Trip Reports

Kilimanjaro - 5 to 17 Sep '05

Written by Leader, September 2005

The dream team comprised climbers from all walks of life and each was as well prepared as they were going to get before this final asssualt on the mighty Western Breach wall of Kilimanjaro. Most of the team had summited Meru and all had felt good on the Umbwe Route and the climb up the Barranco Wall to get acclimatised.

But now as we set of from Arrow Glacier camp, each was a little apprehensive. The brief so far had been to take each day as it came but now as most members of the team were setting their own personal altitude record with each step up this advice had been reduced to taking each minute as it came. In fact, the summit seemed as far away now as it had from our distant viewpoint from the summit of Meru.

Conversation died and everyone began to be absorbed in their own world. Each was concentrating on their breathing and taking sips of water and some were trying hard to suppress the nausea that was building up in their stomachs. The wind began to carry dark clouds from the south east, but a near full moon gave sufficient ambient light to see as far as Mout Meru.

Meru had been a tough enough introduction to Africa’s giant mountains. Even though the itinerary allowed for a reasonably slow ascent and the nights were spent in comfortable mountain huts, the seemingly never-ending summit ridge had proven too much for one team members. She battled through for a while until just under 4,000m, but the combination of nausea, headaches and bouts of vomiting, heralded the onset of AMS and the need to get down fast

Naturally she had worried about what this would mean for the Kilimanjaro climb, but her fears were put to rest as she had experienced no further discomforts, except for the odd insect bite and a sleepness night from Tree Hyraxes throwing branches on her tent at the first jungle camp up the Umbwe!

Now an hour above the high camp, it all started to come back: the vomiting, the headaches and the worry. Still not cause enough for descent as she was still drinking fluids and was determined to press on. Maybe the summit would be worth it.

The most underestimated mountain in the world was doing its bit again. The route up the Western Breach zig-zagged up a scree slope, connected with a steep ridge and began to throw mildly technical rock climbing problems at the team. What would have seemed like a walk in the park at sea level now felt like a bouldering problem at 5,500m.

Jack, the most experienced member on the team, started to feel the strain too. He had been fine on the acclimatisation climb up the Barranco Wall and had even shown off his squadie toughness by running up the steepest of sections. All had gone smoothly for him and it seemed that his hard training would pay off... that was until we reached 5,550m and Kilimanjaro began to show its ugly side. Jack began to gasp for air every 20m and before long began his own display of multi coloured rainbows (as he put it). A laugh was had at his expense when he started to sort through the vomit and fished out what looked like a corn flake but was in fact his false tooth.

The pace had been fast coming up the forest clad Umbwe route, but it now become a slow crawl and as we neared the summit rim and the weather began to throw in its bit as well. A fierce wind began to gust across the summit glaciers and the temperature dropped to -10 Celsius. A nice coat of ice began to form on everyone’s back and Beccy’s hair was frozen solid. Jonn, our Tanzanian guide, got everyone to huddle into the cosiness of the KISU shelter to take stock, get a bite to eat and drink more fluids. This cheered us up a bit, but there was still an hour or so to go before we would be on top. At least the hardest part lay below us and for now it would be a case of one foot in front of the other and head up into the gloom. Heads down for the final bit.

Sunlight fought hard with wind and cloud to allow us a glimpse of the summit. It never appeared and it was only when we climbed up the last steep scree to gain the final summit ridge that Kilimanjaro allowed us to believe that we had done it. Out of the swirling whiteness appeared the sign that we had seen on so many photos of: the summit beacon. Exhausted, the team exchanged handshakes, hugs and cheers. Many tears of relief were spent. We had done it and we were on top of the highest point of the African continent. There would be no more up. Thank goodness!

Why the "dream team" ? It doesn’t often happen for 12 different individuals to gel so well from the word go. No little sub-groups here. These guys helped each other out when it was needed, offered words of encouragement to a person that only days before had been a complete stranger. Kilimanjaro brought out the best in this team and we made the top not as individuals, but as a strong determined team.

Guys a fantastic job... It was a pleasure to be working for you and I am looking forward to those beers when we catch up again. "ME CASA ES SU CASA"

Rolfe Oostra, expedition leader« Previous report | Next report »

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