The Africa Series - Summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro

Overcoming The Hardest Thing I Have Ever Done…

All seemed quiet and well, that is until our lead guide Amani said: “Alright, let’s go!”...

Hello, Explorers!

When I first agreed to climb Kilimanjaro I didn’t fully understand what was entailed as part of the experience. Everyone I had spoken to about it seemed to worry so much about what was going to happen while on the mountain. People seem to confuse it with Mount Everest, or they always link the two together within the same conversation. My family worried significantly about how the altitude factors would affect me, and how my body could carry me all the way to the top. Little did I know how much work and effort it would be to train for this gargantuan event. As I did my research, I discovered many blogs and reviews that described the climb differently, ranging from easy to difficult. It really depends on the individual and their standard of physicality.

Read more about Choosing Africa & Kilimanjaro As Your Destination.

The Physicality

Although this hike was geared towards a hiker, I myself, am not said person. I prepared for a little more than a year in hiking hills, mountains, national parks, and different types of terrain that could be similar to what we would find in Africa. I went to the gym twice a week during the weekdays, and during the weekends I would go hiking for very long hikes at a time to build up my stamina. I needed to feel what it felt like to be exhausted, and still be able to hike the extra mile. It was important to push myself past my breaking point so that my range of limitation could be expanded.

My body began to tone up in ways it never had. My legs became stronger and more stable. My arms became strong as I pushed each pole through the gravel and into the ground for stability. Breathing thin air in places of high altitude trained my lungs to understand what it is like to be over 6,000 feet high. Perhaps the most important aspect of the training was to just be in high altitude completely. Coming from the San Francisco Bay Area, which is at sea level, is an extreme disadvantage, this is why I had to train as hard as I could to ensure that my body was going to be able to handle being in extreme conditions. I was going to be completely out of my comfort zone.

The Climbing Company (ClimbKili)

Guides, Porters, Cooks, Waiters, and Sanitation Attendants. My highest respects go to this amazing 35+ person staff & crew that got us to the top. As a person who had never camped out before, I was told that this would be “glamping”. Well let me tell you, this was certainly “glamping” at its finest. 

All of our Porters would carry the heaviest of loads imaginable on the napes of their necks and shoulders.

They would rush past us to get to our nightly camp hours before we did to ensure that everything would be set-up by the time we arrived. Leading us daily were our four Guides. Usually, our lead guide (Rodrick) would be in the front showing us which path to take or the pace in which we should be walking. “Pole, Pole” (which means slow, slow, in Swahili) would often be heard throughout the day, along with his singing to keep our spirits up. Our head guide was Amani, he would usually change positions when needed, but his leadership presence was always there to guide us. Amani would usually brief us nightly on the type of hike that we would be doing tomorrow. Our two other guides, Dismas and Sosta, were always in the back right behind the last person making sure they don’t fall behind or become forgotten. We always hiked in one straight row.

Once we got to our nightly camp, we would see the comforting sight of our orange tents already set-up, with our belongings inside, and our sleeping mats unrolled. We were greeted with a refreshment and told when dinner would be ready. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all provided, made freshly on the mountain by our cooks, and were abundant in portions. Although African food is nothing to write home about, we were all pleasantly surprised with what was served for our meals as it rotated every couple of days, and what could be accomplished while on a mountain. 

This is an example of some of our meals:

Breakfast: Egg omeletes, crepes, toast (with all the fixings), fruit, coffee, tea, and juice.

Lunch: Soup (it was phenomenal!), sandwiches, skewers, curry, samosas, coffee, and tea.

Dinner: Soup, potatoes, pasta, rice, fish, chicken, meat stew, coffee, tea, and fruit.

We would be woken up daily at 7:00 a.m. by our two waiters with coffee or tea to start our mornings. Water would always be filtered and, made available to us during meal times. The restroom was a small green tent with a compostable toilet that was stocked with toilet paper, and, tended to regularly. We were incredibly grateful to our sanitation attendant and, lucky to have this luxury, especially for all the women.

Now for the best part… Our staff and crew would sing for us before we begin our daily hike. Not just one song, but they would all perform for 10 minutes! Their chants, dancing and, energy would help us start our day in the best way possible. We have so many fond memories of this fun and electric convivial way to begin our day. I will be posting the link soon of the video on my youtube channel so you can see exactly what I am referring to.

My Fellow Hikers

I find that in many situations, the people who are in your group can be crucial to the type of experience you may have. This goes for any situation. Imagine going to a sports event and being surrounded by those crazy-spirited fans, the experience is loud, thrilling and absolutely exhilarating. Now, imagine going to a party and conversing with overly-critical, anti-social, and negative guests. The experience changes drastically and can ruin the overall feeling that you receive from it, or it can enhance your memories to last a lifetime.

