Previous Post: Day 7 – From Barafu To Uhuru Peak And Down To High Camp

High Camp (3827 m) was apparently established in 1999 when an emergency trail for those suffering from altitude sickness passed through here from Karanga (4034 m) on the way down to Mweka Gate. Exactly how a campsite only 200 meters lower than the one they were abandoning would help them deal with altitude sickness is not clear!

We set off shortly before 8:00.  There would be some more altitude to lose!

• High Camp: 3827 m/12,556 ft.
• Mweka Camp: 3106m/10,190 ft.
• Mweka Gate: 1633m/5358 ft.
• Moshi: 880m/2890 ft.

By midafternoon we would be back in Moshi, some 3000 meters lower than our dining tent at High Camp on the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro. The distance is about 11.5 km. I didn’t even bother putting my Polar M430 GPS tracker on for the walk so no distance, elevation, or heart rate data for this last day.

Over the next four hours, we would walk out of the moorland and into the montane forest. On the way, we’d deal with a variety of terrain, beginning with a descent of what looked like a seasonal stream bed.

It took us an hour and a quarter to get to Mweka Camp from High Camp. With that, we were out of the moorland/heath terrain and into the cloud forest.  The tree cover provided some cool shade as we made our way down the steps that the Park staff have installed over the past few years. While some find them an annoying feature, it may be that they reduce erosion when water courses down the trail as a result of torrential downpours.

Unlike our Day 1 walk to Mti Mkubwa (Big Tree) Camp, we did not see any wildlife on the side of the trail on our descent to Mweka Gate. About a half-hour from the end, we reached the road that comes up from the Rangers’ huts at Mweka Gate. Keen on getting to the end, I recall speeding up my pace a bit at this point.  The eventual reward – the sign below!

In the parking lot, there were a few buses jeeps waiting for their people to arrive. Our Popote bus was there too. Already on board were all the porters and camping gear and our duffels. The crew was undoubtedly just as keen on getting back to Moshi as we were! If we were thinking about showers and the next legs of our Africa adventure, they had more immediate concerns that a week’s salary and additional tip money would help them deal with.

The 40-minute drive back to Moshi took much less time than our drive to Londorossi Gate and the backtrack to Lemosho Glades at the start of our Kilimanjaro trek.  First, we drove to the Popote office where we waited a bit while our certificates were laminated.  I had already learned from my Mount Meru climb, that the Parks office hands out certificates with official stamps and signatures for those who make it to the top.  For Kilimanjaro, they have one for Uhuru Peak, one for Stella Point, and perhaps one for Gillman Point too.

We got back to the Parkview Inn by 3:00 p.m. and everyone headed for their rooms and showers.  The two oldsters – Mark and I – would relax at the Inn that evening while the youngsters were the star guests at a dance party somewhere nearby.  We learned the next morning that even they had called it a fairly early night (9:30!)!

By the next afternoon, only Mark and I remained at the Parkview, the others headed to either Mombasa and Kampala.  Mark would begin a five-day deluxe safari the next morning.  And that left me – by 9:30, I was on my way to the big town in the Kilimanjaro district, Arusha. I had planned to arrange a climb of Ol Donyoi Lengai with a travel agency there.  See what happened in the following post!

Next Post: On Safari In Tanzania: An Afternoon In Tarangire National Park

Some 40,000 – 50,000 people set off to “climb” Kilimanjaro each year.  I am working on a post which will deal with the question of how difficult it is to do – and perhaps the question of why do it at all!  I am still collecting my thoughts!

Coming soon: Climbing Kilimanjaro – Is It Difficult To Do?

Table of Contents:

• Basic  Data on the Hike to Uhuru
• Preparing For the Summit Hike
• Midnight Departure From Our Dining Tent
• Walking In The Dark Up To Stella Point
• From Stella Point To Uhuru Peak
• Watching Sunrise From Uhuru Peak
• Canadian-American Summit Team Photos!
• Background History of The Uhuru Peak  Sign
• The Almost Gone Glaciers of Kilimanjaro
• The Furtwangler Glacier & Glacier Camp
• The Walk Back To Barafu Camp
• From Barafu Camp To High (Millenium) Camp

Previous Post: Day 6 – Karanga To Barafu

Kilimanjaro Via The Lemosho Route: Day 6 – Karanga To Barafu

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Essential Data on the Uphill Hike to Uhuru

Finally –  the climax of the trek – the walk uphill to Kibo’s rim at Stella Point and then along the rim a bit more to Uhuru Peak. Until after Stella Point, all  I have to show are:

• the GPS track and the heart rate reading generated by my Polar M430 and
• one single image – the shot below, which I took at 2:45 a.m.!

• Distance to the summit from Barafu Camp: 5.1 km.
• Time: 6 hrs. 15 minutes to the summit; 2 hr. 35 min. back to Barafu Camp
• Altitude gain: 1225m/4019ft.

