September 7 2009 – 3.30 am – 17,000 feet above sea-level
“I don’t think you are gonna make it. You had better turn back. Otherwise I would be ruining these other guys trek as well” said Shani our guide. I couldn’t believe it – was my Kili attempt about to end in failure?
The Route
| Day | Starting Point | Starting Elevation | End Point | End Elevation | Km Walked | Hours Walked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hotel in Moshi | Machame Gate | By Bus | 50 minutes | ||
| Machame Gate | 5400 ft | Machame Camp | 9400 ft | 11 km | 7 hours | |
| 2 | Machame Camp | 9400 ft | Shira Camp | 12,500 ft | 5 km | 6 hours |
| 3 | Shira Camp | 12,500 ft | Barranco Camp | 13,000 ft | 10 km | 8 hours |
| 4 | Barranco Camp | 13,000 ft | Barafu Camp | 15,300 ft | 8 km | 8 hours |
| 5 | Barafu Camp | 15,300 ft | Summit | 19,485 ft | 5 km | 7 hours |
| Summit | 19,485 ft | Mweka Hut | 10,000 ft | 12 km | 6 hours | |
| 6 | Mweka Hut | 10,000 ft | Mweka Park Gate | 5,400 ft | 10 km | 4 hours |
| Mweka Park Gate | Hotel in Moshi | By Bus |
The waiting 1988 – 2009
In 1988, back when men were men and lists didn’t yet have a “bucket” prefixed to them, I made a list of things to do and sights to see. And somewhere in the top-5 was to climb Kilimanjaro. There matters rested for the next 20 years. In 2009 I finally made a plan to climb Kili before the ice-caps melted away completely as the Cassandras feared.
Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. (19,341 feet / 5895 meters). It is one of the Seven Summits – the highest peaks in each of the seven continents. Kili has a reputation for being an easier mountain to climb than the other six.
The oft-quoted figure on the web is that about 30,000 people attempt the climb every year and about 60% make it to the top. I am not able to find any definitive data to back this up – there seems to be none collected at Kili. About 6-8 people are estimated to die every year during the ascent, usually from HAPE or HACE and rarely from a fall (Fall usually at the Barafu night halt when going out for a pee — carry your pee bottle along)
The planning
I never seriously considered any route other than Machame. The Marangu route is the easiest and shortest but also the most crowded (the same route is used for both ascent and descent). The Lemosho route is the road less travelled but it takes 2-3 days more than the Machame route and I did not have that many days for this trip. The Marangu route is called the “Coca-cola” route because it is the easiest; the Machame is called the “Whiskey” route.
The preparation
Among the Seven Summits, Kili is seen as the easiest. Technical skills are not needed – you don’t need to climb on snow or use ropes. There is a well trodden path all the way. There is a reliable support system in terms of porters and guides to take you to the top (unlike Denali).
Since there are no mountains in Kerala, I just practiced walking on the treadmill. Unfortunately in a misguided attempt to simulate a hill, I set the slope to 45 degrees and walked an hour a day on the treadmill. After two weeks of this, I had extreme knee pain. I wore a pair of Sego Knee Caps for the entire duration of my climb.
The trek – Day 1-4 – September 3-6 2007
The first 4 days of the trek went more or less according to plan.
It was not particularly easy but we were all mentally prepared for the degree of difficulty.
We were a group of three – my friend Rony joined from New York – and the tour organiser added Johann from Eindhoeven who had just come off an expedition through the North African desert.
We arrived at the starting point (Machame Hut) to find a crowd of several hundred trekkers and support team-members. During the next 3 days at several choke-points on the route, we would have to wait upto half-an-hour for the crowd in front of us to slowly go up or down a complicated traverse. So much for the joy of solitude in the mountains!
At Machame Hut we had to wait a couple of hours for the registration formalities to be done. Our guide told us that Roman Abrahamovich, owner of Chelsea, had also started the climb the same day. They had an entourage of about 200 porters for a climbing group of 7 which included Guus Hiddink. In contrast, we seemed positively penurious with a support group of 10 for 3 climbers.
(At first I thought it was marketing twaddle handed out to gullible tourists. But a Google check after I returned showed that Mr. Abrahamovich – then 43 years old – was indeed on the mountain that week, albeit with only 113 porters. He however abandoned the summit climb after suffering from altitude sickness at 15,000 feet)
Inspite of the Diamox, I did suffer a mild headache most days. The worst part was that at high altitude you have to bear both both the extreme cold as well as the hot sun beating down on you without a cloud cover. If I wore the balaclava, I would start sweating profusely in 10 minutes. If I did not wear it, it felt extremely cold and my ears froze off after. Never managed to solve that one except by enduring alternate half-hours of distress due to heat and cold.
Pre-summit-day – Sept 6 – 10 pm – Preparing for the Summit
For the summit day, we needed to plan what to carry in our small daypack while leaving our main backpack behind at Barufu camp.
Minor disaster!
I had packed a few energy bars for summit day. I discover now that the Deet (mosquito repellent) has leaked all over them. The covers of the energy bars seem impervious to liquids – but it is a difficult call to make. I am not sure what the side-effects of eating food laced with Deet. Would hate to start throwing up at 8000 meters. I decide to throw away the bars – leaving me with no food for the climb and back.
Contents of backpack – 2 liters of water and a camera
Day 5 – September 7 2007 – The ascent !
