Moonshine trekking to the top of Kilimanjaro - Part 2 of 4

Part 2 of 4 parts:

Moonshine trekking to the top of Kilimanjaro

(the article continues here)

Kilimanjaro: heaven or hell?

Even though I became pretty tired at times, I tried to enjoy the grandeur of the nature. First when I noticed the outstanding diverse landscape, with glaciers, volcano craters, desert, its unique flora and fauna, I found it really rewarding to climb Kilimanjaro. It gave me strong inspiration to walk further. I had to think positively!

Photo. The moonlandscape was very fascinating. Kilimanjaro has 5 major zones: Lower slopes, forest, heath and Mooreland, highland desert, and summit. Each zone is related to different altitudes, and has it own charm regarding landscape, climate, plants and animals. Each of the zones has it own charm!

Photo. One of my friends well supported by our guide Victor (to the left) in Kilimanjaro`s moon landscape.

Early on the tour I tried to come up with a backup plan if I got problems. I found it best to take some precautions so I could increase my chances of reaching the top. I asked Marc if he could carry me to the top. Yes, he answered, for 10.000 dollars, I can do it. One of my friends suggested that Marc should do it for half of the price the way down again. It would probably make my tour more comfortable, but would at same time take away the joy for achieving something on my own.

To be prepared for Kilimanjaro, I wished I had trained more "sit-downs and sit-ups" to better hit the toilet hole. It was too hard for my knees, and I got very exhausted sitting there in a deep position. But you can't stop nature, especially when you have diarrhoea, and you can't expect comfort on 4000 - 5000 metres above the sea level.

If I had started to think of every thing that could go wrong, I probably had considered other travel targets. Perhaps I had been laying on the beach in one of the Greek islands. I knew I had to be prepared for lack of oxygen, freezing, sun burn, overheating, diarrhoea and more. This is just part of the game. If I had got most of these problems, would it still be fun?

To keep up the good mood in the group, I sang some songs when we were walking. I sang the songs "You`ll never walk alone", "Here we go" and "What a wonderful world". I also sang some Norwegian songs. It was not emotional and no one cried. I have never been famous for my voice, but the smiles lighted up and laughing was spreading. But no one joined me for a sing along. I guess my friends saved their breaths for the rest of the tour. 

Fun on the mountain
If Kilimanjaro itself is not big enough a challenge, then how can you make the most of it?

Photo. The majestic Kilimanjaro! What more fun can we have here than just climbing, blood, sweet and tears?

Snowboarding: In 1997 Stephen Koch, did the first descent of snowboarding on Kilimanjaro. He is a pioneer in snowboard mountaineering, and his successful descent of Mount Kilimanjaro was a part of his Seven Summits Snowboarding Quest.

Hanggliding: I heard about a person who jumped out from the top in a hangglider 15 years ago. He disappeared, and a few years ago he was found in the forest. Other people, who I talked to on the tour, said that he was never found.

Yeti-show: I was not ready for any big stunts that would take my energy away. The best I could come up with to lighted up the spirit in my group, was to play the Yeti. I probably was so tired that I started to get crazy imaginations about strange animals. The Yeti is a mythical creature believed to live in the Himalayas. It's popularly known as "the abominable snowman". Numerous sightings of the Yeti have been reported, but none in Kilimanjaro.

As parallel to the Yeti, I have heard about the Bigfoot in Pacific Northwest of America. It's a big, hairy, ape-like monster. Bigfoot, or as it's often called in Canada, the Sasquatch, is mentioned in several Native American legends. In fact, the term "Sasquatch" is Indian for "hairy giant." I tried my best to look like this creature, but I was not as hairy as I wished to be. I hid behind a big stone, and when the time was perfect, I ran out and roared wildly. It sounded like an echo in the mountain. My friends both laughed and screamed. Mostly I guess it was a scary experience, especially for the girls. This scene was recorded on my video camera, and I kept telling myself: the show must go on!

The last pep talk

We met eleven o'clock at night. Earlier on we rested. We were advised to not sleep heavily due to the thin air. We sat around in the big tent listening to the most important pep talk since the tour started.

Photo. Our last camp was very steep!

Our guide Oddbjorn is admiring the top before the last big step!

