To the Roof of Africa

As many of you probably know, the summit of Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. Supposedly, it is ideal to reach the summit in time for sunrise, which means starting the (typically) 6-hour ascent around midnight. They also say you leave at night because the ground is more frozen, making uphill on the 6 inches of sceat (loose rocks and dirt) much more manageable. In addition, you need to allow time for the 7-hour descent back to a safer altitude for the last night of camp.

On summit night, we ate our last meal around 6:00 and tried to sleep a little. I was sharing a tent with Sam, and since it was a one-person tent, pitched on rocks, slanted at about a 30 degree angle, and freezing cold, this did not happen at all. We laid in the tent until 11:30 p.m., when they called us out to get ready.

I think we were all tired, but definitely excited. For me, the first 3.5 hours were great. We kept a slow, steady pace, and other than breathing heavily, we had no symptoms of altitude sickness. We also couldn't have asked for a more perfect night. The sky was crystal clear and the full moon was so bright that we didn't even need our head lamps. Although we started later than many groups (and were walking at what I thought was a pretty slow pace), we passed no less than 10 groups, making us among the first to reach the crater at the the top of the mountain, and, 45 minutes later, after the final uphill stretch on the glacier, the actual summit, Uhuru Peak.

Unfortunately, because we did it abnormally fast, we made it over an hour before sunrise. (Note to other people reading: midnight is too early to leave!!!) We walked slowly back down the glacier and around the crater and hung out on top until the sun rose. It was beautiful--definitely everything I hoped for, and it's a shame that pictures could never capture it because it was too dark for most of the time.

Ironically, none of us had headaches, or any other symptoms of altitude sickness at the summit (Although Jared said his heart had never beat faster in his life). I did, however, experience a whole new level of cold. The last hour up to the crater (3:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.), the wind picked up and the temperature with the wind chill dropped well below zero. I don't want to say I've never been that cold in my life before because I'm sure I have, but this was the first time I was so cold for several consecutive hours where I (not to be too dramatic) had to literally shift into survival mode since my options were to either keep moving or catch hypothermia. Perhaps this was why we made it so quickly; I was limiting our rest stops to about 20 seconds because I was too cold when we weren't moving. No reprieve was in sight until the sun came up around 6:30. Even then, I don't think I completely thawed out until afternoon. Needless to say, we all survived, although had it not been so frigid, we might have hung out on top a little longer to get the standard Kili summit pictures by the sign for Uhuru peak. (We did take them, but it was pitch black and I looked like s---, so don't expect it to be my next Facebook picture.) Overall, it was amazing, and something I would definitely recommend since the view from the top was truly breathtaking.