Re: Google Earth view of my Kilimanjaro Marathon

Hmm... the blog didn't like the attachment, so Turtle put it up for download:
http://www.wongat.com/files/Kili-Marathon.kmz

Just right click on that, and save-as, and then open it. If you don't
have Google Earth on your computer, it won't work, and when I try to
show it in google maps it doesn't work, so install Google Earth!

:)

Joel

Google Earth view of my Kilimanjaro Marathon

Hey,

I promised a long time ago to post this - I have no idea if the blog
will take a non-jpg attachment but I'll try. Here's the kmz file for
my marathon. You can see everything there is to see about it,
including the excruciatingly slow pace I had :) According to the
Garmin Forerunner, my total ascent was 4606 feet, and since it was a
loop, I descended that much too. I guess that's more than your
average first marathon should have for altitude gain. Too bad the
watch didn't record temperature!

Joel

A Uniquely 3rd World Experience...

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

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

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

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

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

Mt Kenya Day 1

Hello,

My first discovery is that Tanzanians really are super-human. My Kenyan crew is merely mortal - they suffer on uphills, sweat tons, and need breaks from time to time (I would guess once an hour, for 10-15 minutes). Heh, after racing along at TZ-porter pace, this is strange... We're alking at a normal backpacking pace (very easy for me). At least my ankle basically rested.

Weight-wise, I'm a little heavier than "normal" since I have my harness, helmet, some gear, plus a pair of leather heavy boots (no way I'll use them for hiking... Damn, those days of heavy feet sucked!). I'm using my vinyl heavier climbing pack instead of the GoLite because some of the rock climbing involves pack hauling and there's no way the GoLite would survive dragging against rock for hundreds of feet! I also have a tent - we decided to go wth one of the Batian View Mountain HArdware tents since there's a reasonable chance of rain and waiting for climbing opportunities might involve sitting around a lot. I would guess I'm at about 16 kilo (35 lbs) with a couple liters of water. My crew though, is carrying a lot more. It's a total disregard for lightness!

So why are their packs so heavy? It's not the stove, they don't use the 14.5 kg monstrosity of Kili teams, they use what they call a parafin stove - I dunno what exactly the fuel is, I thought parafin is solid at room temperature, and this stuff has the viscosity of water but the weight of a very light oil. Stove looks like an ordinary pump stove.

Anyway, the weight is probably the fruit. They brought tons of fresh fruit. I mean, for the four of us, 4 pineapples, more than a dozen mangoes, etc. I think about 2/3rds of a 70 liter old school pack (prolly weighs 10 lbs empty) is full of fresh fruit! Insane! Not that I'll complain, I love fruit... Other weight adders include a steel tin of jam, stainless utensils, plates, etc. Unlike Kili, there aren't scales at every station, so I have no idea what their packs weigh - looks like at least 25 kilo (55 lbs) if not more.

Anyway, the day started at BAtian's View, 7000 ft, and we drove to the Naru Meru park entrance. We then walked to 10,000 ft to the weather station, where there's a Lodge (seen lots of whitey going in, must be the norm here). I pitched my tent right in front of the lodge on the lawn. Hey, that's what the ranger said to do. My crew is sleeping in the huts - its free for locals. You can actually avoid bringing a tent on most Mt Kenya routes - you can pay to sleep in huts (many people in one big room) or lodges (cabins at a few locations, bed and room provided, use your own sleeping bag). It's not as clean (the huts) as a tent though, but the lodges are.

Ahh. Also, there are LOTS of monkeys of various species here. Most of them sound like dogs. It's pretty strange to hear a pack of dogs barking as if they're fighting, only to find little human-looking things standing on two legs, barking at each other. Probably what we look like to other animals when we argue. A couple monkeys roaming the area of the lodge are looking at my tent. I'm told that if I leave it partially open, they will go in looking for edibles...