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Preparing For The Summit Hike

Wake-up was at 11 p.m.  I had slept a little, and when I wasn’t, I was listening to the wind blowing hard and hoping it would not be doing that for the duration of our climb up the exposed slope of the mountain.  I had packed everything for the walk to the summit earlier that evening to avoid any last-minute panic.

My spare camera batteries were already in the chest pocket of my wool base layer.  Before exiting my tent, I packed everything I would not need into the duffel and locked up the zipper.  Our tents would remain standing for our estimated 9:00 to 10:00  a.m. return when we would crawl in for a brief rest.

It was pitch dark.  I left the tent and went to the dining tent for tea and some cookies.  While we waited for the signal to start our midnight adventure,  bottles and bladders were filled with hot water.  Going up with the five of us would be the three guides and – to provide extra emergency support – two of the lead porters, Fella and George.

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Midnight Departure From Our Dining Tent

We started off shortly after midnight.  Already visible on the slopes was a string of headlamps bobbing up and down.  Occasionally, I would glance up and see something much brighter – a star above Kibo.  I focused on the legs of the person ahead of me and walked into the zone of light created by my headlamp.

The wind was still blowing hard from the SE, and we would feel its full force every time the switchback trail turned in its direction.  The temperature was below freezing; I had on multiple layers to keep in my body heat!

On the bottom, I had on my warmest fleece long johns, my nylon trekking pants, and my Goretex rain pants.  On top, the four layers included a fleece base layer, a wool layer, a synthetic insulation layer, and my goose-down jacket.  My head was covered with a balaclava, a wool hat, and the two hoods of my top jackets.  I would detach the goose-down hood and give it to Fella soon into the walk.

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Walking In The Dark  Up To Stella Point

We took a few breaks on our way up.  Amazingly, we eventually walked past all but one of those strings of light that we had seen on our departure.  In retrospect, we made excellent progress even if we didn’t feel it then!  During one break, I did something I had never done before on a summit hike – I accessed my workout playlist on my iPhone and started listening to some music.  It really seemed to help and gave me something else to focus on.

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From Stella Point To Uhuru Peak

At about 5:30, we got to Stella Point, the point where the trail comes up to the crater rim.  It was still dark, so I did not bother to take any photos; I figured I’d get some on the way back.  And then a bit of confusion  – one of our trekking group had flopped down on the ground thinking that this was Uhuru Peak!  We rested for a few minutes and moved on.

Thirty-five minutes later, we were at what all the travel brochures call the Roof of Africa!  There was one other party there already.  We watched as they went through many different variations of photos –

• of trekkers only,
• of guides only,
• of trekkers and guides,
• of everybody with banners,
• solo shots…

Meanwhile, we took in the 360º view from the spot we had been looking at for the past week.

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Watching Sunrise From Uhuru Peak

Shortly after we arrived at Uhuru Peak, the sun came up, and the camera came out!  The sky was brightening with the just-rising sun.  I looked towards Mawenzi, Kilimanjaro’s other peak and got the image below.  It was 6:21 a.m.

Then I turned west to look at the distant profile of Mount Meru,  a trek to whose summit I had used as an acclimatization hike for this walk to Uhuru Peak.

Behind us, other trekkers were approaching Uhuru Peak and the signboard that marks the spot.  They would soon be waiting for us while we did a photo session, not unlike the one we were watching unfold!

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Can-Am Summit Team Photo Time

Shortly after 6:30  – photo time for our Canadian/American summit team!

We were up by the signboard for about 15 minutes and by 6:35, had already begun our return to Stella Point.  Everyone had made it, and if anyone wasn’t feeling 100%, it was not evident.  Our Popote crew had taken good care of us on the way up, setting a pole pole (slowly, slowly in Swahili) pace and taking on extra stuff in their packs so ours would be a bit lighter.

If we felt elation at having “conquered” Kilimanjaro – such a military metaphor that harkens back to another age – then the Popote guys were relieved not to have faced any complications and satisfied that they had helped us reach our goal.

From our vantage point next to the Uhuru Peak signboard, I turned towards that chunk of ice to the west,  a remnant of the Southern Icefield.  In the photo below, it is lit up by the rising sun.

And beyond the glacier remnant, there was Meru again.

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History Of The Uhuru Peak Sign

The iconic sign at the top of Kibo on Mount Kilimanjaro figures in thousands of photos that celebrate good luck, personal achievement, and the will to see something through to the very top!  The signboard itself has gone through some changes over time.  After a few minutes with the Google image search function, I came up with these –

The Original Signboard

1. The original version of the sign with the boards neatly horizontal.  Given the stickers, it has been there for a while!

The Missing Bottom Board

By 2011, the sign had lost the bottom board.  While someone looking for a unique souvenir may be responsible, it likely got blown away in a severe windstorm.

Draping the bottom of the sign in this image is a set of Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags, always a nice touch on mountaintop shrines worldwide!