We got the last "oil" from our Norwegian guide Oddbjorn, and now it was up to us. He made it quite clear to us that this was not an easy trip. The tension was high. Some group members were little nervous. They were all very concentrated on what they were about to do. We all took a last check on what we should bring with us. I tried to take it easy and think about other things. I feared that if I focused too much on walking for 14 - 17 hours continuously, I would be pretty exhausted long before we even started. I tried to speak to my friends about other things, but they wouldn't listen. I could see that they had itchy feet. It was just Kilimanjaro on their minds, and they looked real keen to start the last ascending. The expectations were sky high. My optimism was renewed. I felt better know. I still had little diarrhoea, but I stopped it with Imodium pills. So we started! From 4600 metres we began to walk slowly with our local main guide (expedition leader) Marc in front.

Attempt to the top

Now we were at an altitude where some group members started to feel strong symptoms of altitude sickness. There was no doubt that the air was thinner, and we could clearly feel that the low oxygen in our blood caused shortness of breath during walking. It also caused oyher symptoms as ventilation, heartbeats, diarrhoea and puking. Since we had walked slowly and stayed overnight 5 times, we were well acclimatized. Some people start to feel symptoms of altitude sickness above 3000 metres, and in worst case their bodies will be unable to acclimate to the altitude. If the symptoms become too strong, they were strongly recommended to descend immediately.

We walked very slowly. It was like walking on the moon or playing a video film in slow motion. We didn't talk much. It was more important to save energy for the rest of the ascending. I would have liked to have longer breaks, but it was so cold that we had to make only short stops. The silence around us created a strange atmosphere. The only sounds we heard were from heavy steps and deep breaths. The girls had synchronised their pee-breaks, and so far everything went smoothly.

Photo. Steep climbing.

Some climbers past us slowly without exchanging a word. Everyone was concentrating 100 percent on the walking. Also within the group, there was limited communication and that seemed to work quite well for us. We all followed in our local main guide (expedition leader) Marc's footsteps. His walking speed was just perfect. Even though I had put all my dry clothes on, I was a little bit cold midways, and I started to wonder how long this would last. I was really worried that any frostbite could knock me out. The higher we ascended, the colder it became. Fortunately it passed after a while, but then I got some other problems to cope with.

Joined forces

I kept my headlight off most of the time to start with. It was not necessary to use it. The beautiful full moon did the job for us. We could just follow the strong moonlight that illuminated the path. It reminded me of the famous fairytale about a brother and a sister, Hans and Grethe. They found their way home in the dark forest by following the moonlight that reflected the stones. Midways it started to get darker. Some group members couldn't see much at all. Sometimes they nearly fell over. It created frustrations, and negative thoughts began to come. Then I switched on my headlight. Hopefully it helped my friends a little bit. Another person also switched on her torch and illuminated the path, which was very useful for others.

First one person started to notice sleepyness. He said that he was on the brink of falling asleep when he walked. We could clearly see that he lacked coordination and balance. One of the persons in the group made the guides aware of the problem, but it was misunderstood. Our guides suggested to the wrong person that another guide could carry her backpack. No, said the sporty 60-year old woman determined. I have no problems, and I would like to carry my backpack myself. She spoke loud and clear, and I think the guides were really surprised by her reaction. She had a lot of guts. I stood right behind her at that moment, so I explained the situation for the guides, and pointed out the man who was little a bit unsteady. So the misunderstanding was quickly clarified without further confusing.

I was also beginning to feel tired. My friends behind me noticed that I was unsteady. It looked sometimes as if I was near falling. It was a strange feeling that I have never experienced before. It was almost like walking around in a drunken condition. Suddenly I met the "wall". I gasped desperately for air, and had to sit down by the hillside. I took a couple of deep breaths. After a while I struggled up on my feet again. I could barely walk any further. I followed the strong moonshine that illuminated the mountain in the darkness. In a more or less conscious condition I approached the top very slowly. But would my power be strong enough in this height and steep terrain?

I was almost empty, and I could feel the blood sugar was very low. I had obviously lost much energy during several days of diarrhoea and puking. It would have been very unfair to blame the chefs for that. The food had been excellent the whole tour. It was important to drink water continuously even though you were not thirsty. I was highly aware that 2/3 of the body's structure is water. If you loose 1 % water, you loose 10 % of your strength. Under such circumstances fluid replacement is vital. A good advice is to drink at least equal to the volume being lost. One thing leads to another. I felt the dizziness increasing and the headache became stronger. My head was spinning around.Every step was a great effort!