And my final coment for this post - paramythrin or whatever that spray on insect repellant is (got it at rei, it's for clothes and cautions against getting it on skin, can be sprayed on or laundered into your clothes) is damn good. I used that on my nylon clothes before kili (pants, shirt, hat, and running shoes), with the plan of using my deet-based repellant on exposed skin. Today, I never got around to deet, but I watched my crew get covered with insects while only the occaisional beetle landed on my clothes. I can't recall the name of the biting fly that causes sleping sickness, but those were biting my crew on all their exposed skin. I didn't get touched! Usually, if there are 20 people in a group, I'll be the only one attacked... Awesome. And I don't have deet all over me!

Ok, time to find signal...

Joek

Batian's View

Wow,

This place is a surprise. We drove through Naro Meru, a little village that looks like most I've seen in Kenya (which is to say almost identical to towns in TZ except with a greater number (or density) of ragged shops lining the street (don't think stripmall, think dilapidated buildings about to fall into a pile of dust, with store names written by hand or sometimes stenciled on their fronts)).

As we drove through this town, I really had low expectations for the place I was staying. We turned off the main route and onto a small dirt road, and I figured we were heading to a dump. Much to my surprise, though, the place we pulled into was nice! Really nice! Rustic log cabins, flowers, trees, etc. It feels like a B&B in Napa!

My room is in a cabin built for about ten people, but I'm the only occupant. The rest of the cabins are 1-4 ppl in size. There's a group of folks from around the globe (Japan, Australia, UK, US) doing volunteer work (making bricks right now, will move on to building a building at some point) who are staying in the smaller cabins.

My ankle feels better today. I slept with it raised about a foot up, with warm blankets over it. Swelling died down and pain is all gone. I wrapped it with an ace type bandage - I thought about immobilizing it with tape, but, well, then it would be completely immobile! So, bandage to support it and off we go!

This mountain is not a tourist destination like Kili. Sure, lots of people come (thousands summit the lower peak, Lenana, which involves at worst a class 3 scramble), but they're used to mountaineers here. The Diamond Couloir is supposed to be one of the best ice climbing routes in the world. There are literally dozens of famous routes up each of the dozens of sub-peaks here. Given all that, though, fewer than 100 people reach the summit of the highest peak, Batian, each year.

The point, anyway, is that as a climbers mountain, there is no enforced slowness. People who are climbing don't take a week to get to the climbs. We have some options, but to favor my ankle, we'll do a slow approach - Day 1 starts today around 11am and involves an hour or so. Day 2 will be a push up a couple thousand meters. And Day 3 will put us at the Top, or Austrian, Hut at almost 4800 meters. The faster way, were my ankle better, would be to drive the whole way up to camp 1 (the Met Station) and skip Day 1 entirely, easily possible with my already god acclimatization.) Day 4 will be rock climbing if the weather is good. Currently, there's a short noon storm every day, which we need to account for.

My technical guide, whom I'll meet at the Top Hut, is a member of the Mt Kenya Search and Rescue team. I guess I couldn't really ask for a better guide up the easiest route up the mountain. He will make the call, based on weather and experience and what he thinks of my climbing skills when we meet up, on whether we will shoot for the whole project in a single day or whether we will take sleeping gear with us. Taking it (which is slower) ensures 2 days. Not taking it makes a 1 day ascent and descent possible. It's 4-7 hours up, 3-4 hours for the traverse and back to get Batian (which includes a couple pitches up after crossing the top of the glacier - Peter is calling around to see how frozen the glacier is and if its rock hard, I'll rent boots from him so I can don crampons (seems likely given the -15C we're expecting up there... I have an ice axe waiting for me, too)), and an hour or two to rap down. 8-13 hours, but if the weather looks like we need to spend a couple hours waiting out some snow, then that becomes an instant 2-day trip.

Oh, I found out how one makes 20 anchors and still manages a 4 hour ascent - the anchor spots are always the same and there are well known anchor locations so that it's an arrive, place, belay action that takes someone familiar with the route no time at all...

