Hey,
Today I wanted to get from one town to another. The normal way is to get on a matatu and wait for all the seats to be sold, then the bus goes. If even one seat is empty, they wait. The matatu I needed had only 3 ppl on it and the driver said it could take 2 hours to fill up. That's nuts. So I did the crazy.
I got a ride on a motorcycle. Yup, there are motorcycle taxis. "Driver" pulls up and you negotiate a price (mine was about $1 for a 15 km ride up the dirt road to Batian's View - probably could have done better, but it's not like he'd find another fare on the dirt road, so he'd have to ride back empty). If he's the helmet type (most are not, mine was), he hands you a helmet and you hop on. My helmet was probably an XXL from 1980 or so, all the liner inside was gone, and the styrofoam looked like it was falling apart. Also, there was no buckle or second side to the strap, so the helmet just sat on my head. Any bump in the road caused the helmet to rotate down and block my view. And the "driver"'s helmet was stapled together, looking like it had cracked in two places in a fall, and also had no strap. I dunno what kind of staples they were, but it made me laugh :D
So, we take off riding, down the road, turn onto the dirt road, and then... Monsoon season, remember? It started raining on us. At least that made the dust less terrible.
Wow. What an experience. Bike seemed to top out around 25-30 mph (tiny motor, struggling with the weight of two people), but still, with cars and matatus flying down the road at 60+ mph, wow, what a crazy place to ride a motorcycle. Without a helmet. With someone else in control. Wearing hiking pants and a cotton t-shirt. Probably more crazy than crossing a glacier without an ice axe... (speaking of which, my host here was very unhappy about my experience on Nelion and promises to pursue the matter of safety with the Park and the Search and Rescue folks... And not to use this guide, who he doesn't normally use.).
Aight, today was checking out a local town, tomorrow is hanging out with Mark at his house to see his small farm. Friday, I'll hike through the forest. Saturday, I'll explore Nairobi before flying out of here...
Joel
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Mt Kenya - Day 5
Hello,
Today I had options. We talked about doing a circuit around the mountain (takes 6 hrs, though 2 Americans I met did the circuit and took 12 to complete it). We talked about hiking out the 3rd main route to see that side of the park. But in the end, I said I was exhausted, physically and mentally. I made a summit, I've been backpacking for a couple weeks, mostly at very high altitudes and in very low temperatures. I have nothing left. I'm done. Give me a hot shower, or better yet, a nice hot bath... Mmm...
So down the mountain. I'd paid the crew for 7 days in case I needed time for weather to clear, and today is day 5, but who cares, gimme a nice warm bed and some damn beer.
We were at Austrian hut, which is almost 16k ft. The park gate is at about 7k ft. That's 9000 ft of descending. Mark suggested we stay the night at the met station, at 10k ft. I said "we'll see..." By lunch time, we were at the Met station. Mark called our driver, and in the early afternoon, we were off the mountain. An hour later, I was in the shower at Batian's View. Mmm...
And what is today? It's that excuse to drink holiday, St. Patty's day. The group of volunteers who are doing some construction work for the locals showed me the "Silent Bar" (a small shack with no electricity that sells cheap alcohol and is full of local drunks) and we stocked up on $1 6.5% alcohol Guinness beers (stronger than most western Guinness, but not as strong or good tasting as Nigerian Guinness).
Writing this the next day: heh, 6 of those beers later, playing the surprisingly fun beer drinking game, Kings, my beer desire was met, I was drunk and content. Great way to finish a couple weeks of climbing.
Joel
Today I had options. We talked about doing a circuit around the mountain (takes 6 hrs, though 2 Americans I met did the circuit and took 12 to complete it). We talked about hiking out the 3rd main route to see that side of the park. But in the end, I said I was exhausted, physically and mentally. I made a summit, I've been backpacking for a couple weeks, mostly at very high altitudes and in very low temperatures. I have nothing left. I'm done. Give me a hot shower, or better yet, a nice hot bath... Mmm...
So down the mountain. I'd paid the crew for 7 days in case I needed time for weather to clear, and today is day 5, but who cares, gimme a nice warm bed and some damn beer.
We were at Austrian hut, which is almost 16k ft. The park gate is at about 7k ft. That's 9000 ft of descending. Mark suggested we stay the night at the met station, at 10k ft. I said "we'll see..." By lunch time, we were at the Met station. Mark called our driver, and in the early afternoon, we were off the mountain. An hour later, I was in the shower at Batian's View. Mmm...