See my post: Blowin’ In The Wind: An Appreciation of Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags

The Ramshackle Signboard

The board below was there before January 2012.  It now had all four boards again, all somewhat off-kilter.  The box at its foot had a registry book in it where trekkers would leave their names.  Yet other images have a larger registry box elevated from the ground and stretching across the entire width of the sign’s support posts.  This sign is the most common one in photos, perhaps because it coincides with the emergence of smartphone photography!

The New and Improved Green and Yellow Signboard!

 (2012-2014)

In late 2011/early 2012, the Park officials replaced the iconic sign with the new one pictured below.  It was not embraced with enthusiasm by the trekkers who made it to the top!  They did not want bland and neat – they wanted the old, classic, and iconic sign that had been there before!

The New Old Sign!  Since mid-2014

By mid-2014, the feedback had been negative enough that the green/yellow sign was removed and replaced with one which looked much like the first one above, right down to the askew third horizontal board.  There is no registry box at the foot of the sign, but someone has been good enough to fasten a set of prayer flags to the bottom of the posts.

Since my 2019 visit –

a board with a painted Tanzanian flag has been placed on the sign.  it now looks like this –

The snow cover certainly gives the image an entirely different feel!

If you have a recent Uhuru Peak signboard image which shows more changes, if you send it to me at true_north@mac.com I’ll post it here!

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The Almost-Gone Glaciers of Kilimanjaro

There is a bit of ice and snow at the top of Kilimanjaro’s Kibo, but not as much as I expected.  An estimated 85% of the glacial covering has disappeared in the past 100 years.  Amazing to think that most of the glacial ice just turns into vapour and not the streams I pictured pouring down the mountain’s slopes!

Here are three images of the glacier cover on top of Kibo.  The first shows how it looked in the early 1970s; the other two are satellite images from 2002 and 2019.

1.  Early 1970s:

2.  December 30, 2002

3.  February 19, 2019

Feb. 2019 – another angle

The satellite images show the ever-shrinking Northern, Southern, and Eastern Icefields and the disappearing Furtwangler Glacier near Crater Camp.

The image below shows the ice patch to the SW of the Uhuru Peak signboard.  I also took a photo of it when we first arrived – see a few images above for the shot.

Fifty years ago, there were glaciers on the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro with names like Diamond, Balletto, Heim, Kersten, and Decken.  And now?  Not much more than the glacial patch you see in the image above.

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The Furtwangler Glacier & Crater Camp

When we neared Stella Point on our descent from Uhuru Peak, I turned back to the north and got the next shot.  It shows some recent snowfall and what is left of the Furtwangler Glacier on the middle left side of the image.  I wish I had done better documenting what is still up there.

Here is an internet-sourced image of the section inside the box.  It was taken in 2014, and the perspective is a bit different, but it captures the Furtwangler Glacier nicely.  The Northern Icefield has receded somewhat over the past five years.  As for the Furtwangler, it is losing some of its current 15-meter (50 ft)  thickness each year.

When I first considered the various routes up to the top of Kilimanjaro, I was attracted to one that included a night at Crater Camp, located not far from the Furtwangler Glacier.  A trip report highlighting the absolute mess Crater Camp has become, thanks to the lack of sewage disposal, turned me off the idea.  Also, if an ascent of Kilimanjaro is already rapid by most acclimatization protocols, then a night at Crater Camp at 5700 meters just compounded the potential problems.

The image below – internet-sourced – with the person standing in the middle of the Furtwangler Glacier’s interior gets across the glacier’s thickness – perhaps 15 meters.  I am not sure when the photo was taken;  we can expect it to shrink another meter each year.  By 2035 it should be gone!

We were soon back down at Stella Point and walking past a group of just-arrived trekkers celebrating the success of this stage of their journey.  I spoke there with an American trekker who had spent the night at Crater Camp with his wife.  She had exhibited worsening altitude sickness symptoms for the past few hours, so they were making their descent to Barafu Camp.  Their guides were carrying their packs.  Unfortunately, they had left their walk up to Uhuru Peak for this morning.  Now they were on their way down without having done it.  That must have hurt!

Like the signboard up at Uhuru Peak, this new copy of the old one has also replaced the unpopular yellow/green version that only lasted a couple of years.

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The Walk Back To Barafu Camp

And then the descent.  If walking uphill on scree is awkward, it is even more so on the way down.  We would lose 1200 meters in 2 1/2 hours and eat a lot of dust being kicked up.  You have two choices –

•  get in front of the line so no one is kicking up dust ahead of you, or
• take a break every once in a while to put some distance between you and those ahead of you.

I found the first option to be the better one!

The photo below was taken perhaps fifteen minutes into our descent from Stella Point.  Already visible in the image is Barafu Camp, with its tents just to the right of the flat hilltop in the middle of the picture.  You can even see the summit trail crossing that stretch of flatness.

On the way down, I peeled off successive layers of clothing, top and bottom.  It was a beautiful sunny morning on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, a lot different from the cold and windy early morning we had spent on our way up to the crater rim.