On the way back, Day 5, we'll take the long, beautiful route out, as much to protect my ankle from the steep route as to let me see the prettier side of Mt Kenya. This will take 2 days as well...

So, that's the plan. There's buffer time in case we need to wait out the weather, etc. I have no idea when I'll have signal, so I'll have to let you know how things went maybe when I'm back, maybe as they happen...

Woohoo!

Joel, excited!

Here come the clouds again...

Yay! My first view of Mt Kenya!

Yeah, well... Look carefully, you'll see the massif below the clouds. :p

Joel

Arusha-Nairobi-Batian View Inn

Hello!

Long bus ride, followed by a long car ride. It was 270km from Arusha to Nairobi, but more than half the road was out, so we were mostly on dirt roads. The bus was surpisingly pleasant - one size up from the matatu, it seats 21 US style (an isleway so people in the back can exit in an emergency), or 28 with the isle seats in place. And we only had 19. But off_roading about 100 miles in a bus is the suxxors, especially when at the end of the bus ride, you meet a guy with a taxi, and then you ride for 200 more km. Ugh!

The Kenya-Tanzania border is less secure than the California-Nevada border. At least in Cali, they ask if you have fruit! We arrived at the 'leaving TZ' side and dropped off customs forms and ou passports for stamping. One woman stood at the back of the line and when a few of us had finished, she joined us in walking to the Kenyan side. We went into the building for stamps, she went straight to the bus. No record of leaving or entering and it was never checked. Nice..

On the taxi ride, we passed many vendos hocking fresh fruit. My guide bought a bunch of pineapples and mangos and then bought me and himself sliced, peeled pineapple. All the alarms in my head wee ringing. I already got the shits once and went through my antibiotics course, which means the flora in my stomach/intestines is probabl devastated and i'm susceptible to getting sick, right? But I didn't want to offend... And pineapple is so good... So I accepted his gift and ate it. Mmmmm, sweetest pineapple ever! I sure hope I don't pay for this on the mountain!

BTW, I'm wearing a cotton t-shirt. A day of bus/taxi in 80s-90s weather... Damn, I smell worse than when I got off Kili!

OH, speaking of which, my guide says to expect -15 C (about 0 F) at the summits of Nelion and Batian (the 2nd and 1st highest peaks of Mt Kenya). He says we'll talk details tonight, but if I'm a solid climber, he thinks I can grab Nelion in 4-6 hours (20 pitches), traverse to Batian in 2 hours (about 3 pitches plus crossing the top of a glacier), return across the gap in the same time, and rappel down quickly, making it a 1-day (albeit very long) affair, avoiding carrying sleeping gear.

Sounds crazy. Looking forward to the discussion tonight!

OH^2: My guide boasts that Kenya makes the best coffee in the world. I told him I was woefully dissappointed in TZ. He promises to show me real coffee. Mmmmm...

Joel

The final score... Sprained ankle... Sigh...

Hello,

So, a perfect trip. I learned a lot about myself (as if I didn't know already that 90% of this stuff is mental and i'm so pig-headed that of course I can make it up anything...), about gear, etc., and I had a great time. Probably would have enjoyed it more with some constant company (ahem, my friends, that means some of you have to get off your butts!), but I eally had a good time. The excitement and exposure of the Western Breach, especialy after getting lost in the clouds, will stand out in my memory. Watching James, Babu, Joshua, and Simon climb crazy shit that their insane mazungu client lead them to, will also stick in my mind. Oh, and suffocating in the cater of the tallest free standing volcano in the wold will also, painfully, stay in my memory for a long time.

This was an excellent adventure and despite the high cost (relative scale, I talked to many mazungu on the mountain and I paid orders of magnitude less for my almost self-sufficient trip), I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know there are great mountains to climb in the US, in South America, Europe, etc., but Kili is an interesting place, and I'd love to show it to my friends.