We step out of our tent at midnight. I can hardly believe my eyes – Shani has just a shawl wrapped around him. I have 4 layers on and still cannot stop shivering. We start the ascent at 00.10 am. Already there is a trail of lights going up the mountain. But we are not too far behind – there is a much longer line wending its way from below us.
Assumption is the mother of most mess-ups. And I realised this in the worst way possible. I had planned most of my gear carefully. The only piece I had not really thought about was my gloves. I was carrying a pair of Thermosoft 40 grams Insulate Skiing gloves which I used for skiing in New York. But the saying “if you can make it in NY you can make it anywhere” apparently did not apply to this pair of gloves. At 14,000 feet, the insulation seemed to break down and offered no protection whatsoever. I could not hold on to my pair of walking sticks. Every 15 minutes I had to sit down and put my hands into my pockets to regain feeling. With semi-frozen hands, I had difficulty in walking ahead.
Finally at 3.30 am about halfway to the summit, head-guide Shani had to make a call – he could try and nurse me up to the top. Or he could at least try to get the other two to the top. Shani asked assistant guide Bariki to take me back to Barafu camp.
With sinking heart, I watched the three of them walk up. Bariki assessed the situation much better. He said “you don’t really need walking sticks to go up the slope.” He took them from me and attached to his bag. I thrust my hands into my pockets and waited for them to thaw out. Within 15 minutes feelings returned to my hands and I indicated to Bariki that I was ready to go again.
Around 6 am, we encountered Shani, Rony and Jan walking down after summiting. When he saw me, Shan’s eyes popped out. The expression of disbelief on his face was worth the pain of the last three hours as I struggled to put one foot in front of the other.
I reached Uhuru Peak at about 6.30 and stayed at the top till 7. My SLR wouldn’t work after being in my backpack for the last 6 hours at 0 C. However, I had kept a smaller point and shoot inside my fleece jacket and managed to extract a few photos before it too conked out.
The walk down was not difficult but it is useful to have walking sticks for this part. I reached Barafu at about 10.30. By now, I had been walking for 10.5 hours without any solid food. Our cook had a mid-morning snack ready for us – 2 boiled eggs and some yellow dal.
Unfortunately I am allergic to eggs so I downed the dal and set off again. It was the last food I would have till we reached Mweka hut around 5 pm. We had descended almost 10,000 feet in 12 hours. My feet were swollen and both big-toe nails had come off.
We took a few celebratory photos with the entire support team, had a quick meal and staggered into our tents.
Day 6 – Sept 7 2009
Walked down to Mweka Park Gate and picked up our climb certificates. Took a van back to the hotel in Moshe. We were continuing with a safari to Serengeti and Ngorongoro so we had a few more days to enjoy Africa.
Gear
Backpack – The North Face “Exocet”
Headlamp – Petzl
Shoes – Woodland with ankle support
Outer Layer – The North Face with Goretex waterproof outer lining
Middle Layer – Patagonia fleece insulate
Base Layer – Terramar BodySensors Full-Sleeve Crew Vest and Terramar ThermaSilk Pants — for wicking sweat away from the body
Glove Liner – Terramar ThermaSilk
Gloves – Ordinary skiing gloves – bad choice – check http://www.alpineinstitute.com/articles/expert-tips/glove-systems-for-mountaineering-and-alpine-climbing/ for better options
Balaclava, Hat, Muffler
Knee Support – Sego
Carry a Bandana – useful to keep the sweat from pouring into your eyes
Nalgene 1liter bottles x 2 numbers – to carry warm drinking water
I rented the following from Moshe – your guide can help you. Costs are nominal.
* Sleeping bag – Rated for -10 F.
* Walking Sticks
Medication
We needed a Yellow Fever Vaccine before we could fly into Tanzania.
As of 2017, a complete list of centers in India could be found here.
http://www.mohfw.nic.in/WriteReadData/l892s/54495385931449119270.pdf
Appointments were required when I went to the Port Health Organisation in Cochin.
Vaccinations are valid for 10 years.
Diamox is used to prevent altitude sickness. (The key word here is “prevent” – Diamox will not help once you start showing symptoms of AMS – then the only solution is to descent to a lower altitude).
The recommended dosage is half of a 250mg tablet twice a day.
I started on Diamox the day I arrived in Moshe and continued till the day we summitted.
I have seen recommendations that you take Diamox a couple of weeks before you reach Kili to make sure you have no allergic reactions – I was not aware of it at the time but it seems like a good idea.
Costs
For the climb – I paid approx US$ 1000 to Paul Shayo who ran his own small outfit.
(Edit – This was in 2007. In 2017 you would expect to pay about US$ 1500).
My priorities on a climb are safety and a reasonable quality of camp at the end of the day. I prefer to carry my own backpack and prefer a rugged experience to overt luxury in climbs like these. Paul Shayo met these requirements well at this price point.
You could find much more luxurious sleeping tents and separate toilet tents and gourmet food – there are climbs for around $5000 organised by brand-name companies with high overheads. For Kili, a big brand name may not matter so much – for Everest, I would go with a big brand more for safey reasons.
Summary
* Yes, a reasonably healthy person can scale Kili. I saw people from 16 to 60 do it successfully when I was there. If you are a marathon runner, you have a better chance than if you have spent your time building six-packs. Lung power seemed way more important than core strength.
* You need the right equipment – mental toughness and physical hardiness cannot substitute for sub-standard gear.
* Go for the longest-duration hike you can afford in terms of time and money to maximise your chances of summiting. Diamox and plenty of water will help alleviate the discomfort but every extra day spent at high altitude helps your body acclimatise better and prepare itself for the summit day.