Climbing Kilimanjaro

I officially made it to the roof of Africa! The summit of Kilimanjaro is called Uhuru peak, at a whopping 5,895 meters. It was definitely a test of character and the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life. So let me give you a run down of the events of my week on Kilimanjaro.

Day 1:
Machame Gate to Machame Hut
Elevation Gain: 1,800 - 3,000 meters
Length of Hike: 5 hours

We left Moshi around 9 am to drive to Machame Gate. After registering and paying our park fees we started our hike somewhere around 10:45 am. Machame Gate has an elevation of 1,800 meters. We had a nice long hike through the beautiful rainforest that lasted approximately 5 hours. Somewhere around halfway, after we stopped for lunch, it started pouring. I think it was even hailing at one point. This definitely made the day a little more interesting, and my tennis shoes were definitely ruined at that point. We reached Machame Hut (elevation 3,000 meters) around 4 pm. I was definitely ready to be dry and to relax a little bit. It was much colder than I anticipated on the first night. The stars on Kilimanjaro were unbelievable, more incredible than I can even explain.

Helena, Krista, and I excited to start our trek!

Our tents and the mess tent on the right.

Day 2:
Machame Hut to Shira Hut
Elevation Gain: 3,000 - 3,800 meters
Length of Hike: 5 hours


We set out on day 2 at around 8 am to Shira Hut. This was supposed to be a shorter hike today, but very steep.  It took us around 5 hours to get there, and was definitely more challenging than the first day. I kept repeating to myself "don't look up" and tried to focus on my own feet and the person in front of me. It was so steep that if you looked up you would just get discouraged at how far you had to go! I definitely could feel the affects of there being less oxygen in the air, as I got winded quite easily. We reached Shira Hut around lunchtime and then we took a short walk to see Shira Cave.

Taking a break to take in some awesome views.

Shira Cave. Juma in front and Joseph on the right.

Shira Hut camp.

Man made rock pile. Leaving my mark on Kilimanjaro.

Day 3:
Shira Hut to Lava Tower to Barranco Hut
Elevation Gain: 3,800 meters - 4,600 meters - 3,940 meters
Length of Hike: 6 hours

We started out on another steep part of the mountain heading to Lava Tower. This part of the hike is considered acclimatization because we hike high and then head back down to Barranco camp to sleep. This day was probably the toughest mentally, I started out with a mini mental breakdown asking myself "why the heck did you decide to do this!?" It was the first part of our steep hike and I had gotten a little behind our group. I was doing ok physically, but kept on thinking about how much longer we had to hike until we reached the summit.  We stopped at Lava Tower for lunch, which was the highest elevation we had reached this day, 4,600 meters. At this point everyone as feeling pretty good, although it was VERY cold. Once we crossed over Lava Tower we had to hike straight down and pretty much ran to Barranco camp. The whole day lasted about 6 hours, and we ended up not much higher than where we started. But that's why Machame route is good for acclimatization, hike high - sleep low. Prosper and Juma checked our oxygen levels for the first time at this camp. Mine was 92%, and I could definitely tell a difference, but no sickness!

A picture of our whole crew. 1 guide, 1 assistant guide, 10 porters, 1 cook.

Trucking along! Notice that it was very cold at this point, and I was sporting the mittens I got for Christmas from my Grandma! Always thinking about you!

Day 4:
Barranco Hut to Karanga Hut to Barafu Hut
Elevation gain: 3,940 - 4,800 meters
Length of Hike: 7.5 Hours

Started our day off climbing up Barranco Wall. This was particularly difficult for me, as it was early in the morning and my body is not fond of exercising that early. This was definitely more rock climbing than hiking, but the hard work paid off because the views at the top were phenomenal, and it gave us another closer look at the summit. After reaching the top of the wall we made our way back down (again) to Karanga Hut for lunch. Overall this took about 4 hours.  After our lunch break at Karanga Hut we made our way to Barafu Hut (base camp). This was another 3 hour long hike through a whole lot of scree (loose rock). It's amazing how much the climates change over only a couple of short days.  Once at Barafu Hut our oxygen levels were checked again. Mine had dropped down to 82%, and I was easily getting winded just walking to the bathroom. This made me very nervous thinking about going up another 1,000 meters!

Karanga Hut is that tiny camp on the upper right side. We had to go straight down from where we were standing, then climb back up that far wall to get there.

Our guide, Prosper.

Windy, Cold, and Cloudy

Part of Barafu Hut, you can also see Moshi in the background. So small.

Base Camp, where we "sleep" for a few hours before hiking the summit. Barafu means ice in Swahili, and it was COLD.

Day 5:
Barafu Hut to Uhuru Peak

Elevation Gain: 4,800 - 5,895 meters
Length of Hike: 8 hours

Technically this still started on day four, as we "woke up" around 10:30 pm. I hardly slept at all, a combination of nerves and inability to sleep in sleeping bags. It was also very windy and I think it was hailing at one point. We had a small "breakfast" that consisted of tea and biscuits before we started our trek at 11:30 pm. It was dark and cold, I was wearing 4 layers underneath my snowpants, and 5 layers underneath my down jacket. I think my favorite part about hiking this late at night was the stars. You could also see Moshi lit up in the distance, and the view was incredible. The reason why most people start to summit around midnight is for a couple of different reasons. It takes an average of 6 hours to reach the summit from Barafu Hut, and leaving around this time is prime for catching the sunrise at the summit. Also, the trek is so steep that I think if people could actually see what they were climbing they would be discouraged and turn back around. The pace was so slow, mostly focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. This part of the hike was also so steep that we had to zig zag up, its incredible that we were hiking for that long. I was feeling pretty energized and good for most of the 8 hours. I focused on trying to eat when we took short breaks and continuing to drink water when we were walking up. When you reach the top of the steep portion of the hike, you reach Stella's Point. Which is awesome and really disappointing at the same time. We realized we had to hike farther to reach Uhuru Peak. This was especially difficult, as I started feeling nauseous and a had acquired a bit of a headache. Each step felt like it took 5 minutes, and we were constantly stopping to catch our breath. By the time we reached the summit, I literally collapsed to my knees and just stared at the sign. Such a little reminder of how large of an accomplishment we just achieved.

The whole group!

We only stayed at the summit for a few minutes, because of the lack of oxygen. It was daylight now, and getting down was supposed to be easier than going up. The way down took about 3 hours, and it was basically like skiing down a bunch of loose dirt and rocks. By this time, I was exhausted and feeling very frustrated because I couldn't keep my footing and felt like I was falling every few minutes. Our guide, Prosper, asked "haven't you ever been skiing before?" I said, yes, but I fell so many times that I never went again. He held my arm the whole way down.

We got back to Barafu camp and got to rest for an hour before lunch. Then we proceeded to hike another 4 hours to Mweka Hut, our last campsite, which was at 3,000 meters. This part of the hike was the most physically exhausting for me, my knees were in a lot of pain and my body was screaming at me the whole way. We hiked for a total of about 15 hours this day.


Day 6:
Mweka Hut to Mweka Gate

We woke up early for breakfast, a nice song and dance performance from our crew, and our last 3 hour hike down to the gate. We had officially survived Kilimanjaro. This is definitely an experience to check off my bucket list. I have learned a lot about myself on this trek, and am proud to have accomplished something that not very many people do.


- K