Girl Travels World

Karanga Valley (3963 m/13,000 ft) to Barafu Hut (4,600 m/15,091 ft)
Hike time: 3.5 hrs
Elevation change: +600 m/+1968 ft
Estimated distance: 4km/2.5 miles
Final elevation: 4,600 m/15,091 ft

Today involves gaining a little more elevation, acclimatizing and resting for the summit attempt on the next morning.

My body is, in a word or two, falling apart. It’s not so much the things I expected – sore knees, blistered feet, etc – but the one I didn’t imagine – stomach issues, sunburned eyes with dirty contacts and a nose rubbed raw from the constant wiping. I am glad we are trying to summit tonight.

For the first time, our 3-4 hour hike only took us 3-4 hours. Today’s hike was very easy – definitely the easiest day. Many people combine it with the walk we did yesterday, which gives you both a shorter recovery time and less opportunity to adjust to the altitude. No thanks.

For the first time as well, the sun has mostly stayed out – probably exacerbating my poor eye pain! It’s actually hot in the tent for once!

I’m mostly prepared for tonight. Sean’s not sure he’s going to even attempt to summit – I hope he does, he’s made it this far, it would be a shame to sleep through the momentous part.

Right when we were reaching camp, we saw a guy stumbling down with the help of two guids. Shit! My stomach did a few back flips and I admonished myself – I cannot get worked up every time I see that tomorrow or I’ll never make it. The last 4,000 of so feet are spread over 2-3 miles. Out breaks will only be to go to the bathroom and will be a very ‘pole pole’ experience of around 6 hours.

I wish I was in a smaller group so we could go a little faster, but I imagine I might be thankful for the speed in about 12 hours. We have another group leaving around 11, so we’ll hopefully all make it in time to see the sunrise. There is also a false peak 45 minutes before the summit. Ahh! I hope I can do it!

Lessons of the day:
If you’ve forgotten or lost something, chances are, someone else will be able to replace it – especially medicines!
Reaching the summit would definitely be a feat
I need to prepare myself for not reaching the top and not everyone is going to make it
Guides are pimps

Barranco Hut (3901 m/12,800 ft) to Karanga Valley (3963 m/13,000 ft)
Hike time: 3.5 hrs
Elevation change: +100 m/+328 ft
Estimated distance: 4km/2.5 miles
Final elevation: 3963 m/13,000 ft

From Barranco Hut, we climb up through the edge of great Barranco. 95 percentage of the walking today will be on elevation of 4250m. We will break our day at Karanga valley campsite at elevation of 4,000m.

I’ve got three hours before dinner – most people are taking naps. Sean isn’t feeling well, still, but has taken some migraine meds. I’ll admit it – so far, as a group, it hasn’t ben pretty. Most of us are taking Diamox.

The ‘late sleep in’ today was nice…even though I went to bed before 9, it’s tough to get up! I went to the bathroom around 6 and saw the sun starting to come up over the horizon – it’s quite a sight, even slightly messed up, blind and deaf, and squatting besides your tent, freezing your ass off, showing your moon to Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The sun was out again today, thankfully. It affects everyone’s moods so much. Even though we know the clouds will soon blow in, we can hope they’ll stay away from us this time.

We immediately started our sluggish trek up the Wall, and I passed the time by going through a list of ‘lessons learned’ with Mary. The scramble took an especially long time because we had to let all the porters pass. The last hour, we got split up on the steep drop down into a ravine…and then back up to camp.

Lessons of the day:
There is no glory in pain or suffering when other cures are available
Never underestimate the power of a well-placed wet wipe
Ass grabbing is ok, and encouraged, when pushing someone up the Wall
Big groups move waaaay slower than smaller ones