Top of the World

We made it!!!! On January 12, 2009 5:40pm we reached the top of Kilimanjaro, Uruhu peak, 5,895 meters (19,341 feet for the rest of us) in the sky. It was beautiful being above the clouds and it was no small feet by any means and the sense of accomplishment still makes me feel super human.
All great experiences aside, I will never do that again! I will hike great mountains and plan to do Machu Pichu as soon as I can, but I will not be heading up Kili for a rerun. It was the hardest, emphasis on the hard, physical thing I have ever done in my life. Things were going well the first couple days, it was a great way to start out my birthday with a nice little hike to our first camp spot in some misty clouds. Our trek company treated us like kings and tried to fatten us up like them too. Things got a little tough on the third day when we hiked up Lava Tower (15,190 feet) and then down, that evening I was a little sick at our Barranco campsite, that was the beginning of losing my appetite.
The next day of hiking was fine, but that evening we decided to change up the itinerary and hike from Karanga to Barfu and then rest for only 20 minutes and then summit. Normally you hike to Barfu, rest all day and wake at midnight and summit then rest when you get back to Barfu and hike down to the last campground later that same day before hiking out the following day. We like the idea of summitting in the light and went for it.
So we went from12,959 feet to 19,341 feet and back down to 14,928 feet in about 13 hours (Jan 12). Exhaustion doesn't even begin to describe it. I will say that it became a mind game that I kept playing with myself and I am sure a lot of stubbornness played into it too. I am not even sure how far I was when I became nauseous (mind you that I had been eating lightly since I was sick at Barranco), I threw up (sorry if this is more than you want to know) and then was ready to rock for about another 100 meters (now I am talking footsteps and not elevation). The going was Pole-Pole (Swahili for take it slow, and is the motto for how to get up Kili). I pretty much could have curled up under a rock anywhere we stopped to catch our breath and gone to sleep. But perseverance came through and we made it and I was worried about how I would make it all the way down because I was so exhausted.
Here they come to save the day!!!! Our guide, Max, and assistant guide, Bruno, are super human, we were on a race to make it down before it got dark or at least as far as we could before using our headlamps. Coming down is like skiing on cinder pits and I could only keep up for about 20 minutes and then they both took an arm and we skiied down together. The whole time I felt so bad cause I know Ara was tired too and I was getting all of the help down and these guys were racing, but Ara is amazing and didn't have any problem keeping up. We went to bed around 8pm that night.
The next morning we still weren't hungry and ready to head down as fast as we could, ultimately we ended up cutting our trek by one day and heading all the way to the gate on Jan 13th cause a shower and bed were enough motivation, along with cleaning our clothes. So we went from 14,928 feet to 6,496 feet just because we are gluttons for punishment.
I do have to say that our trek company was great and obviously flexible, Max and Bruno were awesome, the cook was amazing though we lost our appetite and the porters are the heroes of the mountain because without them no one would make it, they carry everything, I mean everything even mangos and pineapples.
So all that being said, it was an experience of a lifetime and an accomplishment that makes me feel like I can get through anything, but we came across a group where one of the ladies had done it 3 times, and that is two times more than necessary in my book.

Natalie

ps we will add pics later when we have a faster connection, I am sure you are just on pins and needles.