Now, back to Day 8. My muscles were sore from Day 7. James and I jogged much of the way from the peak to 3100 meters - decending by jogging more total distance than you can find almost anywhre in the continental 48 states. My thighs and knees were beat to heck. I mean they felt like mush.

So on Day 8, when we had about 2000 meters to descend, I knew it would be easy but painful. Well... The surface was slick mud and while not thaaaat bad, weak muscles conspired. I rolled my ankle pretty good and heard a slight crunching noise. Ouch! I tested the ankle and it felt fine, but weak. I continued along, and Of Course, I rolled it two more times before the end. Now, as Turtle will attest, I don't believe in sprained ankles. Oh wah, you stretched the tendons and ligaments, stop complaining and get on with it. So of couse I assumed that my superhumansuperflexible body would take care of things.

I got to my crappy Arusha hotel and took a shower. Odd... I had dirt engraved into the left pointy-bone of my left ankle. Engraved! As in, when I rolled my ankle, the pointy bone at the outside of the ankle hit dirt hard enough to embed that crap into the ankle skin. Wow, lots of roll. Oh well.

I sat on my bed and emailed for an hour or two, waiting for my friend to show up. When h messaged that he was here, I stood up and fell back onto the bed. What?!?! Maybe one of the multitude of roaches or other bugs bit my ankle to make it hurt that bad? I stood up again. Nope, no bugs, it's the fact that my left ankle is 3x the size of my right that appears to be the problem. Sigh...

Now I know how Turtle mnanged to walk most of Tenaya with a sprained ankle. The body, like me, doesn't believe in them and doesn't create pain until the ankle becomes as big as a thigh. Stupid body... Argh. I would have borrowed a walking pole and not abused the heck out of the ankle if only my body had let me know...

OK, body, you have 2 days to heal and then we're climbing a much harder mountain than this wussy ankle twisting 19k peak!

Erf!

At least I scheduled 2 days recovey time and no porters to carry my crap :D

Joel

Off Kili

Hello,

The last day of the hike is almost not worth mentioning. Last night, we camped right above the rain forest, so it rained on us. Got up this AM and walked a steep dirt trail that eventually became a road and walked out of the park. Well, and got the cheesiest 'certificate' of completion (looks like a 3rd grader could make it).

Nothing much to say other than that... I'll post closing thoughts later, my battery is dying now.

I'm in Arusha and at 7:30am, I'm bussing to Nairobi. Yay, more 3rd world busses! Hahahah... I wonder what would happen if you put you average 3rd world bus driver on a race track...

Joel

Day 7 - Crater to Summit to Mweka camp

Hey,

So picking up where I left off... It was *COLD* before sun-up. So cold, in fact, that I decided lots of hot tea was more important than catching the sunrise esp since my camera does nothing well but document stuff (its a full moon, the most picturesque time of every day is night when the clouds clear and there's a perfect view of Kili and her glaciers lit up by the moon, stars in the background inches off the sides of the mountain, or all the towns slightly lit by 3rd World low level lighting. All that stuff comes out as pure black with the Oly Stylus 1050.).
We drink up tea and head out. Knowing that we have some rocks to negotiate, I don the trusty 5.10s. BIG MISTAKE. I take 10 steps on the permafrost and my toes start to freeze. I assume they'll recover as the blood starts flowing (that's how its been for the last couple days). Nope. As we climb, I feel stronger and stronger. 1000 ft above the crater floor, I'm back to being ready to run a marathon. Damn, it must really have been sulfer or something because 1000 ft up should have thinned the air, not made me feel strong.

