Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Mt. Kilimanjaro, the roof of Africa, stands at 5895m elevation. Myself and Joel Mathieu, the volunteer from Quebec, started the climb to the highest summit in Africa on Dec 23 and made the summit on Dec 28. Experiencing high altitude was incredible. The climb started in Moshi at 1100m where we spent the night before. We drove to the Machame gate at 1800m and the first day climbed to the Machame camp at 3000m. Day 1 was spent in rainforest. Day two we entered moorland and had a relatively short walk to Shira camp at 3850m. Day three (Christmas day) we ascended to 4600m and then back down to Barranco camp at 3950m. Day 4 we made the easy scramble up the 380m Barranco wall and then down to the Karangu camp which was also at 3950m. Day 5 we reached the Barafu camp at 4600m which is the highest camp and where we made our summit attempt from. Day 6 was the summit day and started around midnight. We climbed 1295m to the summit and then descended all the way down to Mweka camp at 3100m. It was hard on the knees making a 2800m descent. Day 7 we made the last descent to the Mweka gate at 1700m and headed back to the hotel for a well earned shower. Most of the climb was overcast or fog but we occasionally had some clear views of the main peak, at which time we were taking a tonne of photos. Our summit day there was a freak snow storm and we spent the entire time in medium snowfall and wind which killed any views but made the summit day very challenging and quite unique. It was the most snow fall since 1997 and caused the hike to take much longer than it normally would because walking takes more effort. It also caused a low success rate of only 53%. We were quite fast relatively speaking. We were the third group to summit out of many, many groups. Technically we were faster but we left later than the first two groups but they broke most of the trail so I give them full props for that. We had a couple turns at it and with the low energy levels resulting from altitude, it is incredibly draining. Above 5000m I noticed my heart rate was very high and if I went too fast, I would get nausea from the blood draining from my stomach. This forced me to keep a slow pace to keep the heart rate down. Above 5500m was worse because it becomes hard to breathe and I would make several steps and then have to take a short pause to catch my breath. The high elevation climbing is purely a battle between the mind and the body. The body is telling the mind that everything is wrong but the mind fights it in pursuit of the goal. At no point did stopping even cross my mind even though the pain of moving continually increased. We reached Stella point 5795m at 6:10 which is the point which the trail reaches the crater rim and the gradient becomes much less. From there it is a very slow walk along the crater rim to the highest point, Uhuru summit, which we reached at 8am. After some photos we headed back. What took 7:20 minutes to ascend took 2 hours to descend.

Day 1 in the rain forest. This was actually one of the worst days for walking because it was still very humid and hot. The colder climate of the rest of the days was far most pleasent








Day 2 in moorland. The porters carry everything on their heads up the mountains. It almost seems unfair but you see the incredible number of people at the gate trying to get work as porters you realize that it is a good job because it pays very well, relatively speaking




The view from Shira camp looking at the Shira peaks






The evening view of thew Kibo peak from Shira camp. Kibo peak is the highest peak on the volcano of which Uhuru summit is the highest point




Christmas day at 4600m at the Lava Tower. We got snow on Christmas day which made us happy.








The view from Barranco camp. At this point we are in alpine desert.










The porters on the Barranco wall, on of the only scrambles on the hike which was quite fun but pretty easy as scrambling goes.







Karangu camp early in the morning.







Our group minus one porter. We had a guide, assistant guide, cook, assistant cook, and 4 porters... And this is normal




We 'woke up' around midnight and started our summit bid at 12:40am. I was unable to sleep. I layed there listening to the rain/sleet hit the tent for a few hours until it stopped around maybe 9 or 10pm. I thought it had stopped because the sound stopped. I was completely wrong: so much snow accumulated that i couldnt hear it anymore. We were very excited about the surprise snow.

The famous summit photo at the Uhuru Peak sign. We made the summit at 8am





We returned to Barafu camp at 10am to find our tent completely buried and one side collapsed under the weight of the snow.