Day 9: Ascend to Kosovo Camp

MOUNTAIN ROUTE OVERVIEW

As our climbers near the summit, they have another short day for acclimatization today. After breakfast, climbers leave Karanga Camp and make their way across moraine with a view of Mawenzi and Kibo to Barafu. The alpine desert terrain is full of boulders with lichen and moss. Upon reaching camp, climbers will spend the afternoon resting before packing for the summit and having an early dinner in preparation for their ascent to the summit to start at midnight.

MOUNTAIN ROUTE STATS

Starting elevation 13,300 feet

Ending elevation 15,400 feet

Elevation gain 2,100 feet

Distance hiked 3 miles

Average hiking time 4 to 5 hours

JOURNAL ENTRY BY BRIAN MEYER

Today was the calm before the storm... in every sense of the word.

Today we woke up in Karanga Camp to much excitement knowing that the following day was going to be submit day. We enjoyed our usual breakfast followed by singing and dancing from the porters, guides, and ourselves once we gained the confidence to join. We started our hike.

The hike today was a shorter one. While we gained a lot of elevation (going from 13,200ft to 16,000ft) it was comparatively easy yet ominous. Fog covered the ground as we walked closer and closer to Kosovo Camp. We even walked across what seemed like a field of shale rock breaking underneath us with every step. Eventually we made it to Barafu Camp, the larger camp that most people stay at before summiting. We elected to skip that camp and stay at the lesser used camp, Kosovo. We would learn why we decided to do this. After crossing through Barafu, we came to a wall several hundred feet high that we had to rock scramble over. Our guides decided that it would be easier to do this in the daytime rather than during summit night (a conclusion we all happily agreed with).

After summiting that wall and making it to Karanga, we ate dinner and retired for the night to get a few hours of sleep before the toughest physical challenge of our lives awaited us.