So these are only a fraction of the pictures I took whilst on the mountain...this is already Day5 I believe, but my SD card tweaked out at Lava Tower and all my fav shots are perhaps lost (if some genius computer dude can't help us retrieve them). So this is what you get for now!
This seemed to be a favorite past-time of mine...well it was more out of necessity than want. Handwashing clothes in freezing river water, then hanging them in the foyer of our tent and draping them on our back packs to dry in the sun (that only worked the first three days, till it started raining constantly).
Baranco Camp with the Breakfast Wall in the background. It's called the Breakfast Wall b/c you climb it immediately after breakfast and use so much energy that you want second breakfast at the top (I was only like fourth breakfast by the top). If you look real close you can see tiny specks of people on the wall.
Kili looming ominously...
We were heading to Karanga for a night, then base camp at 15,000ft was Barafu.
Loving the breakfast wall...feeling great, as was Nick, our Mt. Guide. He has summited around 70 times.
On the wall
Yusuph not loving the rain...porters in the background were essentially running up the wall carrying at least 3x more weight then we were at a snail's pace.
The tortoise rock
Finally!
The mess tent at Karanga...Still feeling super doable at this moment in time, however that night I visited the less than desirable "toilet" more times than I care to share, which left me weak and dehydrated. Therefore the hike from Karanga to Barafu with the elevation increase was the only thing my body could handle...
On the descent, after resting, drinking rehydration salts (YUCK!) and force feeding myself b/c I had no appetite which = no energy. We were literally walking into the clouds...it was surreal!
The helipad for rescuing severe AMS cases off the mountain!
Spanish Moss covered Heather plants on the descent.
Finally, after 4 hours of descending we made it to Mweka camp at roughly 10,000ft. It rained the whole way!
Nick, our Mt. guide, so happy at the morning of our final descent... He was a great guide, very knowledgeable, funny and really pushed us when we wanted to give up.
Our team Kilimanjaro crew. There were 11 porters, 1 cook (stomach engineer), 1 assistant guide and 1 Mt. guide...for 3 crazy Americans! They were a great group! Very quality people!
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