Day 5: Mountain Day 3

Shira Camp, 3840m ASL
Awoke to another frosty but clear morning. More restless sleep - partly due to oxygen deprivation and more hard ground. Today's hike was highlighted as the 2nd-toughest behind the summit climb; 15km in total and an ascent of the Lava Tower - 4630m ASL.

My knee was feeling OK after some Ice Gel and stretches, though I had a dull headache from the altitude. After a hot breakfast we set off into the sunshine. From Shira Camp the trail lead up a long, long hill - not steep or rocky, just long and trudging.

Trudging is really the only way to describe the hike - guides and porters constantly tell you "po-le po-le" which is Swahili for "slowly". Even on flat surfaces you're just inching along. It has apoint though, as the slower you go the less likely you are to suffer altitude sickness.

After several long hours of trudging through the rocky alpine wastes, we scaled a ridge and were treated to the soul crushing sight of the Lava Tower, still a couple of kilometres away and several hundred metres above us. An hour or so later we arrived, and it was one of the most awful places I've ever been. It was extremely cold, very windy, stunk like stale piss and had hungry aggressive ravens hanging around.

By now I was really feeling the altitude - mild nausea and light-headedness, plus the dull headache I'd had since day 1. We stopped at the Tower to eat our packed lunch, but all we had was a stale peanut butter sandwich, a leg of chicken (yuck - how it survived 3 days up the mountain I don't know!), and a squashed banana.

Despite the nausea I managed to stomach a few morsels, but we left fairly hastily due to the piss smell and the very light snow shower that started.

Thankfully the afternoon's walk was easier - mostly downhill from the Tower, up and down a few ridge lines before a long steep rocky descent into the Barranco Valley where our night's camp was.Read more