And what is today? It's that excuse to drink holiday, St. Patty's day. The group of volunteers who are doing some construction work for the locals showed me the "Silent Bar" (a small shack with no electricity that sells cheap alcohol and is full of local drunks) and we stocked up on $1 6.5% alcohol Guinness beers (stronger than most western Guinness, but not as strong or good tasting as Nigerian Guinness).
Writing this the next day: heh, 6 of those beers later, playing the surprisingly fun beer drinking game, Kings, my beer desire was met, I was drunk and content. Great way to finish a couple weeks of climbing.
Joel
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Mt Kenya - Day 4 - Woohoo Nelion, boohoo weather and zain!
Hello,
Last night, I met with Ken, my technical guide for climbing Nelion and Batian. First thing he wanted to make clear was that we'd obviously hit the start of the monsoons. We could expect afternoon storms. Given that, plus, last week he'd been up and the Gates of Mist had been impassable (a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick ice covering the rocks, which is enough to be dangerously slick, but not enough for crampons or ice axes to safely dig in), I should keep my hopes for Batian in check. True we could sleep in the coffin up top, but that would mean hanging out in a metal box that isn't tall enough to sit up in, from about 2-3 p.m. until about 7-8 am. With the temps hovering around -20 C / -4 F. And if it snowed significantly during the storm, we would only have the option of descending anyway. Hmm... Of course, if the storms rolled in late.. We'd make the Batian traverse and then only sleep at he hut before rapping down, or better yet, we might make a late evening rap down...
We talked about turn-arounds and we both agreed that rappelling could be done in the rain, though there were some extremely exposed traverses to do, so we needed to get started down as soon as stuff started falling from the sky. To maximize our success, we decided on a 5:30 am start (sunrise is about 7). This meant crossing the glacier in the moon light (a note about that - from Austrian hut, there is no way to access Nelion without crossing a very steep (i dunno, 45 degrees) rapidly shrinking glacier (10 years ago, it went from the hut to the base of the climb, now there is a good 20-30 mins of scree to deal with on each side of the glacier)), so if you/e wondering whether crampons and ice axe are necessary, YES, if you're starting from Austrian Hut (I think you can start from further down on the Nelion side of the glacier).
In the AM, we got started and hit the glacier. My first clue about things to come should have been the fact that my technical guide (a park ranger, not the normal S&R guide this company uses - Simon was injured in a car accident and his doc said no guiding for 3 months), Ken, didn't have ice axes when we got to the glacier ("don't bring any technical gear, our guy will provide all of it"). My ankle was not wrapped (wrap was completely soaked from yesterday), for the first time in days, and the sideways angle of the foot/crampons to stick to the glacier made me very nervous, esp. with no way to self-arrest if things went wrong. I was completely warm and sweating by the time we got to the scree on the other side, even though air temps were around -5 C / 23 F. We headed up the scree and by the time we hit the base of the climb, around 7:15, the sun was up and I stripped out of my down and eVent layers. Just wool (all of my wool, though). We prepped for climbing and started up. I took photos on all the pitches, so I'll save the details for when I can discuss each pitch, etc, not in blog format. It hadn't yet dawned on me that he was not at all following our 'let's see' plan for Batian since we had no ice axes...
Suffice it to say, though, that I was not exactly pleased with my guide. Certainly he showed me the anchor spots... But he tended to not use pro for most pitches, and I wondered why I was belaying. Catching a 50 meter fall would have ripped my harness through my body and probably would have destroyed my anchor. Basically, I was tied to him so that if he died, I died with him (and it gave him a way to belay me). He didn't like to give me instructions, so, for example, I climbed a 5.7ish crack with brutally cold hand jams, and later found out that I needed to go around an obscuring corner to find a 5.1 face climb instead (he was grumbling because of how long that pitch took me). Heh, that wasn't soo bad, though, because I really enjoyed that crack climb - 16k ft up and hand jams and twisting my leather boot to wedge into the crack, woohoo!
Speaking of which, in the sun, the rocks warmed to a good 5 C / 41 F. Effort made for warm hands! I know, I'm kvetching, but I really need to see the route description again. After McKinders Chimney (which we skipped and took the Rabbits Hole instead - crux was probably a 2-move series at 5.7), we pseudo simul-climbed. Since he didn't believe in pro for anything under 5.6, we just climbed roped together for about 2 pitches, and only went trad when I complained that I was uncomfortable with the vertical thousand foot exposure while we free-soloed 5.1. I've got balls, but I guess they're not made of brass...
