I was the fortunate man who had the chance to marry Bonn-Tien this summer of 2012. Since we got married in France and in mid-July, we wanted to do an easy mountain expedition (more pleasant than your average climb) and more importantly relax: after the stress of organizing our wedding.
I have always been fascinated by Kilimanjaro but mostly had never had the chance to explore this part of the world. Bonn-Tien and I therefore decided that this mandatory guided/assisted climb would be ideal for us, light packs, no camp setting up, “gourmet” food and the opportunity to add 2 safaris to the trip.
Because of the large amounts of trip reports on Kilimanjaro, I will just focus on our summit day, which was the most interesting and surely the most intense.
I had opted for the Machame route because of its length (slightly longer and allows better acclimatization), the fact it was less popular and presented many different eco systems. I had asked to be with other climbers but the touring company was unable to find anyone else. I was a bit annoyed that just for only 2 of us, we had the following team:
1 Guide
1 Assistant Guide
1 Cook
6 Porters
Ourselves
That was a lot of people just for 2 climbers, and that was for 6 days.
It took us 5 days to get to the highest camp. 5 amazing days with great views on the mountain. What is surprising is that we could see routes with some ice climbing options, apparently if the mountain would get more rain; it would be much more glaciated than it currently is.
The high camp is highly cramped and is very noisy. For the acclimatization, we were actually doing very well. Bonn-Tien had failed Orizaba the previous year because of altitude sickness, but she was now feeling much stronger, probably by the fact that it had taken us 5 days to make this far and that we had eaten and drank plenty all the way.
The night before the summit, at 4600m high, we fell asleep under a clear sky, had our stomach full and started dreaming of our coming adventure. We could hear the porters feasting around us and singing local chants. We were completely immersed in our adventure.
At 1 AM, our guide shook our tent to let us know that breakfast was ready. Even if this is considered as an easy mountain, the stress was still there but maybe less than our excitement.
Breakfast was served at candle light and we enjoyed a warm porridge in these sub-zero temperatures.
Bonn-Tien was a bit nervous but I kept re-assuring her that everything was fine and she would be ok at the summit.
About an hour after waking up, we left camp in a moonless night which made the stars brighter and gave us the strength to ascend.
Our guide was actually very confident in our capacities and had decided that we would leave last, that day there were roughly 100 people attempting the summit.
As we climbed, the guide was very slow to ensure that we would be ok on our way up. This was actually a total pain for myself as I felt very acclimatized and had extreme summit fever, this was the freekin roof of Africa, one of the 7 summits!! I could n `t wait to be on the top!
At first we were very lonely on the mountain, the trail is an easy ascent that zigzags up some rocky slope. It really is just a tricky trek with no exposure at all.
We finally caught up to the bulk of the climbers. Being so many was not that terrible, it felt good to be among other passionate climbers and feel the general struggle. As we were climbing, I kept on seeing shooting stars, one after the other. I think I counted 14 shooting stars that night, more wishes than I good imagine.
In Tanzania, close to the equator, the light comes out around 7, so it was a rather long night. In the darkness, I could hear African guides singing songs to motivate their clients, who most of them had never been so high.
Very soon, we could see people who were unable to make it any higher, older climbers, half frozen climbers and hipters….
The top of the slope is stellar point which is considered like a “summit”. It`s actually the rim of the volcano. This is a section where many climbers turned around as they feel that they actually made it to the top… not in my world :P
When we were there, Bonn-Tien and I were still on fire to make it to the top. Bonn-Tien had climbed incredibly well so far and nothing was going to stop her.
As soon as the sun came out, we got fogged up which was kind of disappointing since we would not have the best views from the summit.
The ridge walk was much longer than I had expected. At 5700m high, in an unroped environment, I wanted to test my physical capacities, so for fun myself and the assistant guide started running up and down to see the effects. They were quite strong…. Very fast, I felt short of breath but was still doing ok, in the meantime some clients were being pulled to the top by their guides.
About 6 hours after we had left camp, we finally made it to the top of Kilimanjaro. Bonn-Tien and I were overwhelmed with joy, what better way to spend your honeymoon than in a tent for 7 days with 9 other men!
Although fogged up, we could easily imagine the crater and the views afar.. Most people stay less than 5 minutes at the top but we decided to do a whole bunch of videos and pictures and just to enjoy this magic moment, so we were there for about an hour. Our guides got impatient, so we had to go back down.
As we came under the fog, appeared Mawenzi, a sister volcano that shares the same plateau as Kilimandjaro. I also got to see the most important thing on this trip, the Kilimanjaro glacier, that is now almost all gone. It was surreal to see these huge walls of ice in the middle of Africa, where he had been so hot a few days ago. Not sure that these will be there when our children climb this mountain.
The decent was done via a sandy slope which was perfect for our knees. At the arrival back to our tents we were greeted by our whole team who sang us a victory song…a must see on my attached video!
