Kili Pictures - Day 6: Summit Day!

First off let me explain our route - shown on the right.  We started at Kosovo camp (the bottom of the white line) and hiked the white line to the summit.  Then we hiked the black line down past Millennium Camp.  All in one day.  It was a long day.....here is our tale.

We didn't get much sleep before getting up at 11pm on Day 5 to get ready for our summit attempt.  While normally our appetites have been good, we ate very little before heading out.  It was snowing or sleeting most of our 7 hour journey to the summit.  It was really cold, so we were constantly adding layers.

When we finally made it to Stella Point the sun was just coming up.  The pictures were amazing.  And we weren't even at the peak yet.  So we had some warm tea and then continued our journey to Uhuru Peak.  Though the last bit of the walk was slow an gradual we were now about 19,000ft and the altitude was making it hard to breathe.

It was all worth it when we reached the Peak, were able to take in the views, and the enormity of what we had just accomplished.  J brought a sticker from PR to stick up on the sign and then we took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.  I can safely say that our success was well captured.

We were only at the peak for about 20 minutes before we started to head down again.  At Stella Point we shed some layers since it was starting to get hot and then began the trek down.  What only hours ago was covered by a blizzard now had very few traces of snow.  The views were beautiful and it was amazing to see what we had conquered early that day.  

The trail was mostly dirt, lots of loose dirt.  So we did a lot of sliding down, taking advantage of the soft ground to get back to camp as quickly and painlessly as possible.  By the time we got to camp we had taken a beating and we were ready for a break.  Even a nap would have been nice.  

But there was no time for that.  We had lunch, packed up our stuff and headed back out onto the trail.  Our goal was to make it to Mweka camp...another 4 hours of hiking.  It would make our last day easier and shorter, but it would take all the strength left in us to make it.  

The first half of the descent took us to Millenium camp.  It was slow and steady going for most of the way.  Once we passed Millenium camp things took a turn for the worse.  We were hiking a dried river bed that had recently received a lot of rain.  So there was lots of mud, the rocks were slick and you were constantly having to take huge steps down off the rocks to get to the next level.  It was painful, and seemed never-ending and we were certainly finished with this trail long before it was finished with us.  But we took our time and finally made it to camp just before the torrential rain started again.  

There was a river running under our tent and there was mud everywhere.  Worse than it had been the whole trip.  I had vowed to stay in the tent until morning but the cooks had made a local Swahili meal for us so J roused me from my cozy spot in the tent to join the team for our last dinner together on the mountain.  It was an amazing meal so I'm glad I didn't miss out. 

Day 6 - Summit Day to Mweka Camp