After that, though, we switched to the southwest face of Nelion. That side sees little sun (features of the mountain keep this area shaded 24/7). The rock temp dropped well below freezing (my typical experiment, I spit on the rock and watched the bubbles become solid craters) and every horizontal surface was covered in snow and/or ice. Holy cold! And that's where we found a full 5.7 pitch. Not a crux, but a sustained 5.5 ~ 5.7 vertical climb. With each handhold covered in ice and snow. Holy cold. I mean hell froze over and we were climbing it. Every foot step required kicks to break up and remove ice. Most handholds had to be vertical pieces, like squeezing the spine of a standing book - everything else was too cold to touch. And rest spots tended to be places were you traded frozen hands (breathing hot air on them) for frozen feet (not moving = cooling off quickly). Even Ken used every last piece of pro he brought. There were cams, nuts, slings, etc everywhere. I'm still amazed he led that - it was insane. Probably the equivalent of a 5.10c considering the snow and ice.
As we crested the last pitch (also a pseudo free-solo 5.1 with 5.3 cruxes because it was a 70 meter pitch and Ken only had a 50m rope, so he asked me to start climbing when the rope ran out... And again he placed no pro aside from his anchor around the time I was 30 meters into the climb (speaking of which, most of his shoddy anchors were a single sling over a rock and didn't consider the direction of pull in a fall, so I often created a second anchor / safety using my long safety leash and natural features (no technical gear on me aside from my harness, belay devices, safety tether, and some ascending gear and biners)), we were racing the clock. The last few pitches were under worse and worse conditions, with dark gray clouds rolling in and a thick fog obscuring the lower elevations. From the summit, I could see that we had very limited time before snow and hail started coming down. I did a quick victory dance, checked for cell phone signal to at least tell y'all I made it, and cursed Zain as my guide used his Orange and SafariCom phones to make calls.
We bailed from the mountain and rappelled, traversed, and free soloed downclimb pitches and got off the mountain in record time (an hour for a listed 2-3 hour descent). And we scrambled down the scree and jumped onto the glacier.
And my steam ran dry. I lost all energy. I was exhausted. My ankle was not feeling strong. And I tried the sideways walk and could not do it. I felt drained, mentally and physically. My guide, meanwhile, had taken off and was across the glacier. I couldn't handle the steepness so I went for second best - a risky proposition, but the idea of sliding down this steep a glacier several thousand feet into a large tarn (lake) that looked like it was frozen on top? No ice axe? Pure death, I tell you. So I faced down slope so my ankle wouldn't need to bend funny and walked side-steps, and to reduce steepness, I aimed for the crevasses.
See? Picking between the lesser evils. Since the sun had been shining all day until just recently, there was no snow on the glacier (aside from snow bridges over crevasses). This made navigation easy - I never stepped where I couldn't see into the ice below. The crevasse region was a maze of crevasses, but between cracks, the slope was more comfortable. I only picked routes that could keep me far from covered or open cracks, and I made my way across. I wish I had a helmet camera... Such beautiful ice. I was close enough to some open crevasses that I could see the beautiful blue color of that ancient ice. Amazing.
I made it back in record slow time, arriving much further below the hut than I intended, but I needed a place where I could see the edge of the glacier and the rocks. Last thing I wanted was to fall under the glacier after all that work! I hopped off, removed crampons, and class 4 scrambled back to my guide. We got back to the hut and I ate dinner and passed out. Writing this in the AM of Day 5.
Let me finish by saying my guide may have tainted the climb, but holy victorious! I made it! I summited a 20-pitch 5.7 rock climb at well over 5000 meters! And fear from poor leading aside, I had the time of my life. Each move was exhausting. Each pitch drained energy. It was tough. It was brutally cold, dropping to -10 C / 14 F, and never really getting warmer than 5 C / 41 F. The exposure was insane. The winds were terrifying. My hands and toes will never forgive me. And I made it :D
Ahem. Up the second highest peak. I need to improve me skills so that next time, I can come during the warm season, and attack Batian...
