Posts Tagged ‘kilimanjaro’

Porters, Guides and Locals

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

“Jambo”, “Namaste” and lots of other local greetings often welcome travelers to new and distant countries. A key reason that I like the idea of the “Seven Summits” is because it forces me to travel to all sorts of different countries and regions. I have no idea whether I would have ever gone to Tanzania if Kilimanjaro were not there, but I somewhat doubt it.

I read a book years ago, “Worldwalk” which has always stuck with me. The nonfiction book details a traveler who decides to literally walk around the world, taking transportation only to cross oceans as necessary. One constant the author finds throughout the entire book is the generosity and kindness of the human spirit. This lone traveler was consistently taken in, housed, and fed by strangers – many whom didn’t speak English.

The further off the beaten path you get, the more likely you are to experience these types of things. For this reason, I’m a strong believer in engaging with the guides, porters, and other locals you can encounter on a trip. Our guide in Nepal, Lolit, remains a friend years later. Although we weren’t as close with our porters, we did share a couple beers with them and made conversation as much as our language barriers would allow.

Sherpas in particular are some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered. They are also unbelievable athletes, and their legendary mountaineering prowess is incredible. It’s not uncommon to see them carrying loads of over 100lbs up steep slopes at high altitudes. Truly a sight to behold. These sherpas are pulling incredibly heavy loads uphill from Namche Bazaar.

In Tanzania, they are restricted to much smaller loads – 40lbs max I believe. I was a bit embarrassed to behold the small army of cooks, porters and guides that accompanied us on Kilimanjaro. This “siege” style attempt on a very accessible mountain is something I don’t hope to ever repeat. Nevertheless, it was great getting to know a number of the support staff who came with us. They were friendly, helpful, and worked hard the entire trip making our climb more comfortable. The highlight was at the end, when they sing a traditional song celebrating the safe and successful ascent. Below is the recording one of the members of our group took.

Just a reminder that much of the joy in travel is meeting the people, not simply seeing the sights.

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Summit Day – Kili

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

I’m going to put up other notes from my travel journal, but thought I would share with you all what I documented from my travel journal for summit day on Mt. Kilimanjaro this year.

Day 7 – Summit Day!!
We were roused at midnight with hot tea and quickly got ready to go. By the time we hit the trail, there were dozens of lights on the trail above us – looking like ants ascending the mountain. After a short climb, the drizzle turned to snow and it got steadily colder. We had to climb about 4000 vertical feet and knew it was going to be a long day.

We were steadily passing other groups as the winds and snow picked up. We stopped twice briefly to rest, but were making good time in rapidly deteriorating conditions. It was impossible to stop for more than a couple minutes because of the cold, wind, and snow. Our group moved to the front, and it was now on us to break trail in 1-2 feet of snow. It was probably around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind was blowing at probably 30-40 mph, the snow was quite deep. These were the craziest conditions I had ever been in and I marveled at the fact that the rest of the group, many of whom had very limited outdoor experience, continued forward enthusiastically – making great progress.

At about 6am, we got to the summit ridge as the weather broke. As we celebrated atop Gilman’s point, we were treated to probably the most incredible sunrise I have ever seen. At that point, it seemed like you could see all of Africa. Exhausted, we celebrated this milestone as Tagamere told us we were about 45 minutes from Uhuru peak.

The group started to string out a bit after this point. I moved up to the front with the girls as we went through the 2 ft deep snow. The girls stopped for a rest for a bit, and I thought I saw Tim was directly in front of me as I pressed on. There was someone else up front who was breaking trail, but moving very slowly. I yelled, volunteering to move to the front and break trail. As the person turned around, I realized that in my exhaustion I had confused another solo trekker and his guide for Tim. Undeterred, I moved to the front and broke trail for a couple hundred meters. It was amazing!

Although exhausting, I could see nothing but powder, mountains, and the ridge as I worked to the summit. In the lead, I felt like a hard core mountaineer. There was nothing between me and the summit but fresh powder. With a couple hundred yards to go, the other climber took the lead and I was surprised to hear Amanda’s British accent hailing me from behind. She and Tagamere had made great time to catch up to me. With about 100 yards left, the trekker took off running and in excitement, I followed suite. I arrived at the summit a bit before 7am, and collapsed in the snow unable to catch my breath.

Amanda arrived moments later and we hugged, after which I immediately rolled over and got sick from the altitude. After that, I felt great, and got up – assuring Tagamere with a thumbs up that everything was fine. Everyone made it up and we had a veritable photo shoot on top of the mountain. I was ecstatic!! We were allowed 15-20 minutes to celebrate, and then started back down.

I congratulated and encouraged all the other climbers who were working their way up until we broke off to descend down the face. There was a trail, but I went off to the side and half skied in my hiking boots and Henry’s trekking poles through the virgin powder.

A little way down, I had to stop as the experience really hit me. I had broken trail and summitted a 19,000+ ft peak in brutal conditions. I was now almost skiing down the fresh powder slopes of the tallest mountain in Africa under beautiful blue skies and seemingly looking out over the entire continent. It might have been the best day of my life. I was overcome by emotion and had to sit down for a minute to take it all in.

We continued the long descent, as the sun came up and the weather got quite hot. I stumbled on down to camp, by which point I was exhausted, dehydrated, hot and hungry. After an hour of rest, we had lunch and the broke camp for the hike down to low camp.

The descent was rapid and it was great to be back in vegetation. When we checked into low camp, we found that we were able to buy contraband beers and had a well earned, impromptu celebration.

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