climbing up in the middle of the night.  On the way down, I realized that the reason we climbed in the dark was probably not because it's cute to hike under the stars or nice to see the sunrise, but rather because if we were able to see the massive mound of snow that we had to walk up, we would've marched right back down and crawled back into our sleeping bags.

I got back down to Kibo Huts at about 10:20AM, crawled into bed with a big smile on my face, and fell sound asleep.

At noon, I was woken up for lunch, and then we all packed up our bags and started a 2.5 hour hike back down to Horombo.  After such a long day, I was sound asleep by 8PM.

Day 6 (19.7km):  Our final descent!  We bounded down the mountain today, conquering so much ground in only 5 hours!  It was nice to not have to go pole pole this time! We celebrated our conquest with wine and a nice big Italian dinner!

And that just about sums up my trek up (and down) Mount Kilimanjaro!  I definitely don't feel like I was really able to give a sense of how it felt each day, especially summit day, or how it felt to make it to the top... I guess it's just something that I cannot put into words.  If you're really curious, well, then you might want to try climbing to the top to see for yourself!

All in all, it was the most incredible experience of my life.  Then again, I'm only 22.  There's plenty of time for  many more amazing experiences like this one!