Climbing Kili 3

Day 3

I woke up early in the morning before sunrise because I desperately had to urinate. The high altitude was already starting to make me urinate more frequently and it had been extremely cold during the night so I had been reluctant to leave the tent. When I exited the tent I found the whole ground, which had been muddy the day before, was frozen and covered with frost. The ground crunched as I walked and you could see these elaborate ice crystals that had formed under each pebble in the mud. My feet would sink 3 or 4 cm as these crystals broke. The moonlight was bright and you could see the peak of Kilimanjaro reflecting the moonlight. Off in the distance Mt. Meru was poking through the clouds. The sun started to rise and Mt. Meru and the moon were sitting together on a bed of clouds as everything became bathed in an orange-red glow. It was quite beautiful.

We left Shira Camp (3840 m) and headed for Lava Tower Camp. As we climbed to Lava Tower the vegetation disappeared and was replaced by strange rock formations covered with orange lichens. I was still quite warm when we reached Lava Tower (4630 m) and sat down for lunch. I was wearing just a synthetic t-shirt. Once we stopped moving and sat for lunch it quickly became very cold. The wind increased and it started to drizzle lightly. We finished our lunches with haste and put on our jackets, hats, etc. As we headed down the other side of the peak which was in the shade, I quickly became very cold within just 5 minutes. I put on my balaclava and was scared by how quickly the temperature had changed. We had noticed the altitude slightly at 4630 m, but it wasn’t that bad. We descended down to Barranco Camp (3950 m) and started to see vegetation again. At Barranco Camp there were plenty of small birds and white-winged crows looking for food and water. We could also see Arrow Glacier which was covered in grey soil and rocks off in the distance. It was getting colder each day.