We all made it to Uhuru Peak, the very top of Kilimanjaro. As you can see we had a snowstorm up there - the worst weather our guide had seen in his 99 summits. Visibility was down to 50 metres, with sky and ground being uniformly white, so thank goodness for this signpost!
I'm holding my Anthony Nolan charity T-shirt on the left. And on the right my brother and I are showing its reverse-side, which says 'Impossible is Nothing'. Which felt appropriate just then.
I'd like to thank everyone for their support - we've over £1,500 raised for the Anthony Nolan Trust now, and hopefully generated plenty of awareness too. If you haven't donated but wish to the donation page will be open for several more weeks, at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LukeReader .
A fuller set of photos charting the sights on the way up, and the first post-climb beer, are on Facebook.
Best Regards, Luke
PS Here is a slightly more detailed description of the trek:
- I went up with my brother, and also a doctor (pediatrician) from Cambridge, and a carpenter who works in a museum and had been up Mt Elbrus in Russia
- We had 21 staff (1 guide, 1 assistant guide, 1 chef, 18 porters)
- the local company running the expedition was the well-reputed African Walking Company
- We took 7 days to go up, 1.5 days to come down
- Each day up was about slow walking, drinking lots of water, eating as much as possible
- We still lost weight - I returned half a stone lighter
- I took Diamox for the altitude, had no bad side-effects (just phases of pins and needles in the hands, which was actually reassuring that the pills weren't duds!). And I had a couple of not-too-bad headaches but no altitude sickness or stomach issues, which are the major causes of failing to climb the mountain.
The summit day itself went thus:
- up at 11pm after a few hours sleep
- put 7 layers of clothes on top, 4 trouser layers, 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of thick socks, boots, balaclava, head-torch, and had class-4 UV sunglasses ready for later
- started walking at midnight - lots of snow on the ground covering the trail
- walked slowly upwards in darkness (headtorch showing just a bit of ground), for 6 hours with few breaks, climbing a kilometre. There are several reasons they made us do this stretch at night, but one we were told is that clients get a bit dispirited if they can see how much of the mountain remains above them!
- reached Gilman's Point at the ridge of the crater, in a white-out snowstorm
- short food and hot-drink break, my hands were already starting to freeze and become useless (icy water got into the gloves), we should have seen sun-rise but with no real visibility we were just aware of increasing light-levels around us
- we all continued on, less steep now going around the crater rim but still 'finding our way' in sometimes thigh-deep snow
- reached Stella Point after an hour - our descent point. We all agreed to continue on first to the very top.
- Another hour+ of slow trudging in 50-yard visibility, luckily in a trail made by other groups also up there, and we made Uhuru Peak!
- Celebrations/hugging/photos by the signs/general happiness at having all 'made it'
- Slow trudge back to Stella Point
- Then about 8 hours of steep descent, often sliding down on our back-sides deliberately until we eventually left the snow-line. Feeling returned to my hands.
- Got to camp 17 hours after starting to walk up, absolutely exhausted.
- Washed/drank/ate/went to bed - and slept very well that night!