Fortunately one person in my group noticed my trouble and made our guides aware of it, so they could help me. I got some Diamox pills for altitude sickness from our Norwegian guide. I was not convinced about the pills effect, but I took them anyway: just in case. It's always difficult to take the right decision under such conditions. Should I return or should I continue? I wouldn't like to tumble around on the top totally disoriented and out of control. Of course there's a limit to how far you can push yourself. I felt a little bit crazy, and I really wondered what I was doing here. Hopefully it was not Moon Madness. My friends at home would probably say that I am that crazy in general and that I was already immune. Then I had nothing to worry about, did I?

Some of us were in a weakened condition. Hopefully we didn't cause difficulties for our other friends, who were eager to reach the top.

When we started I hadn't met any of my group members before. So I was excited about how we would work together if things started to be though. Under such conditions I expected that it would be difficult to keep the group together. We all have personal goals, and I expected that some people would attempt to act individually. As far as I could see there was no rivalry, not within the group, nor between the two couples. Our only competitor, that we had challenged, was Kilimanjaro. The team spirit was on top and there were no disputations. We joined our forces to make the best of it and shared the pain. That was important so we also could share the gain afterwards. The challenges with encountered brought us closer together. The expedition leader Marc and the other guides were always nearby and supported us willingly. They had no ambitions of their own. For example Marc, he had a real good capacity, and had been to the top over 200 times before.

The last efforts

A lot of the time during climbing I was cold. The temperature towards the top was estimated to minus 10 Celsius. It felt really cold since we walked so slowly that we hardly moved at all. As I had expected, the tube on the bottle in my backpack froze, so I had to drink from another "frost isolated" bottle. This made it more difficult for me to drink continuously, and I felt my strength was dropping. But when the sun rose I started to burn. I was already sunburned, so it didn't feel good. I was aware that the thin atmosphere up here gave me limited protection from the sun's strong radiation. I was also aware of that the body could acclimate for heights up to 5500 metres, but after this limit the body would broke down step by step. I felt I had passed this point. My problems rose bigger heights.

 

Photo. The beautiful sunrise on the top encouraged us, but later come the heat!

A girl in my group had big problems too. I tried to encourage her as best I could, but she didn't pay any attention to me. I tried again, but I didn't get any response. It looked as if she walked in a trance. I wouldn't like to be considered as selfish. I promised myself before the tour started that however tired I became, I should do my best to support the others.

Walking with poles is the best decision I have ever made. It was the first time in my life I used poles on bare ground. The advantages were better balance, and to keep my body upright to avoid exhaustions of my back and to open up the airways. Another good thing was that I could hang over the poles when I was resting, which I did several times during the last part. 

Read more of this article in part 3.

Stein Morten Lund, 8 august 2003

Additional information

Facts about Kilimanjaro:

·         The highest peak, Uhuru Peak, is 5895 metres above sea level.

·         The highest peak is 550 metres higher than the Everest Base Camp that climbers use at least two weeks to reach.

·         Kilimanjaro stands 330 kilometres south of equator, on the northern boundary of Tanzania.

·         It's the highest mountain on the African continent.

·         It composes three extinct volcanoes: Kibo 5895 m (19340), Mawenzi 5149 m (16896 ft) and Shira 3962 m (13000 ft)

·         It's one of the world's highest free standing mountains.

·         The first man on the top was Hans Meyer from Germany in 1889.

·         The Kilimanjaro massif has an oval base about 40 metres to 60 kilometres across, and rises almost 5000 metres above the surrounding plains.

By reading my story you can understand that most people can do the same. Reaching the top of Kilimanjaro it's not unique in itself, but it's a great personal victory for most people. I remember Neil Armstrong's famous words when he became the first human on the moon: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". I would like to put it this way: "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for me"!

Our tour programme:

·         Departure Saturday 5 July 2003 from Oslo.

·         Start climbing Sunday 6 July.

·         Reached the top Saturday 12 July early in the morning.

·         Safari: from 14 July to 18 July.

·         Departure from Tanzania to Oslo: 18 July.