Strong as I feel, I'm starting to panic. I've lost al sensation in the left thumb toe, and the next two are feeling frozen. Also, the pad of my foot is starting to freeze. On the right foot, its my pinky toe that goes first, then the 4th and then the 3rd that start to freeze. It dawns on me that the problem isn't the fact that its hell-frozen-over cold, it's the damn tunda we're walking on. In that case, the thicker running shoes will help even though they flow air like there's no tomorrow. I also have one of those heat pads (air activated) for emergencies. I sit on a frozen rock, pull off a shoe and the outside socks down to the skin-layer sock, and stick the heat pad on the sock under my pad. The nice freezing wind isn't helping, but I have 0% sensation in my thumb toe. The rest, on both feet, hurt. Pain is good, no feeling at all is frozen. I smack the feet to get circulation and don the runners. We pass the summit sign, take a couple pics, and start running. I tell James we have to book to (1) get blood flowing in my toe or (2) find someone with hot water in which case, I can do an assessment of my toe and if its not actually frozen tissue (it wasn't hard as a rock, just zero sensation) then I can warm it with 100 deg F water. We take off down the mountain and get to the first camp in 90 minutes. OH, I forgot to mention, my crew aside from my guide skipped the summit, hitting Gilman Point without going over the top. We caught them as we entered Barafu camp. My feet were no longer cold. At all. I was drenched with sweat.

We moved to a good spot and I saw a group of whitey, so I dropped pack where my guys were going to make breakfast, and jumped down the rocks to say hello. Chatted fo a couple minutes and wished them luck and then ran up to the rocks and jumped up them back to my guys. I overheard 'how could he go up the rocks as fast as he went down them?' A few minutes later, they passed by with the typical (infuriatingly slow) polepole walk (if I had to guess, it's under 1mph on flat, smooth trail).

We headed down some more and I took pics of how terrible the trail was - will post later. What a long day - we climbed over 1000 ft and then decended over 9000 ft. I think that's like coming down from the summit of Whitney and continuing to Lone Pine, except 5000 ft higher. Yes, my knees are destroyed and my quads aren't talking to me. Or rather, they're screaming at me.

Ok, time to find signal. Once again, all the vodacom folks have perfect signal.

Joel

Day 6 adendum...

Hey,

Might as well start with what I missed last night in the cold. 15.x to 18.x thousand feet. All previous days were easy and almost boring. Not so, day 6! We had about 2500 ft of gain and at the easiest, it was class 3. At the hardest... Well, more on the 5.3 free solo later.

We started off on a very enjoyable scramble reaching for some pretty lofty, but cloud covered goals. Hmm, I guess I could have said we were reaching for the clouds... Anyway, this trip and the constant clouds and constant rain at low altitudes (I'm writing this at 3100 m in a dumping rain storm) tells me that next time, we avoid the rainy season like the plague! I'd rather compete with the hordes of tourists than NOT SEE ANYTHING!

Back to the story. We were scrambling good class 3/4, so of course the team gave up on reminding me of pole pole (slowly). We came upon a part of the route that climbed sharply but it looked like an ice cascade, not something that a bunch of guys in 15 yr old leather boots and a jackhole in well worn 5.10 approach shoes should be messing with. James scouted another route and got stuck 3 ft off the trail. But his judgement seemed good, so I took over. I scrambled onto the route and started cimbing. It was very sustained, technical climbing, made difficult by the lack of oxygen, the 33 lbs of pack (long story short, the guy the porters in several companies have taken to calling commando muzungu, took lunch food and a thermos full of hot tea in addition to the standard 14 kg pack I carry), the break-away nature of the rock (think crappy Pinnacles rock), etc. It felt like 5.7, but I tend to over rate climbs under adverse conditions and it certainly wasn't class 4 with about 100 ft of non-stop moves.

As I finished, I looked back and Joshua (cook) was half-way up and positive that he could move no further. I found a rock to park my pack against and I dropped down the climb to meet him. He looked a bit scared and wanted a hand so I braced mysel and reached out. Three assists later, he cleared the route. He only "wore" a backpack, no porter load, and he was sure the porters couldn't make it, and we knew James couldn't. I scouted more routes and found what looked ideal. Sustained Class 4/5.0. Meanwhile James (guide, so no porter load either) found a route that he could make it up.