Overall, a fantastic adventure that I recommend to all. It is touristy, maybe not the cleanest mountain but a unique climb with amazing people. A true life experience.
http://adthevenet.zenfolio.com/p297263883/h46f311c2#h46f311c2
I have always been fascinated by Kilimanjaro but mostly had never had the chance to explore this part of the world. Bonn-Tien and I therefore decided that this mandatory guided/assisted climb would be ideal for us, light packs, no camp setting up, “gourmet” food and the opportunity to add 2 safaris to the trip.
Because of the large amounts of trip reports on Kilimanjaro, I will just focus on our summit day, which was the most interesting and surely the most intense.
I had opted for the Machame route because of its length (slightly longer and allows better acclimatization), the fact it was less popular and presented many different eco systems. I had asked to be with other climbers but the touring company was unable to find anyone else. I was a bit annoyed that just for only 2 of us, we had the following team:
1 Guide
1 Assistant Guide
1 Cook
6 Porters
Ourselves
That was a lot of people just for 2 climbers, and that was for 6 days.
It took us 5 days to get to the highest camp. 5 amazing days with great views on the mountain. What is surprising is that we could see routes with some ice climbing options, apparently if the mountain would get more rain; it would be much more glaciated than it currently is.
The high camp is highly cramped and is very noisy. For the acclimatization, we were actually doing very well. Bonn-Tien had failed Orizaba the previous year because of altitude sickness, but she was now feeling much stronger, probably by the fact that it had taken us 5 days to make this far and that we had eaten and drank plenty all the way.
The night before the summit, at 4600m high, we fell asleep under a clear sky, had our stomach full and started dreaming of our coming adventure. We could hear the porters feasting around us and singing local chants. We were completely immersed in our adventure.
At 1 AM, our guide shook our tent to let us know that breakfast was ready. Even if this is considered as an easy mountain, the stress was still there but maybe less than our excitement.
Breakfast was served at candle light and we enjoyed a warm porridge in these sub-zero temperatures.
Bonn-Tien was a bit nervous but I kept re-assuring her that everything was fine and she would be ok at the summit.
About an hour after waking up, we left camp in a moonless night which made the stars brighter and gave us the strength to ascend.
Our guide was actually very confident in our capacities and had decided that we would leave last, that day there were roughly 100 people attempting the summit.
As we climbed, the guide was very slow to ensure that we would be ok on our way up. This was actually a total pain for myself as I felt very acclimatized and had extreme summit fever, this was the freekin roof of Africa, one of the 7 summits!! I could n `t wait to be on the top!
At first we were very lonely on the mountain, the trail is an easy ascent that zigzags up some rocky slope. It really is just a tricky trek with no exposure at all.
We finally caught up to the bulk of the climbers. Being so many was not that terrible, it felt good to be among other passionate climbers and feel the general struggle. As we were climbing, I kept on seeing shooting stars, one after the other. I think I counted 14 shooting stars that night, more wishes than I good imagine.
In Tanzania, close to the equator, the light comes out around 7, so it was a rather long night. In the darkness, I could hear African guides singing songs to motivate their clients, who most of them had never been so high.
Very soon, we could see people who were unable to make it any higher, older climbers, half frozen climbers and hipters….
The top of the slope is stellar point which is considered like a “summit”. It`s actually the rim of the volcano. This is a section where many climbers turned around as they feel that they actually made it to the top… not in my world :P
When we were there, Bonn-Tien and I were still on fire to make it to the top. Bonn-Tien had climbed incredibly well so far and nothing was going to stop her.
As soon as the sun came out, we got fogged up which was kind of disappointing since we would not have the best views from the summit.
The ridge walk was much longer than I had expected. At 5700m high, in an unroped environment, I wanted to test my physical capacities, so for fun myself and the assistant guide started running up and down to see the effects. They were quite strong…. Very fast, I felt short of breath but was still doing ok, in the meantime some clients were being pulled to the top by their guides.
About 6 hours after we had left camp, we finally made it to the top of Kilimanjaro. Bonn-Tien and I were overwhelmed with joy, what better way to spend your honeymoon than in a tent for 7 days with 9 other men!
Although fogged up, we could easily imagine the crater and the views afar.. Most people stay less than 5 minutes at the top but we decided to do a whole bunch of videos and pictures and just to enjoy this magic moment, so we were there for about an hour. Our guides got impatient, so we had to go back down.
As we came under the fog, appeared Mawenzi, a sister volcano that shares the same plateau as Kilimandjaro. I also got to see the most important thing on this trip, the Kilimanjaro glacier, that is now almost all gone. It was surreal to see these huge walls of ice in the middle of Africa, where he had been so hot a few days ago. Not sure that these will be there when our children climb this mountain.
The decent was done via a sandy slope which was perfect for our knees. At the arrival back to our tents we were greeted by our whole team who sang us a victory song…a must see on my attached video!
Overall, a fantastic adventure that I recommend to all. It is touristy, maybe not the cleanest mountain but a unique climb with amazing people. A true life experience.
http://adthevenet.zenfolio.com/p297263883/h46f311c2#h46f311c2
No comments:
Post a Comment