Kilimanjaro Part 5b

August 24, 2009 (Day 4 on the mountain)

Continued...

The water is boiled and has been put into our packs, so we head to the Tower. Only about halfway up are we told that this is actually the most technical rock climbing we will do on Kili. There are a few iffy moments and then one big one.

Anita and Lisa choose to head back with Anton, as they said they’d come too far to risk an injury on an unnecessary climb. Macho and I forge ahead. My sense of self-preservation and caution are not so well tuned (sorry mom and dad). There were a few iffy moments, but we hit the top, hung out for a bit, then went straight back down.

By the time we return, the wind has really picked up, it is officially ‘upepu sana’—very windy. It has broken a metal pole in the dining tent, making it unusable. Doubly unfortunate as the wagum used that tent at night for storage of their packs and gear—and maybe to sleep in, we never really did figure out where they all sleep.

We readily volunteer to eat in our tent or the kitchen tent with them. So now our sleeping tent becomes a dining tent as well. If we could have fit the toilet in, it would have been a studio apartment. We have a dinner of spaghetti, and continue to drink water as we are now at 15,000 ft, where most people start to have altitude issues. All of us feel fine.

As we settle into bed, it is clearly going to be gale force winds all night. We each make one more trip to the internet café, taking turns passing Lisa’s sandals around and running out into the wind and the cold and then back to the tent. By the time we each make the trip, we’re all a bit punchy and giggly. RJ may have contributed to that too (Thanks again!). I’ve also become addicted to Lisa’s salt water taffy—and a sugar high is settling in. Our whole crew, all twelve of them, have squished into their little 5 man tent tonight, which is right next to ours.

Now, our whole crew come from the same village in Marangu, many have known each other since they were children, and all have been working together for a long time. They spend each night in camp laughing and telling stories together, and you can tell they really love each other and the job they do.

Tonight is no exception, but tonight their tent is closer to ours than usual, and we know each other pretty well, and it’s a windy kinda night. So the night continues on with choruses of ‘AYA’ from one tent, which is answered with ‘AYA’, from the other. Sometimes there will be nothing for 5 or 10 minutes, just wind, then we all look at each other and the ladies raise a yell of, ‘AYA’. And the men yell back, ‘AYA’. Another break. Boys—‘AYA’. Girls—‘AYA’. It’s like we’re back at camp and we’re all 15.

After we finally settle down and Lisa forcibly removes the taffy from my grasp, we try to finish the night with, what else, Hemingway’s ‘Snows of Kilimanjaro.’ We finish the story and try to sleep.

During the night, Anita hears a rockslide—what she initially thought was thunder—and asks ‘Did you hear that?’ Silence. At another point, Lisa hears the sharp crack and then the crash of a rock slide and asks ‘Did you hear that?’ Silence.

I, apparently, slept through all the noise.

Aya.

Altitude covered today:

Fischer Camp 12, 746 ft.
Lava Tower 15, 230 ft.

Photos: Lisa and I having spaghetti in the now sleeping/dining tent. Me atop Lava Tower, Kili behind.