Day 6: Climb to Karanga Camp

MOUNTAIN ROUTE OVERVIEW

After breakfast, one of the biggest challenges for our climbers begins. They’ll climb up and over the Great Barranco Wall. Getting to the top of it will take 1 to 2 hours. After the wall, climbers will cross a barren and rocky plateau with views of Kibo and three glaciers before descending into Karanga Camp. As they cross the plateau on a trail of gravel and sand, climbers will pass streams and giant boulders for 2 to 3 hours. As they walk into camp, they have a good view of tomorrow’s route. They’ll get to camp by lunch. But this short day is planned for resting which helps with acclimatization.

MOUNTAIN ROUTE STATS

Starting elevation 12,900 feet

Ending elevation 13,300 feet

Elevation gain 400 feet

Distance hiked 3 miles

Average hiking time 4 to 6 hours

It’s my honor today to share my experience of Day 4 [on the mountain]. As the most senior female member of this extraordinary climbing team, I can admire the agile youngsters who make scaling the famed Barranca Wall look like a domestic staircase but not feel bad as I take extra time at the rear proceeding “mingi pole pole” (more slowly)! With trusted poles I negotiate  each weathered lava rock, crevice, and stretch of slippery gravel path carefully. Even so, at one sharp turn, my foot slipped and down I went on my right knee. James, the exceptional, caring guide behind me, politely insisted he inspect me for any injury. Praise the Lord- none!  

I came on this extraordinary adventure to fulfill a dream 60 years in the making. When I was 5 or 6, my maternal grandfather, out from England, stopped in Tanzania to climb this mountain on his way to visit us in then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where I grew up. I was so taken with his accomplishment in his sixties that the dream was born. 

Day 4 has been tough (even brutal at times for me) but spectacularly beautiful. The everlasting flowers, lobelia, and Senecio Kilimanjarii have beckoned us forward. The mist has cleared intermittently to reveal the phenomenal grandeur of Kibo, one of the three Kilimanjaro volcanoes, now comfortably dormant, with its dazzling display of glaciers which await us.

And yet we are reminded to take one day at a time and not focus on the grueling task of the final ascent to the summit, wondering “will we make it?”  Perhaps that is the best lesson I am learning again. Just as God tells us he has tomorrow in his hands and each day has enough trouble of it’s own! Each day here has been extremely challenging already. I am so thankful that I have not had the headaches and debilitating nausea common with altitude sