After going through the motions of packing up our bags for the umpteenth time and a porridge breakfast we headed out and up over a desolate landscape covered in broken slate rock.
(train of porters winding there way towards Base Camp)
(a lion in the wilderness)
We got into Base Camp and boy, by now my lungs were screaming in protest. The air was so cold and the camp was constantly in cloud, so I was puffing on the inhaler constantly. The lungs were cramping bad and I was spitting up green phlegm. C'mon lungs, just a few days to go...Better asthma than pulmonary oedema I guess. Both the wife and I had blood in our noses from the cold air/altitude.
We could see people coming down the winding road to camp that leads to the Summit...they had gone up midnight the night before. They looked exhausted, shellshocked, bloodshot eyes. We saw some of our chums from the 6 day climb, but yeah...now they have to heard on more walking down to another camp for the night...as an American mate from Colorado drawled to me 'Hope you brought your A-Game for tonight, little buddy'
At lunch it started hailing and snowing with a vengeance. A nice winter wonderland. I guess. Bloody cold though.
(my wife huddles from the cold and snow in a longdrop as I watch chortling from the tent)
(tent after snowfall)
Just as I thought I could relax in my tent, we were asked by our Guide to go on an acclimatisation walk part of the way up the Summit trail. Good to try it out in the day I guess before we would have to tackle it with head lamps in the pitch dark. The wife struggled at first on some of the undulating rock surfaces that marked the start of the climb but she's impressed me with how her confidence had grown, especially after the setbacks of Day 3. I have a tough wife. We walked up to 4900 m then back down again.
Dinner was fairly tense as we looked forward to attacking the Summit at midnight. Our guide was a bit less jovial as he briefed us to follow his instructions exactly and not to stop for rests (pumzika) unless he said so ie to avoid the cold and altitude sapping your will to live. I like rests. Tonight was going to be the most altitude gained in one sitting from Base Camp (4640 m) to Stella Point (5730 m) then Uhuru Peak/Summit (5895m) So a mere total gain of 1250 meteres or so in the space of some hours. Eep.
Hoped it would be a moonlit calm night and not snowing or cloudy for the long 7-8 hour slog up there. Packed all our gear, making sure the camera was triple wrapped in socks for protection from the cold, triple checked head torches, then tried to get a bit of sleep...
(Kili, I'm coming to get YOU!)
To Be Continued
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