D05 Summit day (Barafu – Uhuru – Mweka) (Max height 5895m)

26 August 2011,

Summit day.


At 17:30 the previous day... John stuck his head into the dinner tent to brief us for the summit. We would be woken at 23:30 with tea and some biscuits. At 23:45 we were to get ready and by 00:00 sharp we would switch on out über cool head lamps and start the long strenuous walk to 5985m. The hike could take anything between 5 and 8 hours depending on your body, energy level and many, many other things. 


0:00 we were out of the tents. Jackets on, boots tied, headlamps on and the bad jokes were going... Joris managed to wrap his pants around his ankles and needed some assistance... This provided some entertaining memories and a somewhat small delay in the departure. No matter! At 0:15 we started the long, hellish stumble in the dark. The though... why am I doing this again... undoubtedly goes through every single hikers head at this point.


It is a hellish experience. Icy cold, pitch dark, uncomfortable, your body doesn’t feel good, your water slowly freezes, you’re hungry, don't have the energy, appetite nor coordination to grap a “reep” and walk at the same time. You walk in a long line, you cant see whats ahead and all you see in the distance is a never ending ant trail of headlamps. Occasionally you think you see a falling star only to realize its another hiker reappearing from behind a rock… one who left about an hour before you… you walk, all you can do is walk. Talking makes you grumpy and steals your breath. 


Within the group there was a difference in speed preferences and this led to the executive decision to split the group. This decision took place after about 30minutes and led to the split of the group from 7 to 4 - 3. john would stay with Joris, Maarten and Jeroen. martin would assist Wouter, Floris, Peter and I. Shabby would be where he was needed.


We continued and the pace set by martin was fast. very fast. Hakuna matata, a piece of the cake, just a little further… those were the continual sounds from Martin as he progressively picked up the pace. "Pole Pole Martin" would be our response. The ground started becoming loose, it was now like walking on a monstrous Sahara sand dune, only then in sub zero temperatures, in pitch darkness wearing many many layers and only having your watch on your arm as an indication of how far you are. 04:38… We had been walking for over 4 hours, 4 gruelling hours and now the ground under our feet was soft, so soft that you had trouble getting your footing right. Like I said a true test of character. The only thing getting you through this hell is the thought of getting to the top. Martin assured us we were almost at Stella point. The famous Stella point. Just 170m below the summit. 10 minutes he said. We had serious doubt on his word... But... he delivered! Three minutes later we saw the sign. This was the exact motivation we needed. Energy reformed after a team shot... To the summit.

Stella point, new hope (sadly without Jeroen, Maarten and Broks) - 5:04AM

Here is something to take back from this blog post… if you ever climb the Kili, (I truly recommend it!) and you are stumbling through the gruesome soft sand thinking what ever possessed you to climb to the summit. Thinking "is it really worth it", thinking "Stella point is good enough". Just remember… the soft sand stops a few meters after Stella point. From there is becomes hard(er), more stable, doable. From there you can walk like you were walking earlier. From there it is “pleasant” all the way to the top. The use of the word is obviously a relative one… but for that last hour from Stella to Uhuru you are no longer cursed with soft dune sand. It becomes better.

Sadly we were not with the whole crew, but the four of us soldiered on. Martin had taken us up there pretty fast, with result of us having at eta to the summit well before the sunrise. After all we had been through, we at least wanted to see the view! A picture in the dark was out of the question! We decided to wait. We found a spot out of the wind and we sat and counted the minutes slowly pass by. 10 minutes passed, 15... and we decided to continue. A red line was forming on the horizon. The lights was coming in, Magnificent! 


We did it! We made it to the Uhuru peak! We walked the last few meters, shook the ice from my glove and took out my camera. This was for the victory shot!

Summit at 6:20AM Wout, Shabby, Peter, me, Martin and Floris

Thank you Martin, Shabby, John and Francis! Thanks to you guys we made it to the top! THANK YOU.

The sun rising at Uhuru. 

The sun bathed glacier on the summit

Now for the long walk down

So there you are… at the peak of Africa all you see aroud you is beautiful. Truly breathtaking. An aeroplane view of the world, and you walked all the way up here yourself! I was proud. This was a trully epic achievement. All the horror, pain and discomfort of the moring were forgotten. This is what it was all about. This is what we did it for. Victory of the peak. The sun had come up properly now and the amount of people started to increase. The people from the Coca Cola route were also starting to arrive. Martin and Shabby gave us some juice and a small snack. 


It was now time to decent, what had taken us nearly 7 hours to walk up would now take about 2-3 hours to decend. What awaited us was something far steeper then expected. In the light we could see what we had done. We had walked up what could be described as a black graded ski slope! Something that if seen in the light would make people plain refuse. I suddenly realized that “the sunrise” is only part of the reason for the night ascend, if they started this climb during the day I think the success rate would drop drastically! Going back down was like skiing on hiking boots. If they would start a sandboarding club up there I think they could just about print the Dollar bills! A very tiring decent, but one with a serious adrenaline rush!

In the distance Barafu camp was visible

Looking back you think... did I really stumble up this in the dark!?!

Back at camp I heard the news of the others. They made it far up, but the fatigue and strain took over. Jeroen made it to Stella. Joris and Maarten turned just before. We were all exhausted and we knew we still had a few hours to go to the camp for the night. John advised us to try get some rest. Tried to sleep but the fast decend had delivered me a nagging headache… We had 3-4 more hours to descend today. We couldn’t stay up at this altitude for long. We got an hour to rest in the tent, we would have lunch and leave for Mweka soon after. John assured us a fast relief due to the descend. he was right.

Feeling strong at 3800m

Floris, Peter, Wouter, me, Maarten, Jeroen (Joris was on his way with John)

Going down was such a pleasure. Strange as it was all the aches, pains and discomforts slowly started to subside, conversations picled up, the bad jokes returned and the mood got better. Way better!

We did it, the seven of us went up Mt Kilimanjaro! Not all of us made it to the summit but the experience is one that will never to be forgotten.

Maisha marefu! kilimanjaro!

At Mweka we celebratory drink, Proost! Maisha marefu! Kilimanjaro!