Kili Trek Day 4: Kibo to Uhuru to Kibo to Horombo

Today was one of the longest and definitely the hardest day ever. After three days of relatively mild hiking, we were woken up at 10 pm to begin our preparations for summiting. Unfortunately, there was some excitement in our hut around the same time, when the Czech hiker who had been with us along the way had a seizure and began vomiting in his bed. Once he came to, we gave him some Diamox and explained to him and his guide that he shouldn't ascend to the summit; however, it was ultimately his decision, and he decided to go up. He did make it up (it took a while), and made it back, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

We finally hit the trail around 11:40, all bundled up and with our headlamps on. Although they tell us that the ascent is at night so we can see the sunrise from the top of the mountain, we decided when we saw the trail at the descent that it was to keep us from freaking out. It was a pretty shear face with a lot of switchbacks, and we went very, very slow. Before my Garmin watch died due to the cold, we had gone 1.66 miles in three hours. Forward progress, sure, but slow.

What the hike looked like, with the headlamps.

I did not feel well during the summit ascent, pretty much from the beginning. In addition to being cold, I was feeling really nauseated and concentrating on not throwing up. As we got closer to the top, I also started to feel really sleepy, to the point that when we reached Gilman's Peak, I sat down and promptly fell asleep. Fortunately, the guide woke me up right away, gave me the fleece sweatshirt he was wearing and some hot water, and I was feeling much better. Which was good, because I was contemplating asking one of the three guides to take me down, and that would have been disappointing.

From Gilman's Peak, it was another hour and a half hike (fortunately, mostly flat with an overall 100m increase in elevation) to Uhuru Summit. Angie was almost as cold as I was (only without the hypothermic need to sleep), so she refused to stop when Kevin and Jen requested breaks. I stuck with her, because I didn't want to stop, either, and we were the first two from our group to reach the summit sign. Unfortunately, in the pictures, I was still wearing the oversized fleece sweatshirt instead of my purple coat, but whatever. I made it, and that's all that matters. It took about 7 hours to make it up (it's supposed to be a 5.6 hour climb).

After Jen and Kevin arrived, we took group pictures and then we were out, because it was cold (our guide said -20C). 

Our group at the top

Angie and I again stuck together with one of the guides and ended up being the first group to summit to make it back to Kibo (2 hours down). 

Looking down at Kibo on our way down

Looking up from the bottom of the hill we "skied" down (if you can see the dark  lines, that's where we stirred up the sand)

It had warmed up once the sun came up, so it wasn't too bad by the time we made it back, but our room in the hut was still cold (go figure), so after we shed our hiking boots, we crawled into our sleeping bags to take naps. Kevin came back about 15 minutes later, and Jen about ten minutes after that. And then they fed us breakfast and allowed us to sleep until it was time to pack our bags before lunch, and after lunch, we headed out to return to Horombo, and make the return trek in two hours and fifteen minutes (compared to the four and a half it took us to get there).

We hung out with the Romanians through tea time and dinner, and then got our brief for tomorrow. We'll wake up around 6:30, breakfast at 7, and then headed toward the Marangu gate around 8. We'll stop for a hot lunch at Mandara hut (where we stayed the first night of the trek), and then continue on to the gate. Should be about 19 kilometers, which is nothing to the 35 we did today (13 up the mountain and 13 down, then nine to Horombo). And it doesn't involve summiting the tallest peak in Africa.

When we arrived at Horombo, we were the old and wide returning hikers we so admired two days ago, and we had flocks of questioning Americans wanting to know how it was. When I said it was, no joke, the hardest thing I had ever done, one of the girls (who is from North Carolina) asked if we did much hiking in the States. My response was that I hadn't done anything like this. They asked us if what we were wearing then (which was our heavy hiking pants and long sleeved undershirts +/- fleece sweatshirts) was what we wore to the summit, and we laughed and said no, and explained how cold we were in what we had been wearing (heavy hiking pants over base layer, two pairs of socks, base layer on top, followed by fleece, down jackets, and rain gear), and one girl actually said, "Oh. I brought yoga pants and leggings." This tells me a multitude of things: 1) She's not forwarding thinking enough to Google "packing list Mt. Kilimanjaro"; 2) She never went into an outfitters store (REI, North Face, Columbia, etc) and said "I'm going to be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, what do I need?"; and 3) Their guides don't care about their success rates enough to ask them about their gear and get them rental stuff from Moshi before they took off. Which is surprising, because I'm pretty sure a guide gets hired based on his success rate.

Silly Americans.

Sunrise over the glacier

Panoramic view from the summit