Guided hike by Tanzanian guiding company Kibo Safari Adventure. 5 days via Machame Route. El Nino conditions; heavy rain showers made the jungle section rather wet and muddy.
First nigth at Machame Camp 3000 m asl, second night at Shira Plateau at app. 4000 m asl. Spectacular night show with vivid thunder and lightning at nearby Mount Meru. Day 3 passing 4500 m asl close to Lava Tower, quite an impressive altitude after just 3 days; unacclimatized. Descending to campsite in Barranco Valley at about 3900 m asl; a wonderful place. Day 4 started with Barranco Wall, a quite steep rock face with a few places close to scrambling. Short hike this day with small ascents and descents before camp in Karanga Valley, still at 3900 m asl. Weather was quite predictable; clear skies in the morning, with more and more clouds accumulating during the day; obscuring views to Kibo Massif; all the time looming on our left side. Brilliant night sky with innumerable stars! Day 5 ascending from Karanga Valley to Barafu Hut at 4600 m asl. Resting here to about 0100 AM when awakened by guides, quite unneccessary; hardly none had benn sleeping at all! After a light meal we started ascending at about 0130 AM, in a row of headlights snaking upwards in the dark. The guides were especially cautious about our speed of ascent, and frequently said "pole, pole", which means slow, slow. Soon we were overtaken by a team from some Eastern European country, who disappeared in the darkness in front of us.. In my slow and steady walk uphill in the dark I remember thinking, for quite a long distance; "this feels easier than an ascent of Tveitakvitingen at home". After a while we suddenly met the team that had passed us; many of them were lying on the ground looking quite miserable and exhausted; probably they were "punished" for their initial fast speed of ascent. We never saw them again, most probably they did not make it to the summit. After a long while we reached snow-covered terrain, and now exhaustion appeared quite quickly. In a very short span of time I changed from feeling quite easy to starting counting steps of the person in front of me, "15-20; please take a short break", and fortunately so they did; most of us now could feel the exhaustion and hypoxia having ascended well above 5000 m asl. The snow was loose, and we slipped for every step. Finally, the slope abruptly flattened; we had reached the crater edge at Stella Point. Now faint daylight had appeared in the east, and at these latitudes daylight arrives quickly. I wanted to sit down and have a break at Stella, but the others rushed me on. Plodding snow the remaining distance to Uhuru Peak fortunately was not as long as I had feared. On a gently sloping broad rigde the chief guide stopped, turned , reached out his hand and said: "Congratulations, you have reached Uhuru Peak!" I remember no euphoria or rush, just stated that we had done it. Nevertheless, some spontaneous celebration took place, and someone displayed a Norwegian Flag for the occasion. All of us; nine persons, mainly friends or friends of friends, reached Uhuru Peak; two members of our group ascending some 20 minutes or so after the first of us! Unfortunately it was cloudy, so we missed the sunrise, but views were nevertheless quite good. We descended following the crater edge to Gilmans Point. Here we started a steep descent down the crater's slopes. In one place I stood on my shoes and sled down the snowy slope, with the chief guide as a terrified spectator; I suppose he imagined I was suffering cerebral edema and had lost my mind... This isometric, strenuous move made me feel dizzy and near-fainting, so I did not make another try.... I eventually turned my head and looked at Bente, and recognized her lips were quite cyanotic, and subsequently took her arm for support. Retrospectively, we both had mild to moderate symptoms of AMS on the descent, symptoms which curiously enough quite abruptly disappeared at about Hans Meyer's Cave(at about 5000 m asl). Delicious Coke at Kibo Hut, where several of the group had a spontaneous nap! Continued on Marangu Route on descent, first night after ascent sleeping at Horombo Hut app. 3900 m asl, where we arrived at about 2 PM. Lots of mice i the huts, but even the ladies were so tired they didn't care at all! We met a group from Bergen at Horombo; felt they addressed us with some kind of awe("Are you one of Them, the ones where all nine of the group summited?")
After finishing the climb we had a "Summit Party" in the private home of the Company Leader, very kind of him! Thereafter exciting days in Lake Manyara Nat Park and Ngorongoro Crater, and ultimately 4 relaxing days on the coast outside Mombasa (including scary encounter with moray eel..)
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