Travel: Climbing Kilimanjaro
By: Heather Bing, ED2
At 19,341 feet, Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa. Climbing it seemed like a challenge, but at the same time, an exciting one that was completely attainable. I was convinced that altitude sickness was not going to be a problem for me and my father. My family lives in Montana with an elevation of around 6,000 feet and I still live in an area with a high elevation similar to that of Big Sky, and we are both avid skiers and hikers. This accomplishment, although challenging, was in the bag.
I was picked up at the airport by our tour operator and taken to Moshi. Aaron, who was new to the business, was on time and came in a new car – I thought that this was a good start. My dad showed up a few hours later at the hotel and after lots of hugs after being apart for more than a year, we discussed the big start to our journey the next day. My dad had electronically transferred all the money to Aaron because he didn’t want to fly with that much cash on hand and Aaron had told him the night before that he had not received the money. The next morning, we went into town and headed to the bank to try and figure out why this wired money has not gone through. Aaron explained to us many times that it takes 10 days for him to receive a electronic money transfer, while my dad on the other hand explained that electronic money transfers are instant and that he received a confirmation that it went through and was received. I am in the middle trying to explain that culture differences were the issue here. There is American time and African time; it is very possible that an electronic money transfer that we think of as instantaneous in America does not work on the same schedule in Africa.
I was picked up at the airport by our tour operator and taken to Moshi. Aaron, who was new to the business, was on time and came in a new car – I thought that this was a good start. My dad showed up a few hours later at the hotel and after lots of hugs after being apart for more than a year, we discussed the big start to our journey the next day. My dad had electronically transferred all the money to Aaron because he didn’t want to fly with that much cash on hand and Aaron had told him the night before that he had not received the money. The next morning, we went into town and headed to the bank to try and figure out why this wired money has not gone through. Aaron explained to us many times that it takes 10 days for him to receive a electronic money transfer, while my dad on the other hand explained that electronic money transfers are instant and that he received a confirmation that it went through and was received. I am in the middle trying to explain that culture differences were the issue here. There is American time and African time; it is very possible that an electronic money transfer that we think of as instantaneous in America does not work on the same schedule in Africa.
After the bank opened, they confirmed that the wire transfer was probably received in Dar and was on its way to Moshi. We agreed that we would pay again and on the return trip our money from the transfer would be returned to us. We all crammed into a matatu (shared van taxi), reached the entrance of the park, and unloaded our gear. In what was becoming a theme, we went into the office to pay the park fees and the credit card machine did not work with my father’s credit cards. We had driven several hours up to the entrance and needed to start hiking soon to get to our first camp. Aaron said he didn’t know what to do. He had no money on his credit card and explained this is why it was important to bring cash to deposit it onto a card that he knows works. I started to talk to the park entrance ranger asking if it was possible for us to start tomorrow. He informed me it was not because we had permits for a certain day and those could not be changed. We were stuck at the entrance, with a very large dilemma on our hands. While I was used to unexpected turn of events and dysfunctional electronic devices, I thought that Africa gave my father a proper welcome.
More talking convinced the park entrance ranger to agree to let us pay cash, even though he said it was not policy. We began to pool our money. Luckily, my dad had a lot of cash on him, I only had a little. After counting every cent that the two of us had, we still came up $100 short. I was in the mindset of beginning up the mountain that day, I was not giving up. I told Aaron we had all but $100 USD of the entrance fee and asked him if he could pay the difference so we could climb the mountain that we have been planning to climb for the last 5 months. He informed me that he doesn’t have that much money. So, we collected money from the crew. Between the porters, the driver and our guide we managed to scrounge up $100. After more persuasion, because he doesn’t want to accept USD and Tanzanian shillings, we finally got our entrance fees paid and started our journey.
We took the Lemosho route on the western side of the mountain. It is a longer route and less traveled than the other routs, but it allows for more time to acclimatize. We hiked through the forest for several hours and made it to our first camp without a problem. Our party included cook and porters who set up the tent – we really had nothing to do but relax. |
After the stress at the entrance, I felt a sense of relief and realized that I am really climbing Kilimanjaro! We had a good night’s sleep and started hiking again in the morning. We arrived at our second camp at about lunch time and relaxed again for the whole afternoon. I was starting to think it was going to be even easier than I thought it. We hiked 5 hours the third day and slowly saw the scenery change from forest to open skies and scattered greenery. At this point, I became quite bored and passed the acclimatizing afternoons by playing cards and learning Swahili with the porters and guides. They were all crammed in one small tent with a stove inside that they were cooking on.
The next day, the land became barer and the temperature dropped slowly. We arrived at Lava Tower Camp, only to decide to keep going to Arrow Glacier Camp. It was only about an hour and a half more of hiking but straight up. We arrived at Arrow Glacier Camp, tired and cold. The last hour and half climbing straight up wore us out. I was feeling happy that it was finally getting a bit challenging. It was the first day we had seen people on the mountain as we came to an intersection of two different routes, but again we had the entire camp to ourselves. We laid down for a little bit to rest and then I decided to go and hang out with the porters again while my dad was sleeping. When I got back to our tent, I was surprised to see that he was still lying down and looked quite pale. He told me weakly that he was feeling sick, had a bad headache, and threw up his lunch. He looked miserable in the tent, and I had started to become worried. I got our guide to come talk to him and the guide said that it was normal to feel sick at the elevation we were at. We were now at a height of 16,000 feet and he was starting to show the symptoms of acute altitude sickness, but it was normal, and as long as it didn’t progress it was okay to keep going. My dad tried to eat dinner but didn’t keep anything down.