Joel
Last night, I met with Ken, my technical guide for climbing Nelion and Batian. First thing he wanted to make clear was that we'd obviously hit the start of the monsoons. We could expect afternoon storms. Given that, plus, last week he'd been up and the Gates of Mist had been impassable (a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick ice covering the rocks, which is enough to be dangerously slick, but not enough for crampons or ice axes to safely dig in), I should keep my hopes for Batian in check. True we could sleep in the coffin up top, but that would mean hanging out in a metal box that isn't tall enough to sit up in, from about 2-3 p.m. until about 7-8 am. With the temps hovering around -20 C / -4 F. And if it snowed significantly during the storm, we would only have the option of descending anyway. Hmm... Of course, if the storms rolled in late.. We'd make the Batian traverse and then only sleep at he hut before rapping down, or better yet, we might make a late evening rap down...
We talked about turn-arounds and we both agreed that rappelling could be done in the rain, though there were some extremely exposed traverses to do, so we needed to get started down as soon as stuff started falling from the sky. To maximize our success, we decided on a 5:30 am start (sunrise is about 7). This meant crossing the glacier in the moon light (a note about that - from Austrian hut, there is no way to access Nelion without crossing a very steep (i dunno, 45 degrees) rapidly shrinking glacier (10 years ago, it went from the hut to the base of the climb, now there is a good 20-30 mins of scree to deal with on each side of the glacier)), so if you/e wondering whether crampons and ice axe are necessary, YES, if you're starting from Austrian Hut (I think you can start from further down on the Nelion side of the glacier).
In the AM, we got started and hit the glacier. My first clue about things to come should have been the fact that my technical guide (a park ranger, not the normal S&R guide this company uses - Simon was injured in a car accident and his doc said no guiding for 3 months), Ken, didn't have ice axes when we got to the glacier ("don't bring any technical gear, our guy will provide all of it"). My ankle was not wrapped (wrap was completely soaked from yesterday), for the first time in days, and the sideways angle of the foot/crampons to stick to the glacier made me very nervous, esp. with no way to self-arrest if things went wrong. I was completely warm and sweating by the time we got to the scree on the other side, even though air temps were around -5 C / 23 F. We headed up the scree and by the time we hit the base of the climb, around 7:15, the sun was up and I stripped out of my down and eVent layers. Just wool (all of my wool, though). We prepped for climbing and started up. I took photos on all the pitches, so I'll save the details for when I can discuss each pitch, etc, not in blog format. It hadn't yet dawned on me that he was not at all following our 'let's see' plan for Batian since we had no ice axes...
Suffice it to say, though, that I was not exactly pleased with my guide. Certainly he showed me the anchor spots... But he tended to not use pro for most pitches, and I wondered why I was belaying. Catching a 50 meter fall would have ripped my harness through my body and probably would have destroyed my anchor. Basically, I was tied to him so that if he died, I died with him (and it gave him a way to belay me). He didn't like to give me instructions, so, for example, I climbed a 5.7ish crack with brutally cold hand jams, and later found out that I needed to go around an obscuring corner to find a 5.1 face climb instead (he was grumbling because of how long that pitch took me). Heh, that wasn't soo bad, though, because I really enjoyed that crack climb - 16k ft up and hand jams and twisting my leather boot to wedge into the crack, woohoo!
Speaking of which, in the sun, the rocks warmed to a good 5 C / 41 F. Effort made for warm hands! I know, I'm kvetching, but I really need to see the route description again. After McKinders Chimney (which we skipped and took the Rabbits Hole instead - crux was probably a 2-move series at 5.7), we pseudo simul-climbed. Since he didn't believe in pro for anything under 5.6, we just climbed roped together for about 2 pitches, and only went trad when I complained that I was uncomfortable with the vertical thousand foot exposure while we free-soloed 5.1. I've got balls, but I guess they're not made of brass...
After that, though, we switched to the southwest face of Nelion. That side sees little sun (features of the mountain keep this area shaded 24/7). The rock temp dropped well below freezing (my typical experiment, I spit on the rock and watched the bubbles become solid craters) and every horizontal surface was covered in snow and/or ice. Holy cold! And that's where we found a full 5.7 pitch. Not a crux, but a sustained 5.5 ~ 5.7 vertical climb. With each handhold covered in ice and snow. Holy cold. I mean hell froze over and we were climbing it. Every foot step required kicks to break up and remove ice. Most handholds had to be vertical pieces, like squeezing the spine of a standing book - everything else was too cold to touch. And rest spots tended to be places were you traded frozen hands (breathing hot air on them) for frozen feet (not moving = cooling off quickly). Even Ken used every last piece of pro he brought. There were cams, nuts, slings, etc everywhere. I'm still amazed he led that - it was insane. Probably the equivalent of a 5.10c considering the snow and ice.
