So the last couple of weeks have been pretty incredible. First, during the week of the 10th, I climbed Mt. Meru. Not only did I climb the mountain, I climbed the whole mountain totally barefoot. The first two days, we had absolutely amazing weather. Then we awoke at 2 in the morning to summit, it was raining. We waited a couple hours in case the rain decided to let up. It didn’t. For the 20 minutes I wore my hiking boots, but then I decided that I really, really wanted to be the first person to climb Mt. Meru totally barefoot.
As far as I can tell, I am the first person to have ever done this. After about 4 hours of trudging up the slope of the mountain, we (left to right: myself, California; Sami, Canada; and Tobias, Denmark; and our guide Mr. T, not pictured) reached the summit. The summit, known as Socialist Peak (4658 meter), was cold. Really, really cold and we couldn’t see anything. On a good day I might have been able to see my neighborhood at the very bottom of the mountain. But the mountain decided to punish us that day.
After reaching the camp we left from that morning, we had planned on continuing on to a lower camp but we were so soaked and cold that we couldn’t go on. The tips of my toes were numb for two weeks after, but they’re better now.
The very next weekend, we tackled the legend that is Mount Kilimanjaro. We started out at a lodge with this incredible waterfall. We (this time it was Sami, myself, Tobias, and two other Danish guys, Matthew and Andreas) dived from the top of the waterfall (apx. 8 meters). The next day we began our climb. I decided to climb Mount Kili with shoes. I figure that next time I’ll know the terrain and do it barefoot. Unlike Meru, we camped in tents rather then lodges. At every lodge, we had to sign in so we started a game where we made up our profession rather then reveal our actual jobs. According to the Tanzanian Parks Association, Ishan Hill is a tree hugger, batman, and a melon farmer. During our climb, we camped out at a place called Lava Tower. Lava Tower is a very large rock (lava) structure jutting out of the ground. So of course we had to climb it. We were able to climb up about 40 feet (no ropes or anything like that) before we couldn’t go any farther. It was a do or die climb. And we did.
At lava tower, we split from the rest of the group. Mount Kilimanjaro has several different routes up to Uhuru peak, none of which are technical nor risky.
There is also a route known as arrow glacier.
The arrow glacier route is the most difficult and the riskiest route to the top. So of course that’s the one we chose. The parks association doesn’t want people using that route so it cost a little extra. So from that point on it was Sami, the Danes and I who were going to attempt Arrow glacier. We also had our guide, Mr. T (who strongly resembles Morgan Freeman), and our incredible cook, Richard. The other porters left with the others as we would all reunite at the top. The porters were absolutely amazing. Each porter carries 25 kilos and can outpace basically anybody.
The day we summited Kilimanjaro we woke up at 2 and began hiking at 2:30. The Arrow Glacier route basically takes you up a very steep slope to the beginning of a cliff up which through you have to climb. One of our guides (he was 60 and smoked a lot so that probably had to do with it) began to have some leg trouble so we healed him with a heating pad and duct tape. Before the summit, there is a plateau with what remains of the glacier that once covered the whole top of the mountain. Our guide explained that only 8 years ago, you needed to use crampons and ropes to get up to the top on account of the glacier. Today, only small pieces of the glacier remain. In three years, they will most likely be all gone. On October 20th at around 7:00am we reached the top! Uhuru peak stands at 5895 meters and is the highest point of Africa.
The same day, we hiked all the way back down the mountain. We began at 2am and ended at 18:30 (6:30pm). A very long day.
The next day, I only had about 2 hours at home to unpack and prepare for safari.
I turned 18 on the 24th and we were able to plan the safari in conjunction with the Danish guys safari. On the 24th we were able to party out in the Serengeti! So needless to say, it was an awesome birthday party to enter into adulthood. During the trip, my birthday wish to see a cheetah came true. In fact we saw two, one of which was only ten feet from the jeep!
It was a good last couple of weeks!