By 9:00, we were all back in camp, receiving congrats and a cup of juice from one of the porters who had remained in camp.  The juice went down easy and reminded me that I hardly had anything to drink for the past nine hours!

Before leaving camp at midnight, I filled my one-litre Nalgene bottle and my two-litre bladder with hot water.  One litre of water weighs 1 kg. or 2.2 lbs.  I had carried 3 kg./6.6 lbs. of water up the hill.  Of that, I drank 1/2 litre!  I carried 2.5 litres (5.5 lbs) for nothing!

We spent a leisurely morning at our campsite, relaxing in our tents or basking in the sunshine.  My boots and base layers were drying out in the sun.  My water intake had also increased to compensate for the lack of intake over the past nine hours!

The trail to the ranger’s hut and the registration book passed right by the Popote campsite.  I watched as a large group of maybe twenty trekkers filed by.  They were going to sign in at the hut.  At midnight, it would be their summit time.

As I scanned their faces, I was sure I saw one or two trekkers who looked at least a year or two older than Mark and me!

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From Barafu Camp To High Camp

We left Barafu Camp shortly after noon.  The usual post-summit itinerary for groups who have done the Lemosho, the Machame, or the Umbwe routes is to descend via the Mweka route to Mweka Gate.  It is a 16-km/10-m walk to the end, and, given the morning’s massive energy expenditure,  the distance is divided into two days.  Trekking groups will either stop for the night at

• High Camp (aka Millennium or Rescue Camp) at 3827m/12,556 ft. – about 4.2 km
• Mweka Camp at 3106m/10,190 ft.  –  about 6.5 km from Barafu

and then finish the trek the next morning.

Our target was High Camp, increasingly the site chosen by trekking groups thanks to an accessible water source.  It doesn’t hurt that it is also an hour or so less far than Mweka Camp.

• At 6:30 a.m., we were at 5895 m at Uhuru Peak
• by mid-afternoon, we’d be at 3827m at High Camp!

Everyone was in high spirits as we set off.  Someone commented – “Just think how we’d be feeling  going down if we hadn’t made it to the top!” We all agreed it would hurt to have invested so much time, energy, and money and not quite – for whatever reason –  getting to the summit.

About twenty minutes into our afternoon walk, I looked back and got a shot of Barafu camp.  After that, I put away my camera and focused on the steady downward path.

I had burned up almost 5000 calories getting to the summit and then returning to Barafu in the morning.

The afternoon proved to be much less stressful – though that 519 kcal figure seems much too low.  Then again, it was a very easy downhill walk!

By 3:00, we were at High Camp and – as always – found the Popote camp all set up on our arrival.  Most of the crew who did not make the ascent enjoyed a few hours off at Barafu while their guests set off at midnight for Uhuru Peak.  Now they had one more morning of hauling, and their job would be done.

Next Post: Day 8 – High (Millennium) Camp to Mweka Gate

Kilimanjaro Via The Lemosho Route: Day 8 – High Camp To Mweka Gate

Table of Contents:

• The Basic Data of the Day’s Walk
• Breaking Camp
• Up and Over the Hump
• East Towards The Barafu Camp
• Barafu Camp & The Ranger’s Hut
• A View of Mawenzi
• Thinking About The Final Push to the Top

Previous Post: Day 5 – Barranco To Karanga

Kilimanjaro Via The Lemosho Route: Day 5 – Barranco To Karanga

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The Basic Data of the Day’s Walk

• Distance: 3 km.
• Time spent walking: 2 hr. 30 min.
• altitude at Karanga Camp: 4034 m/13235′
• altitude at Barafu Camp: 4662 m/15295′
• ecological zone – alpine desert

The stats above show how my body dealt with the day’s walk.  Compared to the previous day, we covered 2.3 km less distance and spent 1:40 hr. less time doing it.  However, the calorie burn was only 15% less – thanks to the almost continuous uphill we faced.  The steepest sections would be at the start of the day and at the end as we approached our tent site.

The red line on the satellite image below is the track we took on Day 6 of our Kili trek.  Over the three-kilometer distance that we walked, we would gain 600 meters in altitude by the time we reached our Popote campsite at Barafu Camp.

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Breaking Camp

It was another beautiful morning in the neighbourhood as we gathered in the dining tent shortly after 7.  The sun was out, and there was little wind.  We had clear views of Kilimanjaro’s summit and Mount Meru, some eighty kilometers to the west.

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Up and Over the Hump

From the Karanga Camp, there is an initial uphill section to deal with.  It is up and over the hill with a nice bit of downhill or flat as a reward – as shown in the photos below,  the first of which shows one of our guides, Yusuph, watching as various members of the Popote team head downwards.

Thirty minutes later, that spot on the trail where Yusuph was standing was on the distant ridge on the top third of the image.  I sat there and watched the porters with their double carries – backpacks on their shoulders (but without the use of hip belts) and bags on their heads and wondered if having that weight on top of the heads was actually effective.

