Facing Mt. Kenya

Wednesday, December 26

So here’s the story from A to Z
We’re climbing Mt. Kenya, Jamie, Piper and Me
We’re gonna reach the top on Christmas morning
And when we get up there we’re going to sing
(musical interlude)

That’s the first verse of the rap I made up along the trail up Mt. Kenya…haha, hiking—no, climbing—for 8 hours a day makes for plenty of thinking time and lame songs. So where did you spend your Christmas morning? Probably opening presents and hanging out with family in a warm house. Where was I? Sitting at the top of the second tallest mountain in Africa, Mt. Kenya watching the sunrise after waking up at 2am for an amazing 3 hour climb to the summit in the dark. You could see the entire world it seemed, all the way to the coast and with the full moon, we didn’t even need flashlights to climb the night part. The rock and snow were completely illuminated, it was magical. It took us a total of 4 days to climb up and down the mountain. 2 ½ days up, 1 ½ down. This was one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had, and definitely one of the coldest, but it’s a Christmas I’ll never forget.
We started out on the 23rd taking a long distance matatu to the base of Mt. Kenya. By 3pm we were making our first hike up to the base camp, Old Moses Camp, along with our guide, porters and cook (yes, all of those people
I guess were necessary just to accommodate the 3 of us up this mountain) I thought we were planning on staying in tents, but each day we had a specific camp to get to and there was a bunkhouse there for us to sleep in and hot meals and tea courtesy of our cook. We wondered how many other people would be there since it was Christmas and there were surprisingly a lot. We hiked all along with this guy from Los Angeles who’d traveled all over the world and was taking a month to climb Africa’s mountains. We also met these 3 Finnish sisters a little older than us and working in Kenya and their parents who were visiting for the holiday. Our guide, Isaac was great, if a little bit bossy, who scolded us every meal for not eating enough, but it only looked like we hadn’t eaten anything because they put a mountain of food on our plates each night (no pun intended) and you could hardly make a dent. Every afternoon we’d arrive at the camp at about 2 or 3 and eat dinner and chat with everyone at the camp. At night everyone went to bed early, like 8 or 9 because we were so tired and had to get up early and it was really cold just sitting around anyway. I’d bundle up in nearly all the clothes I brought, tie about 2 scarves on my head and put my 50Ksh Puma hat on top, stuff my hot water bottle down to my feet in the sleeping bag and go to sleep.
In the morning we’d wake up to tea and breakfast, pack up and head off with our guide. He was pretty talkative and pointed out all kinds of animals and birds and plants to us and told us all about them. We sang a few Christmas carols and chatted and were also silent a lot, which was kind of nice. We’d stop for frequent water breaks especially when the climbing was really steep. It was kind of like climbing a steep hill a lot of the time, but other times there were rocks to climb up.
Our Christmas Eve was so much fun. There were probably about 20 people at our camp that night and a lot of us were doing the night climb up to the top to the sunrise in the morning. Nearly all of us were kind of displaced people, mostly foreigners who couldn’t be home for Christmas so everyone was in a good friendly mood with each other. There were some Norwegians who’d brought candles on our table and we sang Christmas carols and did nothing but sit and chat at our big long table with the other people from 3 until we all went to bed around 9. We met a group of about 6 or 7 Peace Corps volunteers-one of the guys went to Western Michigan and we sat around talking about Kalamazoo and the Peace Corps for awhile. He gave me the address of a campsite right on the beach in Mombasa he’s helping manage that just opened. We met some cool Germans, and even though I’ve been in Kenya longer, my German is so much better than my Kiswahili I realized-I could understand so much more of what they were saying. I talked for awhile to this interesting Australian guy who’d backpacked pretty much all over the world and had all kinds of great stories. We were with our outgoing friend from LA again who reminded me a lot of Uncle Brian, some Indians, some Kenyans, etc. All in all, it was a really nice Christmas Eve dinner, playing cards, chatting and munching on our smashed, yet divine-tasting chocolate bars we’d been saving up for the occasion by the candlelight.
The final night climb up to the summit was pretty treacherous and the coldest part since it was still dark, but it was also my favorite climb of the trip. Walking out of the bunkhouse at 3 am all packed up was an amazing sight, the snowcovered mountain right in front of us looking huge and intimidating with a full moon and bright starry sky. We weren’t doing the technical climb route where you use ropes and stuff, but I felt sort of like we needed them a few times. It was super steep and all rocks, our guide would have to climb up sometimes and grab our hands (which eventually were very very numb and not really capable of functioning). We would stop about every 15 min or so to rest, take deep breaths to avoid altitude sickness and dizziness. Jamie started feeling sick and dizzy for part of it, and I didn’t feel so great myself for a little while, but we had warmish water to drink which felt good. Although catching your breath was nice, you’d also not want to stop long because you’d start to freeze again, the wind was so strong and just bitter cold once we climbed past some part really near the top. We saw a huge glacier down this cliff below us (although I didn’t know till the guide told us because it just looked like a bunch of snow) I also thought I was going to die a few times for a second or 2 when I’d take a step and wasn’t quite balanced and not hanging on to rocks and there was nothing but huge cliff and a lake below me. We all made it up and in time for the sunrise, which felt like such an accomplishment because quite a few don’t actually make it, get too sick or tired or something.
Emerging at the top was amazing too, all I could see were the silhouettes through the lightening sky of the 10 or so other people that were up there before us and a big Kenya flag like we’d landed on the moon and then nothing but mountains and clouds for miles below us in the distance. I almost cried, but knew I shouldn’t because it would make my face freeze, instead I just took a picture that I really hope turns out. We sat up there at the top maybe 20 or 30 windy and spiritual minutes watching the sun come up and transform everything-and make us a ton warmer. Tried to make a call home to the US from on top-since it was still 10pm Christmas eve there, but no luck, got them later that day though back at the camp. Took some pictures and hurried back down because moving again felt nice, even though my legs were a little jelly-like and stiff after stopping. We ran/climbed/scampered/snowboarded our way back down the steep hill which was a lot easier, but tired your legs quickly, each of us falling at least 3 times, even our guide because our legs just gave out, not in the danger part though, just on the open gravelly part. We’d stop and look up, amazed at how far it was that we’d climbed and how fast it was to come down. I took a ton of pictures once back at the camp for breakfast because the morning light was fantastic. I’ll hopefully get 1 or 2 up soon. Then we made our way the rest of the way down over the next 1 ½ days and came home back to hot Nairobi. Oh and I took my braids out on the way home with Piper and Jamie’s help, took the whole 3 hour ride and I still wasn’t finished. It ended with the fake extensions all in a big gross pile on my bedroom floor and my real hair looking like an afro. After a shower and losing a bunch of my real hair, it’s all back to normal. So nice to have a light head again! Now I’m home the next few days for elections and will leave the 31st for 6 days in Mombasa joining up with the rest of our K group! Beach!