As we crested the last pitch (also a pseudo free-solo 5.1 with 5.3 cruxes because it was a 70 meter pitch and Ken only had a 50m rope, so he asked me to start climbing when the rope ran out... And again he placed no pro aside from his anchor around the time I was 30 meters into the climb (speaking of which, most of his shoddy anchors were a single sling over a rock and didn't consider the direction of pull in a fall, so I often created a second anchor / safety using my long safety leash and natural features (no technical gear on me aside from my harness, belay devices, safety tether, and some ascending gear and biners)), we were racing the clock. The last few pitches were under worse and worse conditions, with dark gray clouds rolling in and a thick fog obscuring the lower elevations. From the summit, I could see that we had very limited time before snow and hail started coming down. I did a quick victory dance, checked for cell phone signal to at least tell y'all I made it, and cursed Zain as my guide used his Orange and SafariCom phones to make calls.
We bailed from the mountain and rappelled, traversed, and free soloed downclimb pitches and got off the mountain in record time (an hour for a listed 2-3 hour descent). And we scrambled down the scree and jumped onto the glacier.
And my steam ran dry. I lost all energy. I was exhausted. My ankle was not feeling strong. And I tried the sideways walk and could not do it. I felt drained, mentally and physically. My guide, meanwhile, had taken off and was across the glacier. I couldn't handle the steepness so I went for second best - a risky proposition, but the idea of sliding down this steep a glacier several thousand feet into a large tarn (lake) that looked like it was frozen on top? No ice axe? Pure death, I tell you. So I faced down slope so my ankle wouldn't need to bend funny and walked side-steps, and to reduce steepness, I aimed for the crevasses.
See? Picking between the lesser evils. Since the sun had been shining all day until just recently, there was no snow on the glacier (aside from snow bridges over crevasses). This made navigation easy - I never stepped where I couldn't see into the ice below. The crevasse region was a maze of crevasses, but between cracks, the slope was more comfortable. I only picked routes that could keep me far from covered or open cracks, and I made my way across. I wish I had a helmet camera... Such beautiful ice. I was close enough to some open crevasses that I could see the beautiful blue color of that ancient ice. Amazing.
I made it back in record slow time, arriving much further below the hut than I intended, but I needed a place where I could see the edge of the glacier and the rocks. Last thing I wanted was to fall under the glacier after all that work! I hopped off, removed crampons, and class 4 scrambled back to my guide. We got back to the hut and I ate dinner and passed out. Writing this in the AM of Day 5.
Let me finish by saying my guide may have tainted the climb, but holy victorious! I made it! I summited a 20-pitch 5.7 rock climb at well over 5000 meters! And fear from poor leading aside, I had the time of my life. Each move was exhausting. Each pitch drained energy. It was tough. It was brutally cold, dropping to -10 C / 14 F, and never really getting warmer than 5 C / 41 F. The exposure was insane. The winds were terrifying. My hands and toes will never forgive me. And I made it :D
Ahem. Up the second highest peak. I need to improve me skills so that next time, I can come during the warm season, and attack Batian...
Joel
Mt Kenya - Day 3, when will it end?!?!
Hello,
So, today we got up around 2, and by 3, me and the six UK folks and their guide (Elijia?) were heading from McKinders Camp up a few thousand feet to Point Lenana. The pace Elijia set was pretty good. I could huff and puff and respond to questions, and it was no problem keeping up. We went up the mountain slow but sure, and eventually passed other groups on the way up. We made good progress and I dropped my pack at Austrian hut (15,720 ft). We all piled into a room for a 30 min breather since no one wanted to be on the summit too long before sunrise - temps were more than just freezing, near 0 F!
We scrambled up the trail and arrived at the summit shortly before sun rise. There was a fairly large crowd gathered and it was almost comical seeing that many people there to see the sun come up. After dropping my pack, I was surprised that the pace seemed no easier to maintain. The only person who seemed oblivious to the lack of O2, the pace of progress, or anything else was Andy, our nonstop entertainment radio. From McKinders to Lenana's summit, he cracked jokes, engaged everyone who could huff and puff an answer in conversation, and... During any breaks we took, he killed off cigarette after cigarette. Insane lung power and he's a smoker!