While providing some interesting background info, this Wikipedia article (see here) still left me wondering!

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East Towards The Barafu Camp

Turning around from the porters coming my way, I faced east and saw the Barafu Campsite on the top of the ridge.  While it looked fairly close, it would take about 90 minutes and another 400 meters uphill to get there.

As we approached the Camp, I wondered about the name Barafu.  In Swahili, it means “ice.”  I thought that there was a time when the glacier reached down to the 4600-meter level and thus gave the Camp its name was wrong.  Later that afternoon, I would read in my copy of Stedman’s Kilimanjaro that “the camp is probably called this because of its proximity to Rebmann Glacier, away to the north-west.”

Well, there is certainly no ice at Barafu. But there was wind – and it would only pick up as the afternoon turned into evening.

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Barafu Camp & The Ranger’s Hut

Given the number of trekking parties at Barafu, the campsite area goes up the ridge for some distance.  We walked through the lower Barafu tent sites and continued towards the ranger’s hut.  The Popote Camp was located near the hut and behind some rocks that provided a bit of a windscreen.

The mandatory ritual of the day – the sign-in at the ranger’s hut – done, we took in the scene – the fellow trekkers, the guides, the tents – and could feel a special buzz in the air.  This was the spot we had spent six days curling around and up the slopes of Kilimanjaro to get to.

Staring at the ranger’s trekker registration book, I scanned through the day’s list of signatures and the countries of origin associated with each.  There was one more detail I looked for – the age of each trekker.  I did a second scan when I did not find anyone older than the two 67-year-olds on our Popote trekking team!  “No way!” I thought.  It meant that for a very brief moment Mark, my fellow trekker from California, and I might be (FWIW!) the two oldest guys on the top of Kilimanjaro the next morning!

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A View of Mawenzi

Behind the ranger’s hut and to the east sits Mawenzi, one of Kilimanjaro’s three volcanic cones.  It is also the third highest peak in Africa at 5148 meters, only 51 meters lower than Batian Peak on Mount Kenya.

Unlike the walk to the top of Kibo, the climbs to the top of Mawenzi and Mt. Kenya’s highest peak require some mountaineering skills.  In speaking with our guides, it was clear that they had never taken on a climb of Mawenzi.  Googling for more information on how to climb Mawenzi, I came up with very little except for this summitpost.org entry from 2004!

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Thinking About The Final Push to the Top

Mawenzi – an interesting diversion, but we had our own summit to worry about!  Well, not precisely worry, but it still had to be done.  This was not my first time at this altitude – the year before, I had walked up and over Saribung La in the Himalayas.  It was 160 meters higher than Uhuru Peak.  My walk to the top of Chimborazo (6240) in Ecuador back in 2009 was the highest I will ever get to.  On that same trip, I also climbed Cotopaxi, which is just a bit higher than Kibo.  A Cordillera Blanca climb had also taken me to 6034.

In six days of easy to moderate walking from Lemosho Glades (2389 m/7838′) to Barafu Camp (4662 m/15295′), we had gone up 2273 m/ 7457′  in altitude.  All five of us were doing fine; no one had exhibited any signs of altitude sickness.

Still, you never know how your body will react to the increasing altitude.  We just had to relax – and try to sleep – until our 11:00p.m. wake-up and then start our walk in the dark.

On our ascent, we would be accompanied by our three guides – Dixon, Yusuph, and Majura.  Also along for the climb were Fella and George, the two members of the Popote team who had taken care of us in the dining tent, bringing in the food from the cook tent, providing us with hot water – anything they could do to make things easy and comfortable for us.  So – five trekkers and five support staff.

The nightly blood oxygen saturation level and pulse rate readings had become a ritual we looked forward to!  The finger pulse oximeter would go around the table, and the results would be recorded.

However, we did not do the oximeter readings at Barafu!  Perhaps the thought was that the blood oxygen saturation readings might be slightly lower than the 90+ we had scored on the previous two evenings.  Why give us another thing to worry about as we went off to our tents after supper and tried to get some rest before our midnight wake-up call?

Coming up – the single most challenging section of our Kilimanjaro adventure, the six to seven-hour walk up to Stella Point in the dark.  Barafu is at the bottom left of the satellite image below; Uhuru Peak is at the top right.  Of course, we would not see a thing as we would do it in all but total darkness except the light of our headlamps!

In six hours, we would gain 50% of the altitude we had gained in the first six days of the trek!   With sunset, the temperature dropped towards freezing, and the wind had gotten worse…much worse.  I may have slept an hour or two!

Next Post: Day 7 – From Barafu To Uhuru Peak To High (And Down to Millenium Camp)

Kilimanjaro Via The Lemosho Route: Day 7 – To Uhuru Peak

Previous Post: Day 4 – Shira 2 To Barranco

Overview:

On Day 4 we had walked a bit over ten kilometers on our most demanding day so far.  This day would see us scale back on the distance by almost half – and yet it would still be a fairly demanding day in its own way since there are two steep uphills involved – the first at the beginning of the day and the other at the very end as you walk the switchback trail up to Karanga campsite on the top of the ridge.  That is when I hit the max 140 bpm you see in the stats below!

