Barafu Camp (Base Camp) to Uhuru Peak ... and descend, descend, descend.
Here's how it happened in reality:
THE UPHILL
Angst, anticipation, excitement = no afternoon nap and only 1.5 hours sleep between the hours of 8:30pm and 10pm. Being woken up for a summit climb comes with a large bag of mixed feelings. ALL the training, planning and hoping, comes down to this moment - this night.
My sleepy tummy rejected the popcorn Emmanuel brought but I guzzled the ginger tea. I was ready and with headlamp on, joined my team, single file through Barafu and climbed toward Kosovo Camp.
In the darkness, DJ Ivan blared from a speaker... the music, supposedly upbeat to keep our party going, was slowly wearing on me. I felt assaulted by it and longed for the cold darkness and quiet starry sky - my happy place when night hiking. Sweet relief when it ran out of juice and left me to just slog it out. (Good chance my crankyness was altitude induced and I tried to keep it to myself!)
Breathe. Step. Breathe.
We stopped about 5 minutes each hour. Of course I pee'd... not far off trail, headlamp off, discreet in the pitch black as a congo-line of hikers passed in slow motion. We were a posse of 8. Four trekkers, our guides Abdi and Evance and 2 porters hand-picked by Abdi for their ability and history of summit success. Sweet Umbeni was one of them and that made me smile!
It was clear from the getgo we wouldn't be carrying our own packs. Evance had mine and was never far away. At every break, he looked me in the eye and said "sippy sippy" then basically poked my Camelbak nozzle into my mouth. I had it filled with 2L of hot water and was diligent about blowing it back out of the hose after use. This is the only way to keep it from freezing solid. Inside my pack a 1L Nalgene of hot water electrolyte solution, wrapped in a well used thick sock was waiting upsidedown. (Both made it unfrozen, FYI.)
About 6 hours in, I saw the horizon show first light. A faint purple line along the black sky. My heart came alive with emotion right then and there. A new day was coming... with warmer air and golden light. I was gonna make it! New energy swept through me.
The 5 hours of steep dusty switchbacks up the ridge to Stella Point are a bit of a blur. Tired, oxygen deprived, randomly hot and cold and wearing bulky clothes, it's a slog, plain and simple. Then, just like that (7 hours into it), the Stella Point sign is in front of you. Someone took my headlamp gently from my head (Umbeni, of course), the sun peaked over the horizon and ... because it's me... tears gushed forth.
I frantically searched for Sue and Evance reassured me she was coming and that she would make it. He took a selfie of us at the sign and everything in my world was JUST RIGHT. How did I get so lucky to have these guys in my life for this event?! And I had no altitude symptoms!? Beside me Imogen was also doing great. Zar had began stumbling and having some personality/brain related symptoms hours ago and was struggling. Sue was also not quite herself but doh! Of course she made it!
We still had 400' and 45 minutes to go to Uhuru Peak, so we soldiered on.
I'd say my mild headache (1/10) and general feeling of "not well" hit about 30 minutes after arriving at the summit - Uhuru Peak. A miracle for me @ 19,300'.
We had taken pictures, Abdi cracked a bottle of non-alcoholic bubbly and we toasted success. Then I needed to go. Abdi and Evance were keeping a close eye on us and at the mere mention of my feeling less well, Abdi told our long-legged porter friend, Umbeni, to walk me faster back to Stella Point.
(I was lucky he took a pics of the glacier too! My hands were all mittened up and pics were the last thing on my mind now so does it matter to me the phone was in portrait mode? 100% no.)
Fast it was! Fifteen minutes later, he had me there and I felt great again. The group was not far behind me.
THE DOWNHILL
At some point, about a kilometer (?) from Stella, there's that junction. The route down branches from the up-route and a scree field becomes your most unlikely friend. Heel plant and go! At least that is what the porters were doing, so I just copied them.
Sue was in a forced-assist situation whereby 2 people supported her by the armpits and almost ran her down. It looked like a crazy-fast glide from behind but from her perspective, it was a terrifying ordeal. They know what they are doing though and if you look like a fall risk, this is the preventative measure that avoids a full-carry should you fall and injure yourself. Better for all.
Imogen, Zar and I followed with Evance and a porter. Suddenly, Zar was not there. At the sight of camp, way down in the distance, he had hit a wall and keeping up was not possible. Yet, the only remedy is going down quicker, so as Imogen and I kept walking, the others went back and gave Zar the same speedy underarm assist that Sue was getting.
The ascent/descent plan has many contingencies and safeguards built into it. Our leaders have walkie-talkie comms and they had radio'd ahead for 2 more porters. After a short time, Imogen and I had company again! It's hard to explain how huge this is, but these guys hoofed it UP the scree field to meet us, to take our bags and the layers we were shedding. Twentytwo year old Imani became "my guy". The youngest of our Habari Team, he was the caring, friendly, capable face that led me back to camp, safely almost 12 hours after we started out. Imogen was not far behind.
We arrived back at Barafu Camp at 10:30am. (I swear it felt much later!!!) I was so hot and absolutely wrecked. (Understatement... but I can't find the right word for how it felt.) All I could do was find my mattress and crash. HARD.
One hour was all I had, but I used every minute to sleep.
Emmanuel did his very best to force feed us lunch and to my credit, I managed 4 whole bites. LOL My appetite took a few more hours to return, understandably. It might have been the altitude, but honestly, the more tired I am, the less hungry I become in my normal life and that was probably 95% the issue here.
The afternoon... 4 hours and 10km of downhill to Mweka Camp. Literally another 5000' after already descending 4000' from the summit! Twice the amount I have ever asked my legs to deal with and those training hikes had me riddled with knee pain! 50% of this afternoons hike is on a dry riverbed of sorts. Uneven, rocky and more steps than trail. Brutal! I was grateful for my decision to ply myself with 800mg of Ibuprofen prior to this leg.
It was nice to pass through alpine and moorland before merging into the jungle once more. My dry, bleeding sinuses felt the improvement and after a long day, Thomas' cooking was all I needed before lights out.
This was our 7th and final night camping on Mama Kili. Where did the time go? My attitude about camping in this forest had come a long way. The anxiety about cold long nights had been replaced with anxiety about the END of the journey and no more cold long nights! LOL I'm growing!
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