Standing Above the Clouds

Climbing Mount Kenya was an incredible, challenging experience that I could have never imagined before going. I was not prepared at all to go in terms of gear or physical shape (I should have been running 10 miles a day with a backpack on). I didn’t have gloves or hiking boots, both of which would have made the climb 10x easier. I was actually the only one in the group of 20 who climbed the entire mountain, up and down, in sneakers. Despite some discomfort, it was absolutely amazing. Here is a little recap:

Sunday
On Saturday night I spent the night at Whitney’s because we were getting picked up at the YWCA at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. Whitney’s host mother is away and it was our cousin Maxwell’s birthday, so there was a “no parents in the house, let’s have a party” birthday party for him. It was fun and I met a lot of fun people, but didn’t sleep much that night. We got picked up in the morning and drove a few hours to Chogoria, which is a town at the base of the mountain. We met our guides there and piled all of our stuff and ourselves on top of and into two Land Rovers that looked like they were at least 20 years old. From there we started to make our way up the dirt road to the entrance gate of the mountain. There were 11 of us in each car with the guides and drivers and there was nothing to hold onto as we bounced up and down over the bumps and mud pits. Both cars kept getting stuck in the mud and after pushing them a few times, the drivers decided that they couldn’t go any further and we got our backpacks down and hiked 2 km straight up to the base camp at 2900 meters. It was only 2 km, but it was absolutely exhausting because of the incline and the weight of our bags, which we weren’t used to yet, not to mention the altitude change. We got to base camp and explored the land a little, which was beautiful. We then made dinner of pasta and beans and afterwards were briefed on the dangers of altitude sickness. Apparently 50% of altitude sickness deaths happen on Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. I didn’t realize how serious altitude sickness was. The guide told us that if we started to feel the effects of it, we had 3 hours to get down before it was too late. Whoa. After that we went to bed. I slept in a wool sweater, hat, fleece jacket, and sweat pants, under three blankets and was absolutely freezing.

Monday
Monday and Tuesday might have been the longest days of my life. Monday morning we woke up at 6, had breakfast of oatmeal, which I tried to force down, and set off for the climb. We started through some beautiful forest and I saw a wild chameleon in the bushes along the trail. The hike was absolutely beautiful. I don’t know if words can describe it, but I took a lot of pictures. I saw everything from enormous waterfalls to amazing rock formations, to crazy plants that only grown at high altitudes on free standing mountains like Mount Kenya. The hike was also extremely physically challenging. We would climb up for hours only to reach the top and realize there was another peak twice as big right behind the one we had just climbed. We climbed down and up through a crater, which was really cool. Breathing was really difficult the higher we climbed. We ended up hiking 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) before we got to camp at 4200 m (14,000 feet)-and all this with 30-40 pound on our backs. Once we got to camp I was absolutely exhausted as well as absolutely freezing. I put on every piece of clothing I had and wrapped myself in a wool blanket. We had dinner of pasta and beans again and went to sleep around 9, but I didn’t sleep more than 30 minutes the entire night because I was so cold. One girl in our group was having some pretty bad breathing problems and ended up getting really sick and not being able to climb the next day.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning we woke up at 2am to start our climb to point Lenana, the 3rd highest peak on Mount Kenya, and the only one you can reach without technical climbing equipment. We hiked through the dark up some really steep slopes and had to stop every 15 minutes or so to catch our breaths. The ground was frozen crunchy gravel and with the light from the stars and moon it felt like we were hiking mountains on the moon. We made it to 4700 meters by about 6:30am and watched the sun come up over the mountains. At this point we were standing above the clouds and seeing the sun rise at this level was breath taking (and not just because of the lack of oxygen at this altitude). At 4700 meters we put down our packs and started walking towards the summit. I don’t think I have ever been so cold in my entire life. My feet had gotten wet from the morning’s walk and were completely numb by this point. I also didn’t have gloves so my hands were numb as well as my face. I started to walk towards the peak, but every few steps I had to sit down. I think the combination of no sleep the night before and numb feet really did me in. I kept getting up and telling myself that I could do it, I could make it those last 100 meters up after coming this far, but after I tried a few times and failed, I decided it wasn’t worth hurting myself and slowly started to walk back down. I was disappointed, but also knew that I had made it really far and that was an accomplishment in itself.
After that, there was nowhere to go but down, so we started the descent. It was somewhat terrifying to go down because it was really steep and the only thing to step on was loose gravel. Samuel, the guide, took me by the hand and showed me how to “skate” down, which is kind of like skiing (with no skis), but you essentially run down the mountain, letting your feet slide down with every step. It was pretty difficult at first, especially with the weight of the pack, but I got a hang of it after a lot of falling, and it was sort of fun by the end. We made it down to about 4200 meters and stopped to have breakfast. We had all our bags down and everybody was sort of lounging around on the ground when we noticed these oversized hamster looking things. They’re called Rock Hyrax’s and are actually the closes living relative to the elephant, but look nothing like elephants.--they are about the size of groundhogs and have brown fur. These little guys wanted our food and started chewing on jars of peanut butter and bags of pretzels. They wouldn’t give up either when we tried to poke them with a stick or toss pebbles in their direction. It was pretty hilarious.
Around 11 we headed off on our hike to 3300 meters, which was another 9 km (after the 7 km before breakfast). The hike was long, but really beautiful. I noticed that at about 3500 km, I could take a deep breath without it being painful. By the time we made it to camp around 5:30pm I hadn’t slept in about 48 hours and I don’t know how my body was still functioning. I think I was on some sort of auto pilot. We set up our tents and made dinner…more beans, and then went to sleep. Both nights on the mountain, the sky was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen anything like it. It was almost like there wasn’t any part of the sky without a star in it. I felt like I was living in Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. I wish I could have taken a picture.

Wednesday
I slept like a rock and woke up at 7, had breakfast, which was more oatmeal. I hated oatmeal as a kid and haven’t eaten it since I was about 7 or 8. I thought “I am an adult now, I can make myself eat this,” but I was wrong. I tried a few times on the trip, but could never get more than a few spoonfuls down. I guess there are some things you just can’t overcome : )
We hiked down another 9km and made it to the vans to take us back to Nairobi. Along the way we saw a lot of Olive Baboons. We also saw this huge line across the entire road and when we got closer, realized it was a trail of ants about an inch thick, making their way across the road. I’ve never seen anything like it and it was amazing how they stayed in this perfect strip all along the path. Who knew ants could be so fascinating?
The hike was something I will definitely never forget—especially not in these next couple days where every step reminds me of each muscle I used to climb the mountain. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the St. Lawrence kids. Most of them are really down to earth and were really fun to be around. They have all been here since January and are going home on Saturday, so they kept talking about what they were going to do when they got home, like eat real ice cream or pizza, or sleep in their beds for days. It made me slightly nostalgic for the U.S. They invited us to the place they’re staying in Karen, “the compound” on Thursday night for their “last supper” so we are going over there to celebrate with them.
At one point on the way down Samuel pointed to the highest peak and said “When you come back, you hike that one, but you need to practice in America with rock climbing”. I sort of laughed and said “okay”. I don’t know if I will ever be back to climb Mount Kenya, especially the highest peak, but I am really glad I got the opportunity to go on such an amazing adventure.