• altitude at Barranco Camp: 3986 m/13077′
• altitude at the top of the Barranco Wall: 4219 m/13842′
• altitude at Karanga Camp: 4034 m/ 13235′

When it was all over we were only 50 meters higher than we had been at Barranco!

It should be noted that this is where some itineraries (see here for an example)  save a day by continuing on to the Barafu campsite, another 2:30 worth of walking and with a demanding training load of its own. Our extra day on the mountain before our summit attempt is at least one of the factors that explains why all five of us made it up.

The satellite image above gives an overview of the day’s route from Barranco camp to Karanga. The next day’s campsite, Barafu at 4600 meters, is visible on the right-hand side of the image. The day starts with a five-minute walk down to and over the stream flowing down the Barranco ravine.  That is when the fun begins!

Down to The Floor Of The Barranco Ravine:

As you stand there on the floor of the ravine you look up at a fairly steep rock wall that will require some scrambling and the occasional hands-on-rock. Mind you, nothing technical and certainly do-able given the existence of an actual trail up the slope and the ready help of one of our guides if we needed it.

In the image below is the large boulder you walk by as you begin the scramble up Barranco Wall. Also evident are the first of the giant groundsel – Dendrosenecio kilimanjari. They seem to thrive on the east side of the ravine, perhaps because of the shade provided by the wall and the water source running past. I had the feeling I was walking in another world – I thought back to the planet of Pandora on the set of James Cameron’s Avatar!  But no – definitely of this world.  I just need to get around more!

Zoom in on the image and you will see colourful trekker gear at various spots on the Wall.  That is your clue as to where the trail is heading!

Up the Barranco Wall:

About a third of the way I looked back to our Barranco campsite on the other side of the ravine.  And then I focused on some more immediate action: I looked down to see one of our team members was embracing the Kissing Rock on her way across a narrow part of the trail.

While not in the same league as the line-ups below the Hilary Step on Mount Everest, there were occasional slowdowns as people less confident about their scrambling skills moved cautiously forward and upward.  The porters (and there were certainly a few on this stretch!)  dodged the trekkers by using secondary trails and sidesteps when necessary.

More than once, I celebrated my imminent arrival at the very top – just to be disappointed when yet another ridge higher up appeared when I got there.  Here is one such spot – getting closer but not quite there yet!  Still – a reason for a brief rest since the worst of the scramble was over, the sun was out, and it was a beautiful day near the top of the Barranco Wall.

And, of course, some eighty kilometers to the west the profile of Mount Meru!

The porters did not stop at our rest stop; they kept on truckin’ up the Wall.  As always, seeing their loads move ahead and above us served as route guides for us. Ah, so that’s where the trail goes!

Getting to the Top of the Barranco Wall:

Finally, a summit that was not false!  There was almost a party atmosphere when we arrived at the plateau on the top of the Barranco Wall. Jackets came off, sunscreen was applied, water bottles and snacks came out of the backpacks, cellphones and more serious cameras were busy snapping photos of team members standing on the edge of the Wall or off Kilimanjaro’s summit to the east.  We were 230 meters higher than we had been at Barranco Camp at the start of the day – and maybe 270 from the floor of the ravine by the big boulder and the groundsel.

The Trail To Karanga:

And then it was back on the trail – some easy walking down a gentle slope with mostly desert alpine terrain occasionally hosting those giant groundsels we had seen at the start of the Barranco Wall scramble.

I knew we were almost at Karanga when I walked into the image below.  Karanga sits on the top of the ridge in the background.  Unfortunately, in between was a steep ravine.

The image below has the floor of the Karanga Valley  (3947 m) in the foreground.  In the background is the slope we had just scampered down.  The stream running down the valley is the last source of water for Kilimanjaro trekkers and porters will have to haul it from here back up to the Karanga camp and to the next camp at Barafu (4662 m)!

No more pix after we reached the floor of the Karanga Valley. My brain switched into “git ‘er dun” mode and I forgot all about my camera. I just wanted to get up to the top. Later, when I looked at my heart rate record for the day, it was this section up to the campsite that had me pushing myself the most.  I hit a maximum of 140.

The Karanga campsite is a rather desolate spot on the top of the ridge.  when we got there, as was always the case, our Popote crew had already erected the sleeping tents and put our respective duffel bags in the right tents; the guides’ and crews tents, the dining and the cook tents were also up.  and on the left-hand side of our campsite in the photo below you can see our beige toilet tent.  We were home for the evening!

Some Advice On Choosing A Route and An Itinerary:

As mentioned above, some trekking groups press on and in another 2 1/2 to 3 hours, arrive at Barafu Camp, the last camp before the summit. In effect, they eliminate one day of the trek.  Not only do they have a very demanding day before the summit, but they also arrive at Barafu around 4 or 5 o’clock with the even more demanding summit attempt to start seven hours later.

