Day 7: Mountain Day 5

Karanga Camp, 4035m ASL

Today's task was a relatively short uphill hike to Barafu Camp, aka base camp for the summit. We headed off at 9am and made good progress up the long slopes. As usual, the hut we were making for was actually further off than expected, forcing us to descend another rocky valley before a trudging ascent to the camp.

Barafu is by far the highest camp, nearly 700m above the previous camps. Thankfully we're pretty well adjusted to the altitude, and we arrived in Barafu at 12pm. It's high on a rocky desolate ridge, with the summit trail looming high above us.

Unfortunately our reasonable chemical toilet hadn't made it up to Barafu, so we had our first encounter with an African squat toilet. Not recommended!

Today also gave us our first taste of Kili's inclement weather, with a multiple-hour snowstorm. Nothing too heavy, just constant tiny snowflakes.

At the moment we're having a several hour rest before an early dinner, sleep at 6pm and the start of our summit assault at midnight. We're in good spirits despite the snow and cold, our muscles are so far holding up to the challenge and no blisters etc yet. Also had a boost from the returning 6-day trekkers - all 3 had made the summit overnight. For now though, we wait.Read more