type 2 fun on mt. kilimanjaro

view of mt. kibo from camp

a few weeks ago we told another traveller - an american med student named devon - of our plans to climb kilimanjaro and, in closing, said "yeah, it should be fun."  he thought for a minute and said, "that's type II fun"  and went on to explain that type I fun is your classic fun - laughing and enjoying yourself during the activity.  type II fun is a bit painful - climbing a mountain, running a marathon - but worth it in the end and fun to remember.  type 3 fun is not, at the time, fun at all. e.g.  having diarrhea on a 10 bus ride or getting shaken down by corrupt police.  later, sometimes much later, you get a good story and laugh from it.  indeed, our mt. kilimanjaro adventure was definitely type II fun though, during the worst moments, we wondered if had ventured into type III. 

painful ... but worth it 

now, sitting comfortably in a friend's flat in paris, it's difficult to place ourselves in the frame of mind that we had during our 8 day climb. 

over the 8 days, there were supposed to be easy and difficult days. but even the easy days were a challenge, mostly due to the ever-present cold and rain. our first day was meant to be a breezy 3 hr hike, arriving at camp by 5pm.  due to some scheduling snafus, it turned into a 5 hour ordeal, hiking in the rain and mud. our guide fell twice; exhausted porters sat with their 55 lb packs on the side of the trail.  we trudged into camp at 730p after hiking in the dark w/out headlamps for 90 minutes.  what the hell have we gotten ourselves into? 

the conditions themselves - cold, windy, rain, hail, snow - had us eating our meals in a tent and seeing our breath ...  we woke daily at 530a to the familiar sound of rain on our tent and feeling a familiar dread, asking "it can't possibly rain every day, can it?" Answer: "yes, it can".  the weather on the mountain changed so fast - one minute (and rarely longer) there was sunshine, and then the clouds rolled in. we were at the same height as the clouds.  they looked like smoke (funny that we always thought they'd look like marshmallows up close).  on the 4th day, it hailed and we started to get the feeling that kilimanjaro doesn't want us here or on its summit. 

enjoying the sunny weather ...

... but not for long

we invented games to get our minds off the endless hikes - like picturing each family member smiling at us then meditating on them for an hour.  we empathized with the porters, doing the same hike but much faster and carrying 55 lbs on their heads wearing only sneakers and sweat pants.  all for less than $5 per day.  and the views and environment was unlike anything we've experienced. 

the final push ... 

the night of our summit, we awoke at 10pm, dressed, had tea and set off at 11p from our 4600m base camp.  the moon was full  and it was around 20F degrees.  we knew that, as we approached the summit, it would be windy and 0F or colder. i had on 5 layers, 10 for cath.

though we'd been nearly immune from the dreaded altitude sickness (a mild case is common and equivalent to a terrible hangover), i immediately began feeling nauseaus and my mind went to a dark place.  climbing in silence, cath, 2 feet behind me, said something and i remember thinking that she sounded a world away. one foot in front of the other and "pole pole" (slowly, slowly), we followed the pace of our tireless guide, st. john, for him,  everything was "hakuna matata" (no problem).  

a ginger tea break at 330a revived our flagging spirits.  above 5000m, the path got incredibly steep. every step left us gasping for breath. the minute motion of turning your neck to the right or chewing a caramel candy left us panting for breath.  at 5am, an hour from the summit, i remember thinking "we might actually make it." 

after 7 hours of hiking, we reached stella point,  5756m, as the sun rose.  it was magnificent view, we could see the curvature of the earth.  we sipped on more tea and posed for wacky pictures before slowly ascending the final one hour to the summit.  

i was so proud and happy.  even more so of of cath, who overcame so much - a migraine, back problems, swelling of face, feet and hands, being a girl ;) she's so much tougher than me. 
seeing her overcome such conditions made me love her even more.
 
many times, along the way, we asked ourselves: "why did we do such a thing?  we could be on a beach somewhere." 

maybe it's because our absurd 6 month journey could only end this way; a personal challenge, an adventure ... after taking everything kili could throw at us, it makes us think we can do anything. what now?  time to find a new mountain to climb.  

at uhuru peak with stanley, our summit porter, and john, our lead guide

back at the hotel with our porters