I dropped down the 5.0 I found and met Simon. I grabbed the 22~25 kg bag (varies by food/trash/gas, etc) off his neck and immediately wondered not only whether it was humanly posible to climb today's route with that load on your neck plus about 15~20 kg of your personal needs in a backpack, but also if I could manage to be helpful! Holy crap! I took the load, stuck it against the wall, made a move or three, hauled the bag up, repeat until we made it about 100 ft up... Back onto the "trail". Babu, carrying a similar load, but having been climbing the mountain for 20+ years, as many as 20 times a year, remembered an alternate route and went after that. James and Joshua maintained position with Babu and sent me to follow Simon. Well...

Simon didn't know where to go any more than I did. Look around for trail and follow it. Argh. After a while, I remarked that the scree we were on was getting close to vertical and it felt unsafe. About 5 minutes later, about a football field to our right, James, Joshua, and Babu called out to us: we were way off track. Crap! Crossing 100 yards of near vertical scree is not... Crapcrap, there goes Simon. He went for a 60 meter slide and came to a stop uninjured among some big boulders. Lucky for him, those boulders also provided a reasonable way to cross the scree I decided NOT to test my luck by seeing if I could survive the 200 ft slide of death, so I continued to make slow progress. Some places, nothing stuck and you couldn't 'press' into the wall to prevent slides. In those places, I controlled my slides with dug in hands and toes and aimed for likely suspects. Sometimes they tuned out to be just what I wanted, somwtimes they inceased my sliding mass. Exciting to say the least.

When I finally got to the finger of rock I was supposed to be on, it took a few hundred feet of class 4 to get onto the 'trail' which mixed class 3 and 4 for long distances.

Very awesome day and so far, by far, the most memorable, even if visibility was a hundred feet or less most of the time!

Reaching the crater was kinda anti-climactic. A big giant field of permafrost with the remnants of some big glaciers. We dropped gear and climbed the mountain in the middle of the crater (Hans Peak? - they all say its pronounced hash peak, so I guess I need to look it up) where we found a great view of a giant hole with a fearsome smell of sulfur.

Now that reminds me. I felt rock solid up the Western Beach. Best adventure in ages. Hard, but I was strong and could sprint when necessary, could shoot up a climb, could drag a 22kg bag while technical climbing, etc. BUT, a few hundred feet higher, in the crater, walking up a very non-steep, very easy climb, I felt wasted. I could barely move. I chalked it up to the end of adrenalin

But that night, frezing cold aside, I couldn't sleep and constantly awoke needing O2 desperately. The crew said the sulfer displaced a lot of the O2 and the effective amount of oxygen was really low. But... I smelled sulfer when we could see into the pit. I didn't smell it elsewhere in the crater.

I feel like I wrote already about the cold..Yes, f'ing cold. That comes into play on the summit bit...

Joel

Day 6- holy crap!

The Western Breach.

I do not recommend this route to casual tourists especially at a fringe season. This is a route.. Exposure, climbing moves, scree with good long death slides, etc

Ok, I givee up writing. More later. I'm in mmmy sleeping bag with everything on. Down jacket included. The soft sand turned rock hard within seconds of falling in the shade. My fingers froze so fast it tookk 30 mins to set up my 2 min setup bivy. It took alnost an hour to boil a pot of water b/c the gas is so cold. If I had to guess, based on my experience, -10 F no wind right now. Spit doesn't freeZe in the air but it does within a few seconds of hitting the ground.

This is an f'ing cold end to an f'ing cold but freaking awesome day. Highlights include a half pitch free solo 5.3 at 17k, significant class 4 / 5.0 sustained at 18k, all because the correct route was completely snow and ice covered, thick and slick...

Good night, no signal here, more tomorrow.