The group that we would be spending an entire week with consisted of eight people in total. Four women, and four men. Time for character profiles! 

Ages 18-35...

• Diana: That’s me! An amateur hiker turned semi-pro, especially after this experience.

• Kyle: My husband. An avid hiker who loves the outdoors, pro-traveller (71 countries!), charismatic, and has an infectious energy that made our group laugh like no other!

• Emily: One of our best friends. She lives in Colorado (has the advantage of being active in altitude!), an avid hiker and trail runner, and a great conversationalist during long days.

• Sam: The tech guy in our group. He documented everything with his GoPro and was curious about the many facts the mountain had to offer.

• Satara: A music teacher, high-energy, would break out into song throughout the day, and is married to Sam.

• Thomas: A very tall college student, fit (even though he didn’t train), active in his community, studying to become a youth pastor and, often led us into prayer before our meals.

The classics...

• Jim (Jamesie): Thomas’s father, previously hiked Kilimanjaro when he was younger, celebrated his birthday while on the mountain, a lawyer who has worked on some very interesting cases, a Floridian, and the voice of reason whenever we had questions to ask.

• Danette: A nurse, a solo female traveler with an impressive travel repertoire. She has even hiked to the base camp of Everest.

Our climbing group all ended up being extremely positive, high-energy when needed, generous, kind, and spiritual. We would help, encourage, support, borrow, lend and, pray for each other. We all were extremely lucky to be with such a dynamic group.

The Climb

Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, it is also 19,341 feet above sea level. It is composed of three distinct volcanic cones and, it is also part of the Tanzania National Parks Authority. There are five ecosystems to go through which are: 

• Bushland / Lower Slope: (2,600 ft - 5,900 ft)

• Rainforest Zone: (5,900 ft - 9,200 ft)

• Heather / Moorland: (9,200 ft - 13,100 ft)

• Alpine Desert Zone: (13,100 ft - 16,400 ft)

• Arctic Zone: (16,400 ft - 19,300 ft)

I did research on the type of gear we had to acquire, the weather, and the temperature that we had to prepare for. I am a person that is warm-blooded so I personally prefer cold weather over hot weather a thousand times over. However, I had never been below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’ve never experienced this type of cold temperature before, believe me when I say, it is very hard to imagine what it feels like, what it looks like and, how it affects your body in every way. All I knew was that I had to have enough layers to keep me warm at all times. 

Our Machame route took seven days to complete. Days 1-5 were all ascensions to get to the base of the summit. The weather was moderate to mild, cold and foggy at times. We would always hike in one straight line to fit in narrow pathways and let porters walk past us. In our straight line, I would usually be in the middle, occasionally in the front. But our placement was ever-changing depending on the conversations we would have. I was always grateful when hiking behind Kyle or Thomas, because of their height, they would cast a big shadow over me that would shield me from the Sun. You are prone to sunburn more easily at high altitude. They always knew when I would hike behind them and would be kind enough to let me trail behind their every step, watch out for me, lend a helping hand and, provide amazing conversation.

Days 1-5 were full of long hours but were completely doable thanks to our extensive training beforehand. I might even say that some days were fun and easy, just long. However, nothing could prepare us for what we would face on Summit Day… Click here to read more about Training for Kilimanjaro. 

The Mentality

I had spoken to hikers that had succeeded in reaching the summit. The experiences ranged from easy to challenging when describing the hike. Many left out some details that could scare away the average person. Details describing altitude sickness, people being helicoptered down, nausea, migraines, lack of appetite, drowsiness, extreme fatigue, exhaustion, vertigo, diarrhea, blurry vision, and more. When describing Summit Day, the answer was always the same… It is hard, you will feel exhaustion that you didn’t know was possible, you will feel the altitude take its toll on your body, you will throw up, the air is thin and, it will be incredibly hard to breathe. 

It was important to create an established mentality in case any of these factors were going to affect me. I had to be mentally strong and make sure I had something to think about and tell myself when I felt tired or experienced any of the aforementioned symptoms. This was going to be the hardest thing I ever had to overcome.

Fears, Phobias, Symptoms & Altitude Sickness

One of the many fears I have always had to face has been fear of the dark. Part of me thinks that it is caused by the unknown of being in the dark. I've been afraid of the dark for a very long time now since I was a child. It could be due to the fact that my mom, sister, and I once lived in a haunted building. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I watch a lot of scary movies, and enjoy reading scary books. Nevertheless, it has been a fear that has always been a part of my life. When I found out that on Summit Day we would have to be hiking in the dark starting at midnight for 6 hours before sunrise, I couldn't help but be wary of the idea. It was going to be a 14 hour day. 14 HOURS!!! 14 hours of hiking, being awake, experiencing symptoms, feeling cold, and exhausted.

