Kili Climb

“Kilima” is the Swahili word for “mountain.” In the Chaga tribe, which lives at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, the way they describe “steep” or “difficult to climb” is with the word “kiaro.” The first Europeans to come to East Africa were Germans in the 19th century. Understandably, they were awestruck by the giant mountain on the equator with glaciers at the summit, and wanted to know its name. The Chaga tribesmen told them it was “Kilima Kiaro,” which has since evolved into the famous name “Kilimanjaro.”

Mount Kilimanjaro is indeed a “mountain difficult to climb.” The mountain itself is spectacular. It belongs to no mountain range and it gathers itself up from the east African plain with deceptively gentle slopes. The upper portion of the mountain is largely made of grey rocks, which at a distance seem to vanish against the atmosphere. On a clear day, the gleaming glaciers at the summit appear detached from the lower slopes, hanging extraordinarily high above Africa.

We set out on a 6-day expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We booked a tour with the African Walking Company and found ourselves in a group with 5 other Americans and 5 British adventurers. The route had us ascend on the Rongai Route on the northern slope, and then descend via the Marange Route to the south. We were to ascend to 19,385 feet and cover more than 50 miles on foot, hiking 4 days up and two days down.

The gradual ascent was beautiful. In just the first day we followed the trail up through the lower steppe, then beneath the moss-draped canopy in the rainforest, and then out into the moorland where we camped at 8,000 feet. On the second day we hiked up through the scrub brush to Kikaweli Cave at just over 12,000 feet, where we spent the night.

The third day we felt like we had climbed off Earth and onto Mars. The last few hardy plants gave way to the spotty lichens, which were the only signs of life among the rusty red rocks. We camped overnight at a place called Mwenzi Tarn and at 14,000 feet it seemed we were closer to the stars than we were to the clouds below.

The last checkpoint was at 15,000 feet at Kibo Camp, at the base of the summit crater. We finally reached Kibo at the end of the fourth and most miserable day of hiking. That’s where the two of us finished our ascent.

Emily got acute mountain sickness, also known as “altitude sickness,” at Kibo Camp. Both of us had been feeling the symptoms of altitude sickness by the time we finished hiking on each day of the journey, but we managed to feel better after a night’s rest. Altitude sickness is a pretty miserable condition. It typically includes a migraine headache, nausea, and fatigue, but it affects different people with different intensities. Unfortunately, it was making us feel progressively worse and worse throughout the trek, and it got dangerously bad for Emily at Kibo. Emily had a paralyzing migraine and it was getting worse. The nice thing about altitude sickness is that the cure is simple . . . less altitude. Though somewhat disappointed not to make the final ascent to the summit, it was an easy decision to descend from Kibo. That in itself was rough, however. The two of us pulled camp at 10:00pm and walked hastily down to the next campsite, which was 9 miles away. By the time we arrived at 1:00am, Emily was already feeling better thanks to the 2,500 feet altitude we lost, or ‘gained’ depending on how you look at it.

We waited at Horombo Camp for the rest of the group to make the final push for the summit and then descend later that afternoon. We learned later that the rest of the group had a harrowing time at the summit. A 22 year-old medical student from London collapsed at the peak with altitude pulmonary edema (the advanced stage of altitude sickness). He was unconscious and had to be physically carried down the mountain. The guides were amazingly unprepared and brought no medical equipment on the most dangerous portion of the hike. The kid had to be rescued by the other hikers in the group, who were feeling pretty awful themselves. He was lucky that another hiker happened to be a medical doctor, and happened to be carrying steroids. The steroids kept him alive long enough to get him (very slowly) down the mountain. The others actually ripped down the sign at the summit point and used it as a stretcher. To make matters worse, there was another emergency at the top. Another hiker passed out. He is a 63-year-old mountaineer from Boulder, Colorado, named Roger. He’s been climbing mountains all his life and climbed a handful of 14,000 ft peaks in Colorado to train up for Kilimanjaro. He was feeling ill at the summit and tried to get some food in him, but choked on a biscuit and passed out. Thankfully, his daughter did a finger sweep and was able to resuscitate him.

We were shocked to learn how close the group came to total tragedy. We were also shocked at the negligence of the guide service. They had no critical medical supplies, viable communications equipment, or coherent rescue plan for the summit portion of the hike. Unfortunately, Roger and his daughter had to cancel their week-long safari that they had planned. Roger was too sick by the time he got down the mountain. They changed their flights and went home.

The two of us were happy to have found our altitude limit without risking serious injury. We were glad to enjoy what was, on the whole, a wonderful week-long adventure on a mountain difficult to climb.