Kilimanjaro Climb - IITK90 29ers - July 20-27, 2023

 

In 2020 my IIT-Kanpur college friends had made an ambitious plan to climb Kilimanjaro before going on to visit Masai Mara for a safari. COVID put paid to those plans, but three years later in July 2023, under the leadership of Samir Palnitkar and Arun Kumar, we resurrected the plan and 29 of us (14 batchmates, 5 spouses and 10 children) embarked on the journey, little knowing what was in store. We ranged in age from 11 – 55 years old, and in experience from 2 people having done Everest Base Camp earlier in 2023, to some doing their first high altitude trek. We had engaged African Love Birds as our trek company, and July 19^th found us all at Panama resort in Moshi, Tanzania to get briefed, rent any gear needed and be ready to leave the next morning. I was accompanied by my son Sahil who had just finished college and was going to start working next month.

              Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world. It has a dormant crater, and there are 3 official summit points along the rim of the crater: Gilmans point (18652 ft), Stella point (18888ft) and the Uhuru (freedom) peak at 19384ft elevation. There are four climate zones: rain forest, moor land, alpine desert and arctic ice. There are several glaciers on the top, but 80% of them are gone now, and the projection is that they will all disappear in another 15 years. This being dry season, we didn’t expect any snow on the ground. We were taking the 8-day Machame route, and we would reach Stella point and then carry on to Uhuru peak on summit day. The success rate for this route is 84%, by that token about 24/29 would make it to the summit.

              Ours was a luxury trek – for a trek group of 29, we had 95 support staff – guides, porters, cooks etc! We only had to carry daypacks, that too could be offloaded to our guides if needed. We had 2-person tents, a dining tent, 4 toilet tents with western commodes (I am not joking!). The typical breakfast menu was eggs, toast, pancakes, fruit, porridge, tea/coffee/milo; lunch and dinner was fruit, soup, veg stew/rice/pasta/chapatis; and popcorn for evening snack. All were served hot on tables in the dining tent, while we sat on chairs with proper steel cutlery. We had very little rain, but nights were cold, and the temperature on summit night was around -10C. At night, the sky was full of stars and very clear, we could see the milkyway quite clearly.

              We all had different levels of trek preparedness, some had been training for four months with many preparatory treks behind them, 2 members had done the Everest base camp in spring, 1 person had done grand canyon rim-to-river. Unfortunately I had been down with health issues and my total training was 3-4 walks of 5-7km in our complex, and a 2.5hr trek of 1000ft elevation gain. I also had compromised immunity due to a recent viral, with my WBC count at half the normal. I was very unsure of how far I could go, but I thought even 3 days with my friends would be worth it, and I confirmed there were exit routes to come back down if needed. My hope was to reach the base camp at 15000ft. Going to the summit was a dream, I gave myself a 40% chance of doing that. At least I would make up the 16% and others could do the summit 😊The one prep trek was very useful, because Sahil came back with his shoe soles in his hands, and we could get him new shoes.

              But back to the action. The trek map and table of the route are provided below for reference. On 20^th we rode in a bus to Machame gate, the starting point of our trek and started off after lunch. We also learned about African Flexible Time (which ran 2 hours late for us 😊). The first day trek was through lush rain forest. The trail was good, and it was enjoyable, except I got very tired at the end, and Sahil had to carry my backpack for the last hour, which we did in darkness with headlamps. We reached at 7:30pm, and I promptly lay down in the tent before dinner. Juma was our guide, who stayed with Sahil and I through the trek and was invaluable for me. I was more worried about long distances than steep terrain, since I know how to pace myself to regulate my breathing. Sahil and I were both taking Diamox 250mg to reduce high altitude symptoms. Camps were lively affairs, with a lot of noise and banter and good spirits. I was afraid of muscle soreness and fatigue, so took a paracetamol before bed.