I had to prepare myself for what was to come. Thankfully, we were able to light our way up with headlamps as we made our ascension to the summit. There was also comfort in knowing that there would be a lot of people in front of me and behind me that are attempting to summit Kilimanjaro as well.

As we approached closer and closer to our camp for the night our group started to get sick. Some had upset stomachs, which you can only imagine what that entails... And everything that came along with an upset stomach. Migraines, nosebleeds, and nausea were incredibly common. The air was getting thinner and thinner, and there wasn’t anything we could do about it, except adapt the best we could to our environment. On the afternoon before Summit Day, we all looked roughed-up, tired, and disheveled. There was a silence in the air that was absolutely unnerving… the feeling of doom.

The Summit

Summit Day had begun… We were woken up at 11:00 a.m. so that we could get ready and put on our gear. The temperature was 10 Fahrenheit and I had on 6 layers to keep me as warm as I possibly could be while allowing movement. Two layers of gloves since I tend to have cold fingers, and to avoid windburn of any kind. The warmest pair of wool socks, a beanie that was knitted by my mother, and hand warmers to put inside my gloves.

We ate a few biscuits and Ginger Tea for energy and battling the altitude. Our instructions were given, we filled our water bottles for our summit and began our most daunting task yet. As we began our climb, we turned on our headlamps and created a string of lights that bent with all the curves of the mountain. As we approached, we could see in the distance the other lights in front of us moving their way up towards the mountain as well. In the bitter cold, I looked up at the night sky to see the beautiful stars that we have been seeing all the past nights while camping. These stars are unlike any I have ever seen, in any location around the world. They are magnificent. With zero light pollution on Mount Kilimanjaro, you are able to see the entire spine of the Milky Way make a broad belt across the night sky. Constellations that you have only heard of but never actually seen due to your location on our planet were suddenly completely visible, intact, and luminous. It was such a beautiful sight, it was the only thing that put my mind at ease at that moment and started my night hike on a positive note.

Switchback after switchback, it seemed to never end. We would take breaks every 40-45 minutes. A longer string of lights would appear, which meant more climbers. Groups in front of us would stop to the side and take a break. Suddenly the worst feeling of exhaustion came over me. I had never experienced this before, I couldn’t open my eyes. Physically it felt as if my eyelids were so heavy that I couldn’t bring myself to lift them up. Before I realized it, I was hiking with my eyes closed, with only my hiking poles as an aid to help me feel the next steps in front of me. I started drifting off and falling asleep. While falling into my subconscious, I thought to myself, “I am so tired, I can barely stay awake… If I were to slip, or start tumbling down… I wouldn’t have enough energy to do anything about it…”.

The only thing that helped me wake up every few moments were the loud exclamations coming from Kyle, “One step at a time, one pole at a time!”, “you are doing great darling!”, “keep it up!”. He was the last person in our line and his words rang through all our ears. He was the only thing giving us energy when we had none. It felt as if God had given him this radiant inner glow coming from within, energy to help us cope with what was happening. For hours upon hours he was chanting motivational phrases to keep us awake and our spirits high.

Our biggest scare of the day came when our friend became extremely nauseous. She was looking for a place to relieve her nausea, but she started walking away from the group and towards the cliff-side of the mountain. Thankfully, Kyle who was behind her noticed her strange behavior and ran up to her, yanked her backpack from behind, and swung her around towards the safe-side of the mountain. She eventually relieved herself and felt much better afterward. Although the moment lasted a few short seconds, our entire group paused and witnessed a life-saving moment.

Passing by groups that were resting, I kept seeing people being checked by medics in their climbing groups and on the mountain. Some people had their circulation tested because they couldn’t feel their extremities anymore. Several people failed at the “following the finger” test, and although awake, they were unresponsive. I would look at them and kept walking past them because I needed to stay focused, I had no mental space to think about what was happening. 

Suddenly, after what was about six hours, the sunrise starts peeking through. The mountain became illuminated… and there it was…

“Congratulations” seeing those words lit up on a wooden sign took my breath away. My heart started racing, I started to move faster and, my body was moving for me at that point. I came closer and touched the sign. I quickly turned around and saw Kyle come towards me, we embraced and we both broke down in joyous tears. We said how proud we were of each other, how much we loved each other, and let the tears flow down. At that moment, I didn’t feel cold, I didn’t experience any symptoms, nor the exhaustion. I felt all of that melt away. I simply felt joy.

Goodbye, Explorers!

-Dedicated to Kyle Lee (the love of my life & my best friend)