After the summit, we headed back to Austrian Hut, where I thought my day was done. The UK folks said their good-byes and headed down off the mountain. I rested for a couple hours and then my guide Mark suggested we go for a quick hike to a beautiful lake Ahh, what the heck, why not? Which shoes? I had ended up using the rented boots for Lenana because my feet were freezing in my shoes, and Mark said what I hoped he'd say... Running shoes so we can make faster progress! He wore his shoes, not boots, as well.
We headed down the Chagoria trail and dropped down a lot of elevation. We ditched the trail proper and went on a use trail to turn the trip into a nice loop. At this point, let me take back anything negative I said about the speed and strength of my Kenyan crew. I think the reality is that they didn't let on how heavy their packs really were. Without packs, Mark and Joseph were easily 50% faster than me and they didn't need to breath hard, regardless of smoke breaks. Mark started taking smoke breaks while having me and Joseph go on and he'd catch us minutes later. OK, they are superhuman, too...
The valley we entered looked almost like a high desert Yosemite, with huge, very climbable walls on both sides (looked like El Cap and Half Dome). The river down the middle tumbled down a series of waterfalls and cascades to a lake below, probably dropping 500 ft non-continuously. We found a trail right along the falls and dang was that steep! But, the valley and lake that we then came upon were indeed beautiful. We descended to the lake - there's a camping spot there... If I was to come back, that might be on my list of places to camp. Heck, I hate fishing, but I might even take a whack at it just to have an excuse to hang out there all day. BTW, the lake was at 4100 meters
So we started circumnavigating the lake and one of my guys (Joseph, porter) says 'wow, you are very lucky to see all this beauty on such a clear day!' I should have thrown him in the lake as he spoke. Not 2 minutes later, hail started coming down. I grabbed me waterproof layer out and we started hiking double-time. We came around the lake and the ascent we then began is probably (i use that word because I've now described several routes this way) the steepest "trail" I've ever followed. Temps started increasing (we'd been around 15 F most of the day) probably due to the close overhead clouds, and hail alternatively turned to rain and back to hail. The downpour became so violent that twice we waited it out under overhanging cliffs or in caves (I have pics of both but Zain has the worst cell phone coverage possible in Africa, so I'll send them later). By this time, everything was drenched. Which means, of course, our running shoes were soppy sponges.
The trail back was probably a very fun trail. We meandered through bogs and marshes (the kind where, when its raining, you can't stand in one spot long because any time you're not moving, you're sinking, and I got shin deep at least a couple times), scrambled up class 3 made to class 4 by ice and hail and water (hands and feet on the rocks, just like Lenana had been), and hiked up huge valleys (full of fresh snow, of course). The best part was at high altitude again, where we did class 4 scrambling over rocks that had a fresh 2-3 inches of snow on them... In soggy wet running shoes.
BTW, Mark and Joseph took turns carrying my lightweight (5 kg / 11 lbs.) pack because they wanted to get every last ounce of speed out of me. I was completely knackered by then (having been hiking for 9 hours already), and going up the final scree hill back to the Austrian hut was killing me. Took us 6:15 to do the 6-7 hour loop, which covered 60% of the Chagoria trail (yep, could have just exited the park instead of climbing back those 700 meters!), and when we got back, we boiled up some water and made warm water foot baths. All of us were lacking toes from hiking in cold wet shoes over snow...
The Kenyans have an interesting solution to cold feet. Wash them in warm water, dry them, and then coat them in petroleum jelly, and put on a dry pair of socks. I was skeptical, but damn, my feet stayed warm!
All in all, a tough day. From McKinders (4200 m) to Lenana (4985? m) to the lake (4100 m) to Austrian hut (4790 m) and about 9-10 hours of hiking, almost all of which was higher than the highest peaks in the continental US!
I wish I could send this to y'all. Voda, Safari, and Orange all have signal here, Zain does not. I found a spot to send messages and was able to get an email out, but later, that spot was useless - cloud cover decreased the range. Ah well, I'm alive and having a blast, especially when I meet up with other fun people - like Jamie and Alex on Kili and Anna, Sally (Captain Kirk, as one of the guys had to point out a couple times), Andy, Dan, Pete, Nick, argh.. It'll come to me... I'll add his name when I remember (be prou I remembered even one of the names!) Damn useless brain!
Oh, meeting the technical guide, which happens tonight, will go into tomorrow's report.
