All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
The Ladder of St. Augustine – Longfellow
Didn’t sleep well last night for the first night on the trip, maybe it’s the diamox. Another beautiful sunny morning, which is turning out to be a feature of this trip… usually followed by rain later in the morning!
Everyone is in high spirits this morning and for once we can see the clouds below us. I was feeling confident about the weather today so didn’t wear my raingear, just a windstopper. It turned cloudy as we set off but soon returned to sunshine again and I was glad I’d left the raingear off.
I’d decided to use my poles for the first time on the trip and copied the Graeme method of poling which I found really helped.
About halfway along the route we were passing through a small saddle and noticed a grave marker. The guides said it belonged to a climber who had suffered a pulmonary oedema higher up and they were rushing him down to the evacuation route on the Shira Plateau, but he didn’t make it and died at that spot. It really bought home the effects altitude can have on your body.
About 40 minutes from camp, the cloudy drizzle came in again, so I put my raingear on, just in time for then the hail started. About 3 hours after leaving Moir Hut, I arrived at a very wet and cloudy Lava Tower camp (4,550m). It was a big disappointment for me, as I’d seen loads of pictures of this tower, and even though we were camped at its base we couldn’t see the tower through the mist.
I was last in again, and while its not a race, I was still disappointed to be lagging behind everyone, especially as this climb had taken so much out of me. I felt exhausted, despite using the poles.
Our tents were pitched down the slope and Simon & Carl were at the bottom, so Simon decided to build another rain ditch to avoid having his tent flood. Pretty soon we were all building them. Simon’s looked like a fort, with an inner and outer wall – I suspect his forces background was turning his rain ditch into a redoubt!
He still had loads of energy so he helped me with my ditch. It was good having Simon on the trip, not only was he a good laugh, but he also bought home that we are camping, and its not five star luxury so if we wanted to avoid problems later in the night then we should rely on ourselves, there would be no room service to sort it for us.
Building ditches helped us keep warm in the cloudy mist, but everyone turned up at camp either cold, breathless or tired, or all three, except Jennifer who still seemed full of beans! The food was excellent as usual, as was the company so we were all cheered by the end of lunch.
The acclimatisation walk to Arrow Glacier camp (4,900m) is planned for 3pm, but no-one seems to be looking forward to it. The weather is still closed in and cold and everything we do at this altitude seems to tire us out, even getting in and out of the tents – in many ways the walking seems easier, at least we can keep warm and it’s a steady pace.
It took us longer to get ready than we thought it would so everyone was waiting to go by the time we arrived. Probably because they’d gotten cold from waiting for us, the initial pace was quite fast, and I found myself falling behind almost immediately, and I soon lost sight of the others in the mist.
Jennifer, my love, decided to stay back with me and help me through this walk, as did one of our assistant guides, Godfrey. It was cold that evening, with the ambient temperature around zero degrees C, but the extra layers we had put on seemed to be working, perhaps we could wear this for summit night?
Soon we entered the snowline and the going got more difficult. I was already having to stop after few steps but with the snow on the steep slopes, I kept slipping on the snow and mud which took a surprising amount of energy to recover from, so I was stopping all the more. We also had to cross four streams along the way, which due to the meltwater from higher up the mountain had become raging torrents full of reddy brown silt. Crossing them wasn’t so bad, but climbing up again out of the gullies was really taking its toll.
Godfrey could see I was struggling and he suggested a couple of times that maybe we should turn around and head back as it wasn’t going to get any easier. I had to keep going though, as in my mind I was trying to see every difficulty as another step towards my acclimatisation, and anyway if I turned back now, then perhaps I would be inclined to do the same on summit night, and I didn’t even want to entertain the thought of that.
So we kept going, slowly through the snow and the mist until finally we caught up with the others… who were on their way down. I joked with them and took a picture of Graeme, but my heart was sinking. They had already made it to the Arrow Glacier and were heading down and I hadn’t even made it there yet.
They did say it was just up ahead so I tried to keep my spirits up and sure enough we were soon there and it was such a relief, although now we had the job of walking downhill through the slush of snow and mud, which wasn’t an appealing prospect.
It was at the old Arrow Glacier camp that I realised that I hadn’t been drinking enough on the way up. I had a pee which was bright yellow against the snow (sorry if you’re squeamish!), and it should be almost colourless if you are drinking enough. I realised that because I was labouring for each breath then I was avoiding drinking as I had to stop breathing for a second to take a sip.
The way down was just as hard as the way up, with both of us sliding in the muddy slush of the path, so it took us as long to get back as it did coming up. As we got back to the camp I found I was really hot and had to take some layers off. At first I didn’t understand why this was as we were below the snowline now and walking down was a lot easier than walking up, so I shouldn’t be generating as much heat.
Then Jennifer noticed that we could make out the camp, the mist was lifting! At last we could make out the Lava Tower and although the sun was low in the sky, its heat was more than enough to start warming us up.
We got a big cheer as we entered the mess tent, but we were trying to drag them out to see the views, by this time the mist had cleared about us and whilst there was still some mist about, you could see the western breach right above us through the clouds.
The sun was setting and I ran about trying to take some pictures of the camp before the clouds rolled in again. I think I must gotten too excited because pretty soon I was out of breath and feeling extremely nauseous. I should have rested and drank more water while I had the chance.
We had an amazing sunset and while I enjoyed it, I was really struggling again. I could hardly eat at dinner, I felt sick and my head was banging and every movement was a chore. I found it really hard to concentrate and to listen to the banter going on around me, I just wanted to lay down and rest. This was probably my lowest point, and I really feared that I couldn’t go any further.
There was small American group camped next to us that night, who had also done today’s acclimatisation walk. We were told the next day that they had had enough and had decided to cancel their climb and the next morning they headed down the mountain. I didn’t blame them, I could really understand how they felt.
The skies were clear that night and the wet zips on out tents had frozen up by the time we finished our evening meal, so we had to bang on the tent to try to crack the ice and open the zips.
Tags: Kilimanjaro
