Mount Kilimanjaro

Day 6: BARAFU to SUMMIT to MWEKA CAMP
19,340’~5,895m ∙ 13 mi~21 km (5 km ascent/ 12 km descent) ∙ 7-8 hrs ascent~4-6 hrs descent
Tonight is the night! A midnight start to conquer the highest point in Africa. This section of the route is considered one of the steepest on the non-technical paths of Kilimanjaro. It is a 6-7 hour hike to Stella Point in order to see the sunrise. We continue our way to the summit between the Rebmann and Ratzel glaciers. We head in a northwesterly direction and ascend through heavy scree towards Stella Point on the crater rim. This can be the most mentally and physically challenging portion of the trek. From Stella Point you can see the summit; just 1 hour to Uhuru Peak and the rooftop of Africa! We then descend down to Mweka Camp for dinner and celebration.

All our hiking throughout the trip has paid off and made Kilimanjaro easy in one sense. The hiking was short and not very steep and on well groomed trails. We only actually walked 62km over 7 days. The troubles came from the painstakingly slow pace. We walked at 1km/hr or less most days. One member in our group was 72 and even complained about the pace. The pace had a means to an ends as the slower you go the better you acclimatize. I don't think we broke a sweat on the first 5 days. The real challenge came on summit day. We were awoken at 11pm to start our final approach a midnight. Thankfully we had accidently planned our hike to coincide with a full moon so visibility was very good. I didn't even use my headlamp for most of the night. The difficulty came from a few things; 1 lack of sleep, we had little or no sleep; 2 it was very cold and windy, maybe minus 20 with the wind chill; 3 we walked so slowly our extremities got cold and it was a mental drain walking for 9 hours. 7 up and 2 down. Thankfully the sun was up on the descent and we were able to strip off layers quickly. Our whole team completed the climb which was great.Okumaya devam et