Joel
So, today we got up around 2, and by 3, me and the six UK folks and their guide (Elijia?) were heading from McKinders Camp up a few thousand feet to Point Lenana. The pace Elijia set was pretty good. I could huff and puff and respond to questions, and it was no problem keeping up. We went up the mountain slow but sure, and eventually passed other groups on the way up. We made good progress and I dropped my pack at Austrian hut (15,720 ft). We all piled into a room for a 30 min breather since no one wanted to be on the summit too long before sunrise - temps were more than just freezing, near 0 F!
We scrambled up the trail and arrived at the summit shortly before sun rise. There was a fairly large crowd gathered and it was almost comical seeing that many people there to see the sun come up. After dropping my pack, I was surprised that the pace seemed no easier to maintain. The only person who seemed oblivious to the lack of O2, the pace of progress, or anything else was Andy, our nonstop entertainment radio. From McKinders to Lenana's summit, he cracked jokes, engaged everyone who could huff and puff an answer in conversation, and... During any breaks we took, he killed off cigarette after cigarette. Insane lung power and he's a smoker!
After the summit, we headed back to Austrian Hut, where I thought my day was done. The UK folks said their good-byes and headed down off the mountain. I rested for a couple hours and then my guide Mark suggested we go for a quick hike to a beautiful lake Ahh, what the heck, why not? Which shoes? I had ended up using the rented boots for Lenana because my feet were freezing in my shoes, and Mark said what I hoped he'd say... Running shoes so we can make faster progress! He wore his shoes, not boots, as well.
We headed down the Chagoria trail and dropped down a lot of elevation. We ditched the trail proper and went on a use trail to turn the trip into a nice loop. At this point, let me take back anything negative I said about the speed and strength of my Kenyan crew. I think the reality is that they didn't let on how heavy their packs really were. Without packs, Mark and Joseph were easily 50% faster than me and they didn't need to breath hard, regardless of smoke breaks. Mark started taking smoke breaks while having me and Joseph go on and he'd catch us minutes later. OK, they are superhuman, too...
The valley we entered looked almost like a high desert Yosemite, with huge, very climbable walls on both sides (looked like El Cap and Half Dome). The river down the middle tumbled down a series of waterfalls and cascades to a lake below, probably dropping 500 ft non-continuously. We found a trail right along the falls and dang was that steep! But, the valley and lake that we then came upon were indeed beautiful. We descended to the lake - there's a camping spot there... If I was to come back, that might be on my list of places to camp. Heck, I hate fishing, but I might even take a whack at it just to have an excuse to hang out there all day. BTW, the lake was at 4100 meters
So we started circumnavigating the lake and one of my guys (Joseph, porter) says 'wow, you are very lucky to see all this beauty on such a clear day!' I should have thrown him in the lake as he spoke. Not 2 minutes later, hail started coming down. I grabbed me waterproof layer out and we started hiking double-time. We came around the lake and the ascent we then began is probably (i use that word because I've now described several routes this way) the steepest "trail" I've ever followed. Temps started increasing (we'd been around 15 F most of the day) probably due to the close overhead clouds, and hail alternatively turned to rain and back to hail. The downpour became so violent that twice we waited it out under overhanging cliffs or in caves (I have pics of both but Zain has the worst cell phone coverage possible in Africa, so I'll send them later). By this time, everything was drenched. Which means, of course, our running shoes were soppy sponges.
The trail back was probably a very fun trail. We meandered through bogs and marshes (the kind where, when its raining, you can't stand in one spot long because any time you're not moving, you're sinking, and I got shin deep at least a couple times), scrambled up class 3 made to class 4 by ice and hail and water (hands and feet on the rocks, just like Lenana had been), and hiked up huge valleys (full of fresh snow, of course). The best part was at high altitude again, where we did class 4 scrambling over rocks that had a fresh 2-3 inches of snow on them... In soggy wet running shoes.
BTW, Mark and Joseph took turns carrying my lightweight (5 kg / 11 lbs.) pack because they wanted to get every last ounce of speed out of me. I was completely knackered by then (having been hiking for 9 hours already), and going up the final scree hill back to the Austrian hut was killing me. Took us 6:15 to do the 6-7 hour loop, which covered 60% of the Chagoria trail (yep, could have just exited the park instead of climbing back those 700 meters!), and when we got back, we boiled up some water and made warm water foot baths. All of us were lacking toes from hiking in cold wet shoes over snow...
The Kenyans have an interesting solution to cold feet. Wash them in warm water, dry them, and then coat them in petroleum jelly, and put on a dry pair of socks. I was skeptical, but damn, my feet stayed warm!