Yes, they save the cost of one extra day on the mountain.  But consider the real cost.  They also reduce their chance of a successful summit!  If you are considering a Kilimanjaro trek, you will want to sign up for one that takes longer – and not less – time.  While I can’t say for sure that the following stats are absolutely reliable and accurate, here are the success rates that one agency gives at its website:

• 8-day   85%
• 7-day   64%
• 6-day   44%
• 5-day   27%

The eight-day Lemosho is an excellent choice. It sets you up at Barafu Camp on Day 6 shortly after noon with lots of time to relax before you crawl out of your tent just before midnight for the single-most demanding day of your trek.

Next Post: Day 6 – Karanga To Barafu.

Previous Post: Day 3 – Shira 1 to Shira 2

Another day on the slopes of Kilimanjaro – and another clear early morning view of the summit of Kibo.  There was frost on the tent exterior when we got up at about 6:30.  We were in the dining tent around 7, and ready to start the day’s walk shortly before 8. We were gradually making our way around the mountain from the west to the south side. (See the satellite image below for the trail we would follow for the next three days.)

This day would be, next to summit day, the longest and most strenuous day of the trek. From Shira 2 camp we would walk 6.9 km/4.5 mi up to Lava Tower (4627m/15180ft) for lunch and then back down to Barranco Camp at 3966m/13077ft. The Polar M430 calories burned stats for the first four days read like this –

• Day 1     938 kcal        5.42 km        2:32      109 bpm average   reasonable    2/5
• Day 2    1920 kcal       7.74 km        4:41      111 bpm average     very demanding   4/5
• Day 3    1134 kcal       8.07 km        4:00     101 bpm average     reasonable   2/5
• Day 4    2185 kcal      10.21 km       4:58      112 bpm average    very demanding   4/5

Shortly into the day’s walk, I turned around to the west for the day’s view of Meru.  For sure the others I was hiking with did not have the emotional connection I did with the bump on the horizon. The three days I had spent summiting it the week before meant I was looking at an old friend!

As I zoomed into Meru’s profile, I could make out the little bump on the right, that of  Little Meru. We had spent an hour on a beautiful sunny day sitting up there and looking east to Kilimanjaro and up towards the summit we would be doing a few hours later.

Our walk on the Shira plateau was coming to an end but not before a morning’s worth of gentle uphill to Lava Tower, where we would have lunch. Along the way, our trail would merge with the one from the Machame Route and the relative solitude we had experienced for the first three days would be replaced by the increased traffic of trekkers and guides and porters.

Spending time at Lava Tower makes for an excellent acclimatization exercise.  It is 700 meters higher than Shira 2 camp. As the images above and below make clear, we were definitely in the alpine desert zone now. If anything was growing it was probably lichen!

Just behind the Lava Tower is a flat plateau;  some groups actually use it as one of their campsites.  When we got there a number of tents were up.  Amazingly, those included a couple of our Popote tents!  Our support team had walked ahead of us and set up the cook tent and the dining tent. When we arrived,  tea and munchies were sitting on the table ready for us!

We spent a bit over an hour up behind Lava Tower in our dining tent.  It was somewhat fogged in and damp but sitting in the tent provided some warmth and shelter from the wind.

Having gained 700 meters of altitude in the morning, we were about to lose it all in the afternoon!  The satellite image below shows the trail from Lava Tower down to Barranco Camp.

Our afternoon walk started with a steep downhill to the bottom of the gully – a mini-version of the much larger ravine above which our next camp would be located.  When I asked Dixon where the word Barranco came from he told me it was the Spanish word “ravine”.  It did leave me wondering how a Spanish word got stuck to the side of Kilimanjaro – but then, given words like Kosovo Camp and Rebmann Glacier and Fischer Campsite, it is yet more evidence of Kilimanjaro’s global reach.

A steep eighty-meter drop from Lava Tower – as in the image above – and then it was up the other side of the gully to the top of the ridge – as illustrated in the following two images.

Once we got to the top of the ridge – see the image above – it was downhill all the way to our camp for the night, Barranco. I lengthened my trekking poles a few inches for extra stability and let gravity do its thing as I went down at a faster pace than usual.  Forty-five minutes later I got my first view of the campsite at 3986m/13,077ft.

While we were only 147 meters/482 feet higher than we had been at Shira 2 Camp at the start of the day, we had gained some valuable acclimatization time.

The campsites on the first three days of the Lemosho Route had been almost empty. Now that our route had merged with the Machame route,  campsites would be much busier all the way to the one before the summit.

We had some time to contemplate the next morning’s big event, the scamper up the Barranco Wall, aka “The Breakfast Wall” since it is the first objective after leaving camp. The “Wall” is essentially the other side of the ravine.  From our campsite, it looked somewhat intimidating.  We wouldn’t have to wait very long to find out!