The next day, I was fresh in the morning. As on most days, we started at ~8am, after a fun exercise routine of “Itna bada pahad” led by Samir. That day it was a shorter but steeper trek and expected to take 5hrs. We moved from rain forest to moor land, with sparser and shorter trees. I was not as tired when we reached Shira camp. This became a theme, I would take a little longer than average, the fastest guys would take half the time. Sahil was an amazing rock, always behind me to support me if I got disbalanced, not being tempted by the other youngsters who would run up ahead, urging me to go slow, drink water or eat a bite. We would be in the last 4-5 people group. We reached by lunch time and at 4pm we did an acclimatization trek for an hour to see Shira caves and go up to a viewpoint with a view of the vast mountainside. Going to the toilet at night was a pain – it was cold, and one had to get out of the sleeping bag, put on a jacket, unzip the tent, wear shoes, zip back the tent, then walk to the toilet with headlamps and finally reverse the whole process. During the trek in the daytime, one just had to walk away and “catch some monkeys” 😊We started learning some Swahili words – Jambo is Hello, Hakuna Matata means don’t worry, Asante is thank you, and Karibu is welcome. Phone connectivity was very spotty throughout the trek, and we could only share infrequent updates. 21^st was my and Bindu’s anniversary, but I couldn’t talk to her at all that day! 

22^nd July was another long trek, and I felt if I can get through this, then I can get to base camp. My body was getting more used to the trek – as Samir put it I was developing trail legs. We went from Shira camp (12500ft) up to Lava tower (15200ft), lunch and then back down to Baranco camp (13000 ft). The motto was “walk high, sleep low” to reduce the effects of high altitude. The terrain changed from moor land to an arid alpine desert, and we went above the tree line. It was very dry and dusty with only lava dirt and stones everywhere you looked and of course the mountain peak with glaciers way ahead on the left. The last hour to Lava tower was a struggle for me, and Juma took over my daypack. My hiking poles were a huge help to take up some of the load on my knees. I have had 3 knee surgeries, so they are not in the best shape. I could hardly eat much at lunch, and we had our first incident – one of the youngsters fainted in the lunch tent and had to be given electrolytes and fresh air. It was scary but fortunately he recovered and was able to walk on to Baranco camp and later made it to the Uhuru peak quite well. On the way we saw some cotton trees, with 4-5 heads, and even plucked some cotton off the trunks. We also saw an ice waterfall down below, where one would least expect it. Finally Juma showed us the famous Baranco wall we would need to climb the next day up ahead. It was quite daunting. I reached the camp at 5:30pm and was so tired I went straight to our tent till dinner. But I had done it so far, and felt I could at least reach Barafu base camp, 2 days away, and see off my friends on their summit climb.

23^rd and 24^th July were relatively easier days. On 23^rd the exciting part was climbing the Baranco wall, which is a bunch of rocks that you have to clamber over, and then a steep trail including switch backs to get above the wall, post which there was a long descent and a view of the wide expanse. The most fun thing on the wall was the kiss-the-rock, where there is such a narrow ledge that you have to hug and kiss a rock face to cross it. We took some good videos and arrived at Karanga camp before lunch. A few people had high altitude symptoms like headache, nausea/vomiting etc. Sahil had some headache, but fortunately I was ok on that front. On 24^th we reached the Barafu base camp, another short day, but we had reached 15000ft altitude. We sat in the sun for a couple hours before lunch. Inder and his wife Reshma had been trekking with us the last couple of days, our paces were matched. We had one other health issue, one of my batchmates had low oxygen levels (~65%) for a couple of days, and was taking it very slow. He took 7-8 hours to reach Barafu camp. We were very worried, but he had no other symptoms and carried on. It was a great thing to have everyone around camp, all the leg pulling and the morning exercise routine lifted our morale.

Now came a big decision point. Our original itinerary had us do the summit climb starting at 10pm the same day we reached Barafu, but most of us were very tired and many had some high altitude symptoms, so wanted to rest a day at Barafu camp and cut out one day from the return. There is no water on Barafu camp, it has to be carried 2-3 hrs from near Karanga camp, so that was a challenge. But Samir was able to convince Gilbert, the lead trek guide, to agree to the modified itinerary to give us the best chance of success. So we took it easy for a day and a half. A group of the 4 fittest people decided to do the summit climb on 25^th morning to prevent night trekking, and they were back at Barafu camp around 4pm on 25^th. Their success gave us good hope, and post dinner we were ready to start at 10:30pm on 25^th.

