What can we say about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro?  It was the good, the bad, and the ugly of experiences. The view from the summit says it all, it's cruel, harsh, and stunningly beautiful all at the same time.

We choose the 6-day Rongai route.  Rongai is a little less crowed, and far more primitive then the more popular Machame  "Coca-cola" route.  We started at the Nalemoru Gate, 6400 feet above sea level (ASL), arriving four days later at Kibo Hut, which is the base camp for the summit climb. Kibo Hut sits at respectable 15416 ASL. While we didn't cover much distance, the altitude made for interesting hiking. The first four days were all the same, hike, eat, hike, eat, hike, eat, and sleep. The pace used to help you acclimatize is call "pole-pole" (pronounced pole'-pole') which in Swahili means slow-slow. We slept and ate in tent, bathed in a bucket, and well we won't talk about the "facilities."  

Summit day is where the fun begins.  We woke at 11pm and started climbing at 12:15 and it was cold and dark.  You had to be careful or the water in your bottles would freeze.  From Kibo Hut to the crater, you climb 3234 feet on scree and rocks. It took us six and half hours to reach Gillman's Point, the first official top.  The climb itself wasn't so bad; it was like going up Old Rag five times in a head wind, with a serve head cold, in the dead of winter.  From Gillman's Point it's a mere 688 feet climb to the Uhuru Peak, "The Top of Africa" 19340 ASL.  We arrived at Uhuru Peak at 8:15 in the morning.  The terrain on top is harsh high desert, rock and glacier.  But one look down and the world is a changed place.  You're above the cloud line looking across Africa; down at Mt. Shira and Mt. Mawenzi (Kilimanjaro's sister mountains); and into Kenya all as the sun is reaching the sky.  But the view from the top is short lived. Your guide gives you enough time to snap a picture and off you go to the tough part.  The climb down is a killer; you scrabble down the rock and scree.  If your legs weren't dead from the climb, they will be from the descent.  

The trip from Kibo to Uhuru and return took 11 and half hours.  You only get a brief rest before descending to your next camp.  From midnight until 4pm, we climbed 3922 feet and descended 7137 feet.  We did sleep well that night!