Joel

Interesting situation... 2 of 4 porters are showing signs of AMS

Hello,

Dunno when I'll brave the elements next, but I thought i'd share this. Babu (or Mzee which mean "grandpa" or "old man" respectively, because he's 43, real name is Gerald) has a strong headache and a desire to do nothing more than sleep. Simon is not as bad, but has a throbbing headache. Simon was willing to take my aspirin, Babu still resists. Since we will have dinner soon, he wants to see if that makes him better. Heh, in a funny role reversal, it's the muzungu who is insisting that the porters drink more fluids - warm water or tea (warm because its freezing and I don't think we should waste energy warming cold liquids in our stomachs).

Babu decided to show he is fine by doing a water run - its about 8 minutes away to the runoff from the glacier which should be making water still since we've occaisionally seen sun on the upper reaches of the mountain. Ahh, he made it back... And brought water with him.

Just btw, I feel great. When I arrived at Arrow Glacier Camp, I developed a slight headache that immediately subsided with two cups of tea. I'm quite surprised how little effect the altitude is having, given how messed up I get at 14k ft in California. I guess I owe it all to Diamox, the best drug ever!

Babu feels better after eating, but we'll see how things go tomorrow. I suggested that anyone not feeling well should meet us not tomorrow, but the day after (lower altitude, they'll be able to sleep in porter huts), and we'll just take pre-made food (lunch boxes) up to the crater.

More tomorrow, I suppose!

Hmm, bored, sitting in the tent with the porters. One of the porters called his girlfriend of over 3 years (damnit, vodacom has way better signal than zain) and a dude answered. The porter (name withheld for his sake) asked 'who are you' (duh, in Swahili) and the guy hung up. The porter said he trusts his girlfriend, and meanwhile, the rest of the crew said no way, she's cheating. So he called back and she answered. She explained that she left her phone out and some stranger answered it (err... Come up with a better story, sheesh). Here in the tent, his sim ran out of money, so he scrambled to transfer credit from one of the other guys. A quick call back and the dude answered again. Another call back and the girlfriend answered and my crewmate said 'have fun with your boyfriend, we're over.' She laughed at him and said she was already spending her time with her new boyfriend.

Kinda sucks to happen while you're 16k ft up... What makes it worse here in Africa is the prevelence of AIDS. The crewmate is now concerned about his own health. Also, the dating process takes on a strange new ritual because of this disease. First, the guys have a 6-month break rule so they don't rush into something stupidly. Then, you get to know a girl well enough that you feel confident that you understand her sex life. If it seems safe, then you go get tested for AIDS together...

OK, last night my plan was to search for signal before heading to my bivy (found it last night, read mail, but couldn't send this for some reason...) and crawl into my vapor barier (over wool clothes, which I did until I was completely sweaty from the waist down... Warm at least, then slid the barrier down) and stuff the down jacket in my biggest drybag so worst comes to worst, its dry and fluffy.

Well, the problem with the plan is my head. I went to bed with a wool hat and a nylon hat but my face froze. I made the always regrettable decision to favor immediate warmth over dryness and zipped the vent mostly closed. Not enough. I pulled the drawstring on the bag all the way to 1" open, and the air coming in that was too cold. Argh. So I curled up a little, making my head come below the shoulder girth of the bag. This woked for warmth but gave me some claustrophobia responses... I also ran out of good air and had to cause cold air to enter the bag every couple hours.

Hmm. I need to learn what others do in such extreme cold, because people sleep in much colder places than this! How do you heat the face air? I think the bivy is part of the problem. There is no warmed air around me - right above my face is the only vent. Last night, anything wet we put in the foyer part of the tent (covered by the rainfly but outside the very breathable tent) froze quickly, but water, even small amounts, inside the tent (3/4 season LaFuma 3-4 person tent, woefully inadequate for the rain - had they known it would rain that first night, they said they would have brought the much heavier waterproof tent they have) stayed liquid. Mayhaps the bivy should remain an above freezing device? But it's also not a great rain device. So above freezing and good weather device? Might as well get a lighter bivy...