For the summit climb, we had a guide or porter for each of us individually, and they could carry our daypacks for us, which I promptly gave away 😊 Juma was with Sahil and I all the way, along with Rajab, a porter. We started off after some loud cheers, but with both excitement and trepidation in our hearts. We had to go from Barafu camp (15300ft) to Stella point (18885ft), onto Uhuru peak (19341ft), then back to Barafu camp and onto Millenium camp (12500ft). It was expected to take 8hrs+4hrs+3hrs – a LOOONG NIGHT + DAY!! It was very cold, we were dressed in 2-3 layers on our legs and 5-6 layers on the upper body, 2 pairs of socks, liners+gloves and head protection. And of course headlamps. Soon after starting, the group spread out based on their walking speed, and we had a long trail of lights along the way. Breathing was difficult, soon I was taking a breath after each step, my usual high altitude routine. Inder, Reshma, Sandy, Sahil and I were in a group, moving together. The coldest duration was supposed to be 3-5am, with temp expected in the -10C range. We were supposed to keep moving, with short breaks to prevent cold seeping in, and minimize the catching monkey routines. After a few hours, I realized the nozzle of my water bladder tube was freezing, and I wasn’t getting much water, so I had to switch to a bottle inside the backpack. Who would have imagined it being so cold, so close to the equator (3degree S)!! At some point, our guide told us that one member was coughing a lot and had turned back. Our first casualty, and it hit us hard, but also gave me a determination to keep going. Our guides were all encouraging us, and singing loudly, raising slogans and generally dancing their way up, while here I was struggling to put foot after foot. It was encouraging and really irritating in equal parts 😊 At around 5am, we ran into a friend who was alone with the guide and shivering with cold. That person also decided to turn back, which was a good, brave decision. We plodded on, Inder, Reshma, Sahil and I. At around 6, it started getting bright. Soon we saw the beautiful sunrise, and it started getting warmer. My guide said we were 2 hours away from Stella point. By now, I was gasping for air, and having to take 2 breaths after each step. The terrain was earlier rocky, now it became this long, relentless slope up with dust and ash beneath our feet, just kept going and going. Oh it was really funny – Reshma would ask when it would get flatter and Inder would say it would soon get flatter and then up. She was confused what that meant, but he would keep saying that to encourage her 😊But now I was determined to reach Stella point come what may, from the earlier uncertainty of how long I would last. Then we started hitting false peaks, just when we thought the next ridge up was stella point, we would find another slope beyond it. Finally our guide said the next ridge up far away was Stella point. No energy to say “Yay”, step-gasp-breathe-breathe-breathe and repeat. Samir was returning from the peak and he took a picture of us. I look fresh in the picture, at odds with how I was actually feeling. That last ridge was not getting nearer at all!! Finally at 9am we crested it to reach the rim of the crater, and beheld Stella Point right there. We had arrived!!!!

Reshma was clear that she was done and would head back after taking pictures. At Stella point, I took a full 5 minutes to just sit and gasp and get my breath back. Then the guide urged us to go on to Uhuru peak, about 1km away along the rim (we could see it far away). I took a few steps and then realized I didn’t have energy to go further, so I told the guide I would also head down from there. He understood. Sahil wanted to stay with me, and then Inder said he didn’t want to go alone, so I convinced Sahil to go to the peak with Inder and Juma, and I would start heading down slowly with the porter. But first, I had to take a bare-chested picture!! 😊 There was no energy or mind-share for it to sink in that I had reached the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, and at nearly 19000ft, the highest I have ever been. I took a few pictures of the glaciers, said bye to Inder and Sahil, and started heading down slowly at ~9:30am. We went down a shorter steeper way with a lot of loose dirt underfoot, but I had no energy to slide, so kept going down slowly with breaks. It took forever to get down, and I slipped and fell twice in the ash, but finally at 1:20pm I reached Barafu camp. Reshma had reached a little earlier, and Sahil and Inder joined us in a few minutes, after having conquered the Uhuru peak!! Sahil had even gone down to one of the glaciers with Juma, touched it and taken some pictures!

