Today we made the ascent of about 600 meters from Karanga camp to base camp for the final assault, or Barafu. This was a 4 hour hike from barren volcanic rocks of every conceivable shape and size to the snow line and then a final 200 meter hike to base camp. Our final elevation is […]
Day 6- Trekking to Barafu base camp: 4,600M. 4km/4hours. Read More »
Walking towards lunch I heard from the group that the final assault to the summit is tomorrow night. Really? Panic set in. Could it be that close. Have we been here so long? I was also relieved. Yes, I could make it two more days. Tomorrow we march to base camp at Barafu. 4,600 meters,
The summit is so close Read More »
Leaving the camp, we crossed a series of small rivers swollen from the nights rainfall with some pretty cascading waterfalls. This lead to today’s climb up the cliff which was slow and tedious because of all the “traffic” of climbers from different paths all converging on Barranco. The cliffs are sheer, straight up attacks. The
Day 5: Barrranco to Karanga camp: Final Elevation 4000m 4KM hike, 5 hours Read More »
I have not mentioned too much about this but different people have experienced different aspects of altitude sickness. The worse situation was with Ori. And that is very very dangerous. But others have had significant loss of appetite, shortness of breath, nausea, sudden weakness (when Carol fell to her knees), headache (I have had that
Last night was a very rough night for Ori. He had this incessant hacking cough all night. He could not sleep. He tossed and turned. I thought he had, in fact, the flu and I thought, for sure, I would get it as well. A guy coughing in an enclosed tent all night. In the
Day 5. Ori ‘s altitude sickness Read More »
Today started off with the fact we knew we had a long day with lots of climbing and a descent. What I did not count on was the wind chill, light snow, bitter winds (I know that creates wind chill but it bears repeating) and, the coup de grace, light rain towards the end. I
Day 4- Shira II to Barranco Camp: Climb to 3,950 M or 12,956 ft./6km about 7 hours Read More »
We take our modern life for granted. It is interesting to see how we cope when they are gone. No electricity. – maybe one can use a solar panel for small things IF there is sun. No running water. Maybe a stream nearby but you better boil the water. And bathrooms. Well your lucky with
The things we take for granted. Read More »
At Shira II we finally got our new tent. Just in time since it started to rain and our stuff would have gotten really wet. We still have the lousy mess tent and we still cannot seem to get the other guides to let us share the larger tents. It’s getting really cold. In the
Today was a really beautiful day. Unlike the rest of the group hiking from Shira I directly to Shira II, we took a detour with Florence to a peak called the Cathedral. Passing through a wide plain, which is part of an alpine desert, we came across all types of animal tracks, large and small.
Day3 – Climb to Shira II – 3,850 M/ 5 KM about 6 hours Read More »
The nightfall approaching and the temperature rapidly dropping (I asked Ori what the temp is and his answer was simply ‘cold’) I have some concerns regarding poor planning on the company hired to do our trip up the mountain. The company was a tent short. In fact Ori and I are sleeping in one of