The next day, the land became barer and the temperature dropped slowly. We arrived at Lava Tower Camp, only to decide to keep going to Arrow Glacier Camp. It was only about an hour and a half more of hiking but straight up. We arrived at Arrow Glacier Camp, tired and cold. The last hour and half climbing straight up wore us out. I was feeling happy that it was finally getting a bit challenging. It was the first day we had seen people on the mountain as we came to an intersection of two different routes, but again we had the entire camp to ourselves. We laid down for a little bit to rest and then I decided to go and hang out with the porters again while my dad was sleeping. When I got back to our tent, I was surprised to see that he was still lying down and looked quite pale. He told me weakly that he was feeling sick, had a bad headache, and threw up his lunch. He looked miserable in the tent, and I had started to become worried. I got our guide to come talk to him and the guide said that it was normal to feel sick at the elevation we were at. We were now at a height of 16,000 feet and he was starting to show the symptoms of acute altitude sickness, but it was normal, and as long as it didn’t progress it was okay to keep going. My dad tried to eat dinner but didn’t keep anything down.
Due to my dad’s sickness, we hiked up a little but didn’t move our camp. We took a short hike up and spent the rest of the day in our tent resting. When you’re not hiking and you’re that high up, it is cold. We spent the day wearing all our clothes shivering in our sleeping bags. My dad’s health did not seem to be getting any better. He was not keeping any food down; he looked quite pale and weak, and still had a headache. We both knew that the next day was going to be the hardest part – we were hiking the Western Breach. The Western Breach is one of the more controversial sections of the path. Several years ago, a group of climbers died during an avalanche climbing the western breach. It is a steep, rocky section of the mountain, a point of no return. It does not require any technical climbing skills, but you are climbing on rocks and using your hands most of the way. We considered sending my dad down, but we decided against turning back and forge on.
It was cold, windy, and tough climbing. The higher up, the harder it got, but I knew that there was no turning back. We kept our mind focused on one thought – a just keep climbing up. We were both exhausted and my dad still sick, but we made it to 18,750 feet and spent the night at Crater Camp, the highest camp on Kilimanjaro. The camp was completely covered with snow and ice. There were glaciers and white all around us. It made me happy to be surrounded by snow again. The climb to the summit resumed again at 5:00 AM the next day using headlamps, trudging through the snow and ice. We reached the top by sunrise and were greeted by the sun for reaching the peak. We rejoiced by the fact that we had just summitted the highest peak in Africa. After all that hard work, I felt a rush of accomplishment, but it was a little anti-climatic when I saw that the summit was nothing more than a sign saying you reached the top of Kilimanjaro.
It was cold, windy, and tough climbing. The higher up, the harder it got, but I knew that there was no turning back. We kept our mind focused on one thought – a just keep climbing up. We were both exhausted and my dad still sick, but we made it to 18,750 feet and spent the night at Crater Camp, the highest camp on Kilimanjaro. The camp was completely covered with snow and ice. There were glaciers and white all around us. It made me happy to be surrounded by snow again. The climb to the summit resumed again at 5:00 AM the next day using headlamps, trudging through the snow and ice. We reached the top by sunrise and were greeted by the sun for reaching the peak. We rejoiced by the fact that we had just summitted the highest peak in Africa. After all that hard work, I felt a rush of accomplishment, but it was a little anti-climatic when I saw that the summit was nothing more than a sign saying you reached the top of Kilimanjaro.
Our stay on top was short. It was cold and we were ready to get down where we could breathe easier. On our way down we passed several people climbing up from the more common Marangu route and Machame route. After about 4 hours of climbing down, my dad felt a significant change in health, and as soon as we dropped below 1600 feet he was back to normal. We climbed down and down several hours until we were back into the forest where we camped one more night before we made the final dissention the next morning to the base and onto the bus back down to Moshi. As we got into the bus, I realized how much we all smelled and how dirty we were. I also started to notice how sore I was. The adrenaline rush from hiking made me unaware of the pain, but as we drove back down to Moshi my whole body started to ache. We reached Moshi and said thank you to our guides and porters.
The money had finally arrived from America and we paid our debts. We had a two night layover in a nice hotel before embarking on a safari in the Serengeti. Our pre-paid transport to Arusha turned out to be a cramped matatu taxi instead of the car ride our aching bodies so desperately wanted. Upon reaching our hotel, we learned that we did not have reservations. My father, who had been beyond patient up to this point, had his one and only Africa melt-down. I would say he did better than most. Luckily, we found a place at another hotel down the road and got the hot shower and warm meal that we very much deserved.
We rested for the next two days, glad that we scheduled in some downtime before we began the next part of our epic adventure: a safari through the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and Lake Manyara. As with most things in Africa, the logistics were as much a challenge as the journey itself, but we made it to the summit, and the sign, and have lived to tell the tale.
The money had finally arrived from America and we paid our debts. We had a two night layover in a nice hotel before embarking on a safari in the Serengeti. Our pre-paid transport to Arusha turned out to be a cramped matatu taxi instead of the car ride our aching bodies so desperately wanted. Upon reaching our hotel, we learned that we did not have reservations. My father, who had been beyond patient up to this point, had his one and only Africa melt-down. I would say he did better than most. Luckily, we found a place at another hotel down the road and got the hot shower and warm meal that we very much deserved.
We rested for the next two days, glad that we scheduled in some downtime before we began the next part of our epic adventure: a safari through the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and Lake Manyara. As with most things in Africa, the logistics were as much a challenge as the journey itself, but we made it to the summit, and the sign, and have lived to tell the tale.