The camp was quite deserted, with most people having gone down to Millenium camp. A few tents and support staff remained. 4 trekkers were still to return. I was so tired that I just fell into the tent and told Gilbert, the lead support guide, that I was not moving till the next day. He could either carry me down, or we could do it the next day 😊. He said – Sir, we see this all the time, take a nap for an hour, eat something, then I will give you walking support to go down, but you cant stay here another night at 4600m, its not safe! I didn’t care, and just fell asleep. When I woke up after an hour, I was surprisingly feeling better, and went to the dining tent to eat a little veg stew. Then Sahil and I packed our stuff and started heading down with Juma at 4:30pm. Inder and Reshma had already left. Sushil was with us, and Amit was still coming down from the summit. Somehow I found the energy to keep walking the 3 hours it took to get to Millenium camp, with headlamps the last ½ hr. It was a 21hr day, the longest by far I have ever trekked in a day, and at that high altitude! On the way to Millenium camp, there was this whirlwind of Amit being run down the slope with 2 porters to support him. Amazing guy, I would have given up and gone down 2 days ago. Hats off to him!!!

The next morning everyone was in a celebration mood. I found out that one batchmate was not feeling well and had to be stretchered down at 8:30pm at night from Millenum camp, and had reached Moshi at 2:30am. The good news was that he was fine. Another member had turned back at 18000ft, just an hour or two before Stella point, due to high altitude illness symptoms. All 29 made it to base camp, 26/29 made it to Stella point, and 20 went all the way to Uhuru peak. I had picked up a throat infection and was coughing up a lot of yellow phlegm, so I started on antibiotics right away. We had some loud singing, dancing and took pictures in our Kilimanjaro IITK90 T-shirts and then started down for Mweka camp and then to Mweka gate, a descent of 7000ft. The trail was through the rain forest, and became really slushy. Atharv, Vidit, Sahil and I were together, and were lucky not to fall. Our boots and pants were completely muddy by the time we reached the gate. The last 3 km was fortunately motorable and dry. We were so thrilled to reach civilization and our bus. We got the mud washed off our boots and then headed back to Moshi in our bus, for a hot shower after 8 days, a loud celebratory dinner at an Indian restaurant called El Rancho (go figure) and sleep on a proper bed!!

Day	Start Point	End Point	Start Elev	End Elev	Distance	Time
1	Machame Gate	Machame Camp	1800m (6000 ft)	2800m (9500 ft)	11km	5.5 hrs
2	Machame Camp	Shira Camp	2800m (9500 ft)	3800m (12500 ft)	6km	5.5hrs
3	Shira Camp	Lava Tower -> Baranco Camp	3800m (12500 ft)	4600m (15200ft) -> 3900m (13000 ft)	7+4km	5.5+3hrs
4	Baranco Camp	Karanga Camp	3900m (13000ft)	4000m (13200 ft)	5km	5.5hrs
5	Karanga Camp	Barafu Camp	4000m (13200ft)	4600m (15200 ft)	4km	4hrs
6+7	Barafu Camp	Stella Point -> Uhuru Peak -> Barafu Camp -> Millenium Camp	4600m (15200 ft)	5756m (18881 ft) -> 5895m (19381 ft) -> 4600m -> 3800m (12500 ft)	5km + 5km + 4km (14km)	10.5hrs + 4.5hrs + 3hrs (21 hrs total time)
8	Millenium Camp	Mweka Gate	3800m (12500 ft)	1800m (6000 ft)	14km	7hrs

 

Its been almost a month since the trek, and its still sinking in for many of us. I still cant believe that I could summit Kili at 19K ft in the condition I started in. There were 4 critical factors which enabled the success:

·       Sahil and his constant support and comfort

·       Our guide Juma who took good care of us, and carried my backpack part of the way

·       Our IITK90 gang and the fun of having everyone around and

·       Sheer willpower. As my friend Chennu says – “Mind over matter”.

It was an experience to remember for life, very humbling and yet so so satisfying. And thus ends yet another adventure….

Link to trek photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dcobY1WXKMQtJEYU6

Link to handwritten trek diary:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YLAhaHiDLYFzvF55u1b_5jZDmvFFYiV7/view?usp=drive_link

Link to pohotos of Ngorongoro Crater (near Arusha, Tanzania):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/F7HYmy7dWZN7nGnx9