The satellite image above shows the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro above Barranco.  Apparently 100,000 years ago a massive piece of the upper section of the mountain came sliding down the slopes and created the ravine – the Barranco – we now see.

Next Post: Day 5 – Barranco To Karanga

Previous Post: Day 2 – From Mti Mkubwa To Shira 1

Day 2 ended with a walk down from the ridge onto the Shira plateau and to our Shira 1 campsite at 3504 meters.  Day 3 was an easy one that saw us gain another 400 meters in altitude as we walked across the gently sloping trail to Shira 2. The red GPS track on the satellite image shows the small section of the Kilimanjaro mountainside that we were traversing.

The track illustrates nicely that a successful Kilimanjaro trek results from a string of easy-to-achieve smaller goals.  In our case, we had six days of moderate walking and acclimatizing to prepare for the final ascent to the rim of Kibo! By Day 6 at noon, we would be at Barafu, the spot indicated on the bottom and right of center.

Our 8-kilometre walk this day was very close to what I walk my Icelandic sheepdog Viggo some days!

I was up around 6:50, having had a good night’s sleep.  The temperature had dipped somewhat during the night,  but I was warm inside my bag. In fact, my biggest concern was the condensation on the inner tent walls.  The next evening I unzipped the top of the front door and the rear window to allow some airflow.

I waited just long enough to get my camera that by 7:14, when I snapped the photo below, it was too late! Instead of that nice red glow created by the sun behind Kilimanjaro, I got the full blast of white light.  On the plus side, the top was visible!

We left camp around 7:45.  A few minutes later, I looked back and got the shot below of the park ranger’s hut and the tents of a few trekking parties not yet decamped.

Less than an hour into our walk, we reached a junction marked by a large boulder and another stone with signboards. To the right, the trail went to  Cathedral Point (3862 m).  The main trail – the one most groups walk –  goes straight ahead to Shira 2.

Along the way, we passed an eye-catching giant groundsel on the side of a creek, somewhat sheltered by the boulders. However, as we gained altitude,  the landscape became more desolate. The moorland was transitioning into the alpine desert terrain we’d be walking in for the rest of the trek.

We got to Shira 2 just before noon.   As was the case on Days 1 and 2, there were very few other trekking groups at Shira 2.  The panorama below captures that desert alpine look. It also shows the last campsite we would share with only a few other groups. The following day the Machame route trail would merge with ours, and the volume of trekker and porter traffic would increase significantly.

Four tents for the five of us –  and our little toilet tent to the left.  Not just convenient but also kept very clean and odour-free! And to be fair, the Park facility pictured below, one of the new palatial models, was also well-taken-care-of.

I also had a second Nalgene bottle which served as my pee bottle; it meant there would be no need to crawl out of the tent at 3:00 a.m.

Most days, the cloud cover hid the sun by mid-afternoon, as the remaining images will show.

Zoom in on the image of the Park toilet facility to see the notice – Tourists Only – pinned on the top of the center panel.

Every day on Kilimanjaro ends with a signing-in at the ranger’s hut. Its purpose is to make sure that everyone is accounted for. Other than filling ledger books with illegible signatures and particulars that no one will ever look at, it likely serves no useful purpose.

The Shira 2 site has an automated weather monitoring station enclosed in two fenced-in areas. It is apparently one of three maintained on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. However, I did not see any other stations, not even on the summit plateau, where the rapid disappearance of the glaciers is a real cause for concern.

Given our noon arrival at Shira 2, we had lunch shortly afterwards in the dining tent and then some time to ourselves before we set off on a mid-afternoon hike for acclimatization purposes.

We walked up the same path we would take the following day on our way to Lava Tower.  According to my GPS tracker, we got as high as 4005 meters, about 200 higher than our campsite.  We sat on the lava rocks and took in the scene below us for a while. Shira 2 is in the foreground in the image below; the jagged southern rim of the old Shira volcano is in the background.

On our return to camp, we had some nap time followed by tea time at 4:00. Then it was more relaxation time until supper at 6:00.  Meanwhile, it was getting dark and colder.

This would be the night that George and Fella, the two Popote crew members who took care of us at mealtime, filled our Nalgene bottles with hot water to take inside our sleeping bags! A couple of us had shivered through the night at Shira 1. The water bottles would prove to be very popular!

With the recording of the oximeter results from each trekker,  it was time to crawl into our tents – Day 3 was in the books!

Next Post: Day 4 – From Shira 2 to Barranco Camp

Previous Post: Day 1 – From Lemosho Glades To Mti Mkubwa Camp

Elevation Gain: 2785 m to 3504 m/9,137 ft to 11,496 ft
Distance: Just under 8 km/ 5 miles
Hiking Time: about 5 hours
Habitat: Rainforest/Heath/Moorland

My Polar 430 HR monitor/GPS tracker recorded the following data on Day 2’s walk from Big Tree (Mti Mkubwa) Camp to Shira 1.