Route:
Uhuru Peak to Barafa Camp to Mweka Camp 

Time:
6.5 hours total 

Outfit:
Dont care right now.

 

Well. My. Legs. Are. Fucked.

 

The 6 hour midnight climb to the summit was fine. It was more the 6.5 hours of descending we did today. I wrapped up all of my toes because they kept smacking the front of my boots every step down the mountain and my knees are like fuck you asshole.

 

The descent took place over the entirety of the day. The initial descent of 1300m give or take from the summit to Barafu Camp was pretty tiresome. T and I ended splitting up. She stayed back with Tim and I went ahead with Kanye. Kanye and I made it back about 20 or so minutes faster (T was incredibly tired). Keep in mind we had just spent the past 6 hours climbing to the summit in pitch black. When I got to camp, I felt like I had just run a marathon. When T finally arrived back, we took a nap for about an hour and a half and then had a vegetable stew Saiedy cooked up while we packed up our stuff. This was around 9:40am. It felt like 5 in the afternoon. At around 11:30 we left Barafu Camp and began our second descent of the day.

 

This one sucked. It just dragged on forever and the second half was a dried up river (turns to a river during rain season) that mostly consisted large rocks that destroyed our knees. Mweka camp couldnt come soon enough. We stumbled in at around 3:30pm after taking several breaks to ease our pain. I wish I had brought knee wraps. Laying down has never felt so good. We have hiked for 12 hours today and its not even 6:00pm yet.

 

Tim says tomorrows hike to the base should only be 2-3 hours. I really hope hes telling the truth.

 

Update: 7:00pm
Saidi just cooked us a rice volcano with half a hard boiled egg in the crater and a tomato slaw type deal on the side and a bowl of baked beans.

 

From up here, you can see the curvature of the earth. 

 

 

Temu leading the way back down.

 

Some of the remaining glacier that will soon be gone amidst a frozen wasteland.

 

A closer look at the main glacier atop Kilimanjaro.

 

Almost to Camp 5. Where we took our first break of the day.

 

Temu and Teresa look on at a stream of porters making their way up to Camp 5.

 

A stream of porters on their way up to Camp 5.

 

A helipad neither T or I had to use thankfully

 

Every step was the worst step of my life.