I was kinda umm-ing and ahh-ing as to which route to take. I had initially decided via Machame, but after the initial postponement I also briefly considered Rongai, but I’m sure they’re all good.
Coincidentally, the trekking distance is nearly the same as that of EBC: ~60km. Also, thanks to the badass weather conditions at Lukla while we were out there, both will also be five days walk to summit.
However, Kili summit is 5895m: about 350m higher than the highest point we reached at Kala Patthar (5545m) which is a tad higher than EBC (5364m). I remember Kala Patthar being the hardest thing I’d ever done … this is going to be fun!
Also, 13-14 hours of walking on summit day, nearly six kilometres up from sea level … I can’t help but laugh. Still, lots of people have done this and more, so it can’t be that hard … Onwards, to summit my first mountain!
Afterthoughts:
I found summit day to be intensely difficult. My morale dropped like a brick on those final days - the walking just seemed to go on forever, and it didn’t help that you could see the path winding off miles into the distance.
The last few days consisted of:
- 10km walk, 4hr sleep
- 18hr 9km walking on skree/snow/ice, 1.2km altitude to summit, 45min sleep
- 7km walk
As far as health goes, I was quite borderline. I didn’t feel as though I was ever really in danger but I was really, really out of breath going up. Ibrahim took our blood saturation levels before we left camp and I was hitting the lowest out of the group with readings of 70% (where 60% is clinically dangerous).
James was worst hit with AMS - he suffered headaches throughout the trip and I would consider him to be the fittest of us, being a marathon runner. He had bouts of falling asleep whenever we stopped to rest and had moments of not being able to leave tent for food and lack of appetite.
Gemma stoically made her way to the top, despite being a smoker (though she vowed to have quit at the start of the trek!) and never having been up a mountain.
I find it impossible to convey just how much I hated being up there at that time. I couldn’t enjoy the view or the achievement and the only thing I could do whilst walking in the dark was stare at the back of the person in front. There was even a point when I would be taking micro-sleeps between each slow, slow step, bumping into the person in front if they stopped!
There were other stronger groups overtaking us on the trail up (some of the other routes converge onto this path up) and some being brought down in alarming states of AMS, presumably having not made it to the top.
There was a little chaos as Ibrahim fought to get us up and down as quick as possible - the group would fragment towards the top as everyone found their own pace and the guide carrying your daypack (with your water!) would be nowhere to be found. Once on top, little time was given to admire the views before everyone rushed to get down, with or without a guide, the path back to camp being obvious in the light of day.