Time: 8:16am
Temp: 40 F
Alt: 13,045
Today we go to Karanga camp. About the same altitude as today but we have a lot of climbing and descending to get there.
(Kilimanjaro - Today's route in yellow)
It is 12:29 and we have reached camp! Elevation is 13,247'. We climbed and descended 2.55 miles in 2 1/2 hours.
Today was the hardest day by far. There was not a flat stretch all day. We either went straight up or straight down. As Ed Viesturs says about one of his treks into the base of a Himalayan Mountain "you go up a pass, down on the other side, then up another 3,000' then down 2,000'. It is exhausting and harrowing, especially for the heavily laden porters" While we do not have quite this much altitude gain and loss, this describes today perfectly.
There were a number of what I would deem fairly to very technical climbing. On a scared shitless sale of 1-10, 0 being lying in bed at home and 10 peeing my pants, today had some solid 6 sections.
KEN'S THOUGHT OF THE AFTERNOON:
God do my feet hurt! I have never traveled so far to go so short a distance. Not an exercise in efficiency. Starting to get excited about our summit push!..... and I wish I had a hang glider that would be cool.
I feel very good. No headaches for the past two days and last night I slept very well. Today our tent is on a good slope so it will be all we can do not to slide out of the tent tonight.
After lunch I have a long chat with Samson. He has aspirations of starting his own guide company. Acquisition of tents, he needs 20, seems to be his biggest hurdle.
Tomorrow and summit day will all blend together. We will reach base camp at around 1:00pm. We will leave for the summit at midnight with the goal to reach the top at sunrise. We then descend to base camp for lunch and continue to press down the mountain for another 3 hours.
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