Kilimanjaro Climb

Team Elephant, Juu!

Four USA conservationists – Marty Anthony, Penny Kulp, Stuart Hutchinson and Teddy Rouse – each contributed or raised one dollar for every foot of Kilimanjaro for the African Elephant Conservation Trust (AECT). The adventure had begun over a year ago, when Susannah Rouse, AECT Chairperson, conceived the dedicated climb to generate resources for the newly-founded trust.

Iain Allan, of Tropical Ice Safaris, world-class mountaineer and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, who has literally written the book about Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, agreed to guide the group up the exclusive northwest Outward Bound route: his 28th ascent. I tagged along as a Trustee of the AECT Kenya chapter, the Amboseli Trust for Ele-phants.

On the top, we were breathless from the view as well the ascent. 300 km to the north was Mt Kenya; to the east, Mt. Meru, and beyond her, the Ngorongoro highlands. The Pare and Usambara mountains were clear to the south, and Mawenzi dominated the east.

Iain urged us to take it all in again and get onto the downward trail. 19,330 feet (5,692 metres) is not friendly to human survival. Iain, who subscribes to the ‘Climb high, sleep low’ rule to avoid mountain sickness, was keen to get us quickly back down into the “life zone”.

The trek began with a tea-time briefing at the historic Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi. After the first night at altitude (Nairobi is already 5,500 feet (1,700m)), the climbers drove to Tropical Ice’s luxury tented camp near Amboseli, where they enjoyed sundowners and Kahiu’s gourmet cooking in the shadow of their objective, Kibo peak – 40 kilome-tres due south and 15,000 feet (4,500m) straight up.

During the next two days of acclimatisa-tion, Soila Sayialel, AERP Project Man-ager, and her co-worker Norah Njiraini, gave the climbers an extraordinary up-close-and-personal elephant encounter. Af-ter three decades of intimate observation, the elephants virtually come up to say “jambo” to project vehicles (the only ones permitted off-road). .

The Climb

Day 1 Drive up a dusty road, cross the in-ternational boarder between Loitokitok and Rongai, to Forest Department camp where we meet porters (18, no less) from the Afri-can Walking Company, Iain’s Tanzanian affiliate. Sort out gear, don hats, sunblock and day-packs. Set out at noon through plantation forest, Iain pacing us at some 70-80 steps a minute. Steady rhythm is the key. An hour’s walk, and then a ten minute break. Porters overtake at a cracking 90-100 strides a minute carrying tents, tables, chairs, cooking gear, food and water on their heads .

Clear the forest into heathland. Head-high heathers. Duetting Hunter’s cisticolas most of the way. Reach Simba camp at 15:45. Hot water basin wash and cup of tea. Only one other party sharing the 9,000 foot campsite. Last year only 130 of 20,000 climbers, enjoyed ’our’ unspoiled north-eastern side of Kili.

Supper at 18:30 sets the culinary tone for the climb: home-made zucchini soup, fried tilapia, roast potatoes. Bedded down on insulated mattresses by 19:30. Tent-mate Teddy helps warm the air and doesn’t snore: two mountain pluses.

Day 2 Wake-up call with tea 06:30. Warm water face-wash, pack up gear. Porters break camp during breakfast. Set off at 08:00. Continue trekking through the dry giant heather heath, dotted with rosewood trees (Hagenia). As we finish sit-down al-fresco lunch near ‘Second Cave’, a gaggle of excited school girls in blue uniforms with knee socks arrive on a day outing from Rongai. We set out, trying to regain sense of intrepidness. Reach Iain’s private camp site in upper Kikelewa valley at 16:30. Long day to 12,300 feet, well into the Al-pine Moorland zone. Valley full of giant groundsels, oversized Senecios that look like 4-year-old’s drawing of a tree. Sun sets behind Kibo, lighting Mawenzi. Increasing cold staved off by cucumber soup, chicken and rice with lentils, followed by pineapple fritters.

Day 3 Awake to squawk of pair of white-naped ravens. A lammergeyer (bearded vulture) thermals up the valley to give us a rare view. Leisurely start at 09:15 after fruit, bacon, eggs and toast. Short acclimatising day. Iain paces us at 60 steps a minute on the steep bits; gives a tutorial in yogic breathing; reminds us to keep drinking. Feet, breath and water: these will get us up the mountain.

All but Iain are tucking into daktari Stuart’s supply of Diamox, a diuretic. Seems to work: no trace of water retention or oedema, not even a headache. Reach Iain’s Mawenzi camp at 14,000 by 11:30. Real sense of ‘getting into’ the mountain. Light lunch followed by loafing, breathing, reading, watching Kibo and Mawenzi change colours and fend off clouds. Teddy takes a guide and goes for ramble over the east ridge to check out Mawenzi Tarn. Another early bedtime. Midnight dash from warm sleeping bag to below-freezing outside thanks to diuretic. Crystalline stars over the looming mass of Kibo – breathtaking.

Day 4 Long day: gradual climb onto the ‘Saddle’, barren stretch between peaks. Pace sometimes hits 75 steps per minute, but porters still bound by us,. We clearly see the last bit of zigzag track up the scree to Kibo’s rim. Looks steep. Living things noticeably scarcer in the Alpine desert zone, although Marty spots a jumping spi-der near a clump of everlasting flowers (Helichrysum). Reach Outward Bound Hut at 15,600 feet (4750m) by 13:40. Sun gone behind the mountain; temperature tumbles. Despite available bunks in large corrugated iron shed, we stick to our tents: respiratory infections lie in wait in mountain huts. Early night after last supper of delicious minestrone soup.

