Before I even thought about taking mountaineering seriously, I already had the desire to climb Kilimanjaro. To see the melting glaciers on top, to use it as another opportunity to visit the wonderful continent Africa, and to climb a highest peak of a continent. How hard could it be?
You can guess the answer.. while it isn’t a difficult climb, it’s still an ascent to almost 6 km / 19500 feet, with all issues related (altitude sickness, freezing temperatures) as well as ‘local issues’ such as hygiene, difficulty in getting quick medical assistance in a remote place, etc. My first real mountain climb was certainly going to be an adventure.
Anyway, off I was with my partner-in-crime Mónica, wearing my snowboard clothes that I thought would be sufficient, without any fitness program followed, and apparently without snacks as I left them home in another bag (I swapped bags just before leaving). Oh, and also no medicines apart from a box of paracetamol. We’ll get back on this later…
The route to follow was the famous Machame one; a beautiful route that takes seven to eight days. After being picked up by the guides we set off to the Machame gate to have lunch. The guides were late so it meant hurrying up, and I ended up drinking my water without adding the disinfection drops. The sheer size of Kilimanjaro just begs respect: its footprint is as large as the entire province I live in, and being the world’s highest stand-along mountain peaking 4.5 km above the airport, it simply looks gigantic.
The Machame gate 
As we set off, it started to rain (logically in a rain forest) so we put on our ponchos. It was very warm and humid, so I decided not to wear a jacket underneath the poncho. I arrived soaked; apparently a 5 euro Disneyland Paris poncho does not keep you dry in a rain forest. An entire layer of clothes drowned, and not drying up for the full remainder of the trip. Having reached camp at 3 km /10,000 ft, we found out that our first ever night of sleeping in a tent would be on a little stream of water. All of this did not spoil our good mood though. It also occurred to me during the night that the toilets were mighty clean. Next day we found out that we had actually been using some other group’s private toilet. Oops.
Day two was the trek from Machame camp to Shira camp (3.8 km /12,400 ft). The day started sunny but was going to end foggy and cold. I opened up my ridiculously warm fleece jacket, but the backpack combined with cotton t-shirt underneath soon led to a completely sweating back, only to get very cold as the sun disappeared behind the fog. The views were stunning, and the day ended happy, since not only the the porters put our tent in the best spot, also the cook served absolutely delicious pancakes. As a Dutch, I know my pancakes… Our mood kept being good even after finding out how not clean non-private toilets are on Kilimanjaro!
Shira camp 
The third day is typically the day with the lowest amount of white blood cells in the mountains. And while the slope was gentile, it took me quite some effort as a result of that. We soon reached the highest point which seemed to be an entrance point to Mars, as the landscaped changed yet again into a bizar rocky terrain filled with beautiful tree.: we had entered the Barranco valley at 3.9 km (12,600 ft). A valley created by a lava stream from an old eruption. The night was interesting because altitude symptoms started to show: heavy head, quick breathing and sometimes not breathing at all for quite a bit of very uncomfortable seconds for whoever can hear you. Difficult to sleep so I went out to make some nice pictures of the starry sky.
Entering the Barranco valley 
We woke up early to tackle the Barranco wall; the first time that you feel you’re actually climbing as its steepness requires both hands and feet. It certainly was our favorite part of the climb. We had opted to stay an extra night at this altitude to acclimatize, as this was our first time at this altitude, so we made camp in Karanga (4 km / 13,000 ft). Unfortunately, it was a stormy night with little sleep and I learned that I rather minimize my sleeping time at altitude, as each night there made me a bit more tired.
Barranco camp 
Climbing the Barranco wall 
Day five was short, due to the sleepover at Karanga, and an easy ascent over rocky terrain to the busy Barafu camp. At 4.6 km altitude (15,200 ft), your body does get slower in things, such as going to the incredibly smelly toilet during the night, which seemed to take ages. I slept well until we were woken up at midnight to start the summit attack, but I realized I had toothache. Maybe I grinded too much during the night? I took some paracetamol, which helped, and started the climb.
In contrast to earlier days when I continuously overdressed, I was now quite warm. The ascent went well and at 6 AM we reached Stella point: the edge of the crater on the Summit, just as the Sun came up. For me the view was spectacular; to look down on to the clouds, to see the glaciers around us. Amazing. It was still an hour climb to the actual Summit which gave plenty of time to take pictures of this beautiful scene.
After taking the necessary Summit pictures it was time to go down. A quick lunch and packing up at Barafu camp, and then down to Mweka camp (3 km / 10,000 ft). And here the troubles began.Maybe it was the increasing pressure, but my tooth really started to hurt now and in camp I couldn’t sleep a bit. I decided to take two paracetamol pills every two hours but they didn’t help much.
Summit! 
Going down to Mweka camp 
So next morning we continued down to Mweka gate and said goodbye to our lovely guides and crew, and we checked into our wonderful hotel in a coffee plantation. The pain insisted and we decided to call a dentist. This turned out to be difficult on a Sunday, however eventually we found an Indian dentist who happened to be at work. Upon inspection I was given two options: 1) go home and when the infection is gone, perform a root canal treatment, or 2) do it now with the infection present, and continue the holidays (the climb was to be followed by a week-long safari) with lots of antibiotics. I opted for the second option and after receiving anesthesia nine times (!) I was good to go to get the treatment.
All well we thought… not. During the taxi drive home I noticed I started to shake uncontrollably, and it was getting worse and worse. Arriving back at the hotel we went to the reception where immediately all kinds of actions were taken: the dentist was called to ask what to do, I was helped back into bed and wet towels were given. An hour later I was feeling much better, and the dentist even called late at night to ask about my condition, as well as the hotel reception. A hospital visit the next day revealed an infection related to food poisoning (likely from drinking not-sterilized water at the Machame gate), but the heavy shaking was probably due to the enormous amount of paracetamol taken combined with nine shots of anesthesia. After spending the day resting with a swollen face, we were able to continue the safari.
Why was this all positive? We summitted Africa’s highest mountain. I learned a lot about clothes (see for example http://www.alanarnette.com/climbing/gearlist.php) and essentials during climbs (See Mike Hamill’s ‘Climbing the Seven Summits’ book for the ten essentials). And above all we witnessed the kindness of the people in Tanzania (ask yourself if your dentist would call you in the evening to check on you!). Kilimanjaro is a beautiful climb. Prepare well, and you’ll love it. Oh, and get a private toilet ;o).