All in all, a tough day. From McKinders (4200 m) to Lenana (4985? m) to the lake (4100 m) to Austrian hut (4790 m) and about 9-10 hours of hiking, almost all of which was higher than the highest peaks in the continental US!
I wish I could send this to y'all. Voda, Safari, and Orange all have signal here, Zain does not. I found a spot to send messages and was able to get an email out, but later, that spot was useless - cloud cover decreased the range. Ah well, I'm alive and having a blast, especially when I meet up with other fun people - like Jamie and Alex on Kili and Anna, Sally (Captain Kirk, as one of the guys had to point out a couple times), Andy, Dan, Pete, Nick, argh.. It'll come to me... I'll add his name when I remember (be prou I remembered even one of the names!) Damn useless brain!
Oh, meeting the technical guide, which happens tonight, will go into tomorrow's report.
Joel
Mt. Kenya - Day 2
Hello,
Last night, I met a bunch of British military folks at the campground/lodge (Met Station). There were 6, 4 Army, 2 Airforce, out to scout the Point Lenana trail before a large group (I think 36) comes next week? During the hike today, I was thinking that since I needed to head that direction anyway, it would be fun to join that group - they looked fit and not your typical painfully slow pole pole muzungu, and while talking with them last night, they seemed like a pretty cool group. So when I bumped into them during the hike from the Met station to McKinders Camp, I decided to ask them. They were happy to have me along, but they were starting the day at 2am. Ugh!
Point Lenana is the highest peak non-technical climbers can get here - the third highest peak of Mt. Kenya. It's only an hour or so past Austrian hut, which I was heading to, anyway, so now I'll just be there at 8am or so, instead of 2 or 3 pm. Seems reasonable... I'm sure I can find some form of torture to inflict for the rest of the day...
Now, the scary thought, in my head, was that they would be going without packs since after the summit, they would pass through McKinders and grab their things on the way to leaving the mountain. I would need to take my pack since Austrian Hut was going to be my base camp. Well, my machismo ('it's always a competition') should make this plausible..
Speaking of which, I think I figured out one of the big differences between my Kenyan and TZ crews. Every break we take (they request them often), these guys bust out smokes. Well, we're hiking / camping at over 14k feet, no wonder they aren't as superhuman! I took weight from my guide's pack, so now I'm around 18 kg (40 lbs). Kinda heavy but now he (Mark) can mostly keep up with my nice, relaxed, enjoyable pace. I get in a zone and just look around and walk. I feel like I'm in another world - the plants are all totally unecognizable. Funky flowers, weird trees, etc. Neat!
I'll edit this and write more, but its 9pm and I gotta get up at 2am..
Joel
Last night, I met a bunch of British military folks at the campground/lodge (Met Station). There were 6, 4 Army, 2 Airforce, out to scout the Point Lenana trail before a large group (I think 36) comes next week? During the hike today, I was thinking that since I needed to head that direction anyway, it would be fun to join that group - they looked fit and not your typical painfully slow pole pole muzungu, and while talking with them last night, they seemed like a pretty cool group. So when I bumped into them during the hike from the Met station to McKinders Camp, I decided to ask them. They were happy to have me along, but they were starting the day at 2am. Ugh!
Point Lenana is the highest peak non-technical climbers can get here - the third highest peak of Mt. Kenya. It's only an hour or so past Austrian hut, which I was heading to, anyway, so now I'll just be there at 8am or so, instead of 2 or 3 pm. Seems reasonable... I'm sure I can find some form of torture to inflict for the rest of the day...
Now, the scary thought, in my head, was that they would be going without packs since after the summit, they would pass through McKinders and grab their things on the way to leaving the mountain. I would need to take my pack since Austrian Hut was going to be my base camp. Well, my machismo ('it's always a competition') should make this plausible..
Speaking of which, I think I figured out one of the big differences between my Kenyan and TZ crews. Every break we take (they request them often), these guys bust out smokes. Well, we're hiking / camping at over 14k feet, no wonder they aren't as superhuman! I took weight from my guide's pack, so now I'm around 18 kg (40 lbs). Kinda heavy but now he (Mark) can mostly keep up with my nice, relaxed, enjoyable pace. I get in a zone and just look around and walk. I feel like I'm in another world - the plants are all totally unecognizable. Funky flowers, weird trees, etc. Neat!
I'll edit this and write more, but its 9pm and I gotta get up at 2am..
Joel
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