Kilimanjaro

Beer, bottled water, tea, coffee, and household products all over Tanzania bear its name. For some Tanzanians, it has the only snow that they've ever seen. The mountain is stunning from below—since it’s not part of a range, it stands out that much more prominently and seems to loom over everything. Residents of Moshi, which sits in its shadow, judge the clearness of the day by whether you can see Kibo, Kili’s larger peak. Uhuru Peak at the top of Kibo is the highest point in Africa at 19,341 feet.

There are six different routes you can ascend by. Kaleb and I took Machame Route, which takes six days minimum. When you climb Kili you pass through five different climate zones in a few days. First there is the farmland on the way up to the gate where the trek begins. The climb itself started out looking almost like a Gorge hike in the Northwest and is known here as a “rain forest.” The next day we climbed into a zone of sparse vegetation, heather and low shrubs and Giant Lobelia plants. Higher up was the alpine desert, which had lots of rocks but not much life besides some small flowers. It was much colder by this time, of course, especially at night. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be cold, but I haven’t missed it too much. I resolved to appreciate Dar weather more.

 The final zone is the summit zone. The climb to the summit is always made at night, which our guides told us was so that climbers can’t see the top and get discouraged. The summit zone has arctic conditions and half the oxygen that’s at sea level. Most climbers try to be at the top to see the sunrise from Uhuru Peak (uhuru = Swahili for freedom). That means a 6+ hour trudge up gravel switchbacks in the dark, with constantly decreasing oxygen. I can’t remember very much of that night! I just dizzily followed the feet in front of me and tried not to fall asleep. But when the sun came up, somehow there we were at the very top of Africa.

We were only there about 15 minutes, and my memory of it is very loopy. But it was incredibly gorgeous and everything was golden and light blue—a giant crater, a towering glacier, the neighboring mountain in the background. We took pictures, savored the moment, and then ran down to find oxygen. I would love to share those pictures with you, but due to an unfortunate camera theft a few days later, you’re out of luck.