Kilmanjaro Part 6c

August 25, 2009 (Day 5 on the Mountain and the Big Kahuna)

Continued...

This is not the summit. This is the edge of a mini plateau. Directly in front of us are two glaciers. Rising to the left is the crater rim (volcanic crater) and to the right is one last volcanic rise, Uhuru Peak, the summit. We stumble toward camp. Papa says ‘OK, we fill up your water (we’ve all been out for at least the last hour), and then we summit, OK.’ It’s 4:30 in the afternoon. We all look like we’ve been beaten, strangled and brought back to life. Night of living dead has nothing on us folks. ‘Not OK Papa.’

We all think we could probably make the summit tonight, but we all know we wouldn’t enjoy it. ‘OK’ says Papa. We’ll summit in the morning.

But we still need to climb high, sleep low. So they fill up our water and order us off for a hike to the crater rim and then back to camp. So we set off. I’m actually excited to see the crater, the pictures I’ve seen of it are awesome. Why is it so far away? Our pace is glacial. About a third of the way to the crater rim, Lisa says her body’s done, she’s going back. As she turns to go, she finally succumbs and vomits. Anita and she decide to go back.

Macho and I press on for a bit, but at about halfway, I’m spent. We turn and head back. We make it back to camp as dusk and sunset hit, but are in no mood to enjoy it.

We get into the tent. It requires a herculean effort to set up our sleeping bags and take our boots off. There will be no face washing tonight, and no brushing of teeth (and no changing of underwear—eek! But would you want your bits to freeze off? That’s what I thought. I’d like my bits to remain intact too, thank you very much). In fact we get, fully dressed, into the sleeping bags. That’s about all we’ve got. Then, without warning, I’m unzipping the tent and vomiting again, barely outside. At this point, it’s only water since none of us have eaten since breakfast. I’m a little freaked out at this point, and having trouble breathing. Papa comes over to talk us down.

He says everything we’re experiencing is normal. And that we’re doing better than most. Even the wagum have headaches, and they do this all the time. We can now take Tylenol, and we should keep drinking as much water as we can. He gives us a small bottle of vinegar and says to put a little in our hot water, that it will help our stomachs. Then he heads off.

He’s right, and he’s calmed me down. We drink water, with vinegar, and it’s not as bad as it sounds. We hear a ‘Jambo’ outside the tent and unzip to see Irasto holding soup, the beginning of our dinner. There is a decisive and unplanned ‘No! Thank you’ from all three of us. There will be no eating tonight, none of us have an appetite. We continue with the water and Lisa and I try some electrolytes I was given by my health provider in NY. I don’t know if they re-hydrated us or not, but they certainly made us pee, which is not fun when you’re sleeping next to a glacier on a clear night. After a couple of quick sprints in stocking feet to rocks just outside the tent, we are finally ready for bed.

We all settle into our sleeping bags and attempt to find sleep, who, of course, never comes.

Altitude today:

Lava Tower 15,230 ft

Crater Camp 18,796 ft

Photos: The glaciers near our camp. Late afternoon over from the Crater. Uhuru Peak and Glacier. Sunset from Crater Camp.