Joel, getting out of bed now, will look for signal to send this...

Damn White Necked (Ringed?) Ravens

Hey,

They're everywhere and I haven't really cared, but this AM while drinking coffee in the main tent, we heard a bad noise. I ran out to find a stupid raven tearing through my gear. I'd left the bivy cracked open for better venting/drying. There's a poke mark where the raven nipped the screen and then he got the zipper and opened the bivvy all the way. He'd removed my gloves and dry bags and was tearing through my toiletries bag. He'd already pulled out my lenses. Unfortunatley, I ran out with not enough clothes, so I tossed everything back in, and put some big rocks on top to keep it secure. Then I ran into the tent, no pics.

No luck with sun today - it's 9:15am and we have total cloud coverage and strong winds. I would guess about 10 degrees F right now, windchill, since I have only my skin to guage. All wet stuff even in the light is still frozen solid - unusual for this trip. Mornings after 8 am are usually reasonable. We're going to get a slightly late start to maximize temps and give everyone a chance to hydrate. Everyone claims to be feeling well..

OH, lenses reminds me - since day 2, I've given up on lenses. I'm way too filthy to be sticking lenses on. So I'm wearingmy glasses. They darken in bright light and surprising to me, they get as dark as dark sunglasses. Unfortunately, they allow a lot of light around them - they ain't glacier glasses. If I take a snow-bound trip, I'll want surgery or prescription inserts for some good wrap-around glasses. I like having vision all the time and no need to clean hands in ice solid water all the time... Plus my eyes feel nice and relaxed.

After this trip and before I forget, I should take notes on all my gear. I'm learning a lot.

Joel

I lied... Its f'ing cold.

So... I just sent a blog post about the temps. I sent that from inside the tent we'd been cooking in. I went out to find signal and instantly froze. I took this pic of what I mean about fog. But the temps have DROPPED. It's 2:50pm and I am wearing a 140, 180, 260, and 320 weight wool tops plus my 800-fill down top, a 320-weight wool hood plus a thick nylon balaclava, my Outdoor Research gloves and overgloves, 200-weight wool pants with thermal undies and nylon pants, plus two pairs of wool injinji socks and some thick wool oversocks. All that's left in my clothes bag are my eVent waterproof top and bottom and my nylon top.

I froze in about 2 minutes outside.

Now if I had to guess, I'd put it at about -15 - 0F (-26 - -18C, which my team agrees to). Tonight is going to be cold - if it drops another 10-15 degrees, and the wind picks up, it will certainly test my gear to the limit!

Oh, and while I was sending the last emails, for lack of a better way to describe it, my phone's screen froze? I poked it with my fat gloved hand and I lost about 2% of the pixels a shape that looks like an old school rooftop tv antenna. Dunno how i'm going to send this since I need to walk around with the phone exposed to see where I have signal. Maybe find signal and then shove the phone in my pants for aminute, then hit send? I'm in the group tent right now...

All but one of the guys is passed out and the one is looking for a radio station, something he does all the time, every day. Crap, it just started snowing (hailing? Heavy, hard sounding snow).

Joel, wishing I never described the weather as fair!

Day 4, 5 - Shira 2, Lava Tower, Arrow Glacier Camp

Hello,

There isn't much to say about that relatively easy day. I had no good pictures of the camp, though, and I was able to snap one from the spire I scrambled up today at Arrow Glacier Camp Zoom in and you can see a bunch of tents and bathrooms, with a lava tower to the left. That's the camp I was at and that is the spire I climbed for good signal yesterday. Turns out there's an easy class 2/3 route up it, I didn't have to make it as hard as I made it (duh, eh?).

The one weird thing yesterday was being at the highest point I'd ever been at, knowing I had another vertical mile to ascend. Now that I'm at Arrow Glacier Camp, it's still daunting to look up at the Breach 2500 feet above. Tomorrow will be a tough day...

Joel