Waking up at Moir hut, both Luke and I were feeling pretty refreshed. This altitude thing, we thought, isn’t so bad after all. After all, we had spent the night at 13,500 feet, and while it was certainly a bit chilly, it wasn’t all that bad. And the view was just getting better day after day. So we were ready to move on to Lava Tower, a little-used camp at 15,000 feet.
Most people bypass Lava Tower, but Luke and I had planned a nine day trip on the Lemosho route, which is a very conservative way to climb Kilimanjaro. I suffer from mitral regurgitation and wanted to get every bit of acclimation possible in before attempting the summit, and we also wanted to allow extra time for of unforeseen delays from weather or anything else.
So Lava Tower was a unique treat for us, a chance to acclimate at 15,000 feet at a camp that very few people see. The hike to get there was only 3-4 hours, but we found that the increase from Moir hut’s 13,500 feet to Lava Tower’s 15,000 feet really made a difference. The hike wasn’t all that difficult, but it was definitely time for pole pole (slowly, slowly). The air at Lava Tower was noticeably thinner than a Moir Hut, and we were pretty exhausted when we arrived.
Again, rather than letting us rest all afternoon, Peter wrangled us for a side hike, ostensibly to get to the edge of one of Kilimanjaro’s glaciers. Luke and I managed about an hour of the side hike, but that was enough, and we did not make it to the glacier. Between the cold, the altitude’s effect on our breathing, and the increasingly large visage of Kilimanjaro itself, we were clearly getting closer to our goal, but the prospect of climbing even further from 15,000 feet was just too much for that day. It was with some relief that we returned to camp for our regular appetizer of tea and popcorn and then another excellent dinner.
That night was the coldest we had yet experienced — I awoke in the middle of the night to the sight of ice coating the inside of my tent, presumably from condensation combined with extreme cold. Yikes. Not a great time to need to empty one’s bladder, but such are the (very cold) indignities of camping on Kilimanjaro. Other than that unwelcome expedition, with enough clothing and burrowing deep into the sleeping bag, I was fine.
We woke at Lava Tower on the morning of day five, with temperatures still very very low. After a quick breakfast, we started the hike down to Barranco camp, which is at a mere 13,000 feet. That hike was pretty quick, maybe two hours. It was a fairly steep downhill, which is always a bit tough and jarring on the body, but it felt good to not be climbing for once.
As we got closer to Barranco, the landscape changed again and plants and trees reappeared. It wasn’t as lush as the rain forest at Mti Mkubwa, but compared to the wasteland of Lava Tower, it felt like a tropical paradise. Once we arrived at Barranco camp itself, it was obvious that more trails to the summit were converging — where we had never seen more than one group before, and had had Lava Tower all to ourselves, there were lots of tents already set up at Barranco, and more people arrived constantly.
After a brief rest, Luke and I headed out with a couple of the porters for our now customary acclimation hike. This was just a short hike to one of the precipices that surround the Barranco camp. It’s a little hard to tell from the picture, but this was the top of a sheer cliff towering about 2000 feet over some kind of valley. The fog made it hard to see, but as we stood near the edge of the cliff, every now and then the fog would part and allow a glimpse of the valley floor far below.
And then a funny thing happened. As we were walking back to camp, it started to hail. Within minutes, the hail was absolutely pounding down on us, which wouldn’t have been so bad except it made the paths fairly slippery. As luck would have it, we were just passing the Barranco hut, where park ranger types live to keep an eye on things. Our porters ushered us into the hut and we sat down to wait out the hailstorm. The two guys stationed at the hut had limited English, and my Swahili was limited to “hot water”, “trail”, and “big tree,” but it was still an enjoyable diversion. Like many other people in Tanzania, they did ask about Barrack Obama and whether he had a chance against Hillary Clinton.
Once the hail let up, we returned to camp for another excellent dinner and early evening. Despite the relatively crowded nature of Barranco camp, it was still a gorgeous setting to spend a day. The tall cliff face that we were atop meant that the clouds were beneath us as we looked out, which was an unusual but pretty bit of scenery.
Tagged as:
hiking,
kilimanjaro