The Longest Day Reveille just after mid-night. Iain coached us how to lay out gear for packing by headlamp. Tea, biscuits and final word of encouragement: “We’ll have five hours of hard work, no time at all, really. Just keep at it, keep going. Concen-trate on the boots in front. Think of any-thing that keeps your mind on the rhythm. Breathe from the belly. Keep it steady.”

Set off by 01:00, trudging slowly, 40-50 steps per minute or less. A 3.5 hour traverse to Hans Meyer’s Cave at 16,900 feet (5,150m). Short rest and then the dreaded zigzag. 30-40 paces on the zig, back on the zag, 20-second standing rest with deep breathing. Twinkle of headlamps above and below: traffic building on the ‘tourist’ route. This is the most intimate, personal part of the climb. My world closes in to the circle of light in front; only sound, scrunching footsteps in the frozen scree. Time measured step by step, breath by breath. Then suddenly, during one gasping pause, Iain is cajoling me over rocks. They seem impassable. The instant passes, and I tumble over the rim onto Gillman’s Point. Sun rising over Mawenzi; we’re there!

Well, almost there. We can now see across the 1 ½ mile (2.5 km) crater, ashen and stark, and along the ascending sweep of southern rim to Uhuru Peak. “Ten minutes,” says Iain, but he gives us less. If you’re on the edge of losing it, Gillman’s is the place: Hey, this is close enough, what’s another thousand feet? But Iain gets us going for the last push. And we just do it.

The day’s far from over. After oohing-and-ahhing, hugs and handshakes and high-fives with the guides, we’re back at Gillman’s, removing thermal wear. Over the rim, and then scree-skiing past the dreaded zig-zags. By 11:30 we’ve tumbled down to Kibo Hut, a virtual village for trekkers and guides. Lunch, and then off down the well-worn track, lighter of step and fuller of lung. A long, but easy walk down through giant heather to, Horombo Hut, another village at 12,200 feet (3720m) by 14:30. Stunned, we wash, nap, wake, eat and fall into a deep, deep sleep.

Day 6 A pleasant ramble through moorland and heather. A totally unfussed scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird probing between the leaves of an endemic giant Lobelia. Godson, our only Maasai guide, chatters on to me about his impressive grasp of natural history, including the elephant matriarchal social system. Lower down, the near-pristine cedar forest full of little red and yellow endemic Impatiens kilimanjari.

Trail now relatively crowded. To each climber coming up, we indulge a secret pleasure of a cool nod tempered with the steely wisdom of those that have made it. “Bon courage”, we say, although, “Don’t litter!” would be more apt. Hard to believe that some folks who go to the expense and effort of climbing this world heritage can be so stupid and callous to mark their petty passage with chocolate wrappers and plastic water bottles. A pox upon them!

At Marangu Gate Park Headquarters, we guzzle a beer, buy self-congratulatory T-shirts and the new Kilimanjaro National Park Map (a gem produced by Hoopoe Ad-venture Tours Tanzania Ltd and Nature Discovery Ltd), complain to the authorities about the rubbish, hug and tip the guides. Then a short drive down to the tidy Nakara Hotel, which, for its hot water and cold Kilimanjaro Lager, we unanimously award at least seven stars.

Next day we take a long game drive through Tsavo East to Iain’s Galana River Camp: gourmet food during two Out-of-Africa days. We walk with Iain, his venerable guide Mohamed, who worked under the legendary Bill Woodley, and two armed KWS rangers, along the totally unspoiled banks (so wonderfully flat!). Finch-Hatton landed his aeroplane and hunted not far from here.

Close encounters – especially on foot – with Tsavo’s lanky elephants, who are only now becoming more tranquil after decades of poaching, is a thrilling contrast to our earlier chat with their rotund and friendly Amboseli cousins. The enormous, rangy lions, some probably great-great nephews to the notorious Man-eaters, are a similarly striking contrast for those who know the fluffy-maned icons of the Serengeti. Mo-hamed spots three females with six half-grown cubs.

And, as if that weren’t enough, Team Elephant spends the last two days wallowing in the mellow Indian Ocean at sumptuous Hemingway’s Hotel.

SHORTER, BUT STILL TOPS. Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed that we have given the height of Kili as 19,330’ (5,892m) instead of the usual 19,340’ (5,895m). Reason: a team of geologists from Berlin, Dar-es-Salaam and Heerbruug Universities used the latest GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) equipment last year to re-measure Uhuru Peak to the nearest milli-metre. We have not heard why the moun-tain has ‘shrunk’. Is it just better measurement techniques? Only a few years ago, the last stretch to Uhuru Peak was across ice and snow. Was the original measurement made earlier this century on a layer of ice? Kili, like all the world’s mountain glaciers over the past two hun-dred years, is rapidly losing its glaciers due to global warming that is accelerating re-cently from our contribution to atmospheric ‘greenhouse gases’. If early surveyors were obliged to estimate ice thickness, they could have been off by a couple of metres. Does anyone have more information?

Sponsorship money from the climb went directly into the Trust and was thus tax deductible. Subscription covers all costs of the climb and asso-ciated safari except international airfares. Subscription for next year’s climb will have a $10 discount (see box on Kili height).

Tropical Ice Safaris has taken people of all ages and levels of experience on over 75 expedi-tions up Kilimanjaro with a 98% success rate. Although Kilimanjaro is not technically difficult, any climb above 18,000 feet is strenuous. Good advice: be in good physical condition, undertake some sort of conditioning program and seek medical advice in advance. Allan also recommends that climbers be “open-minded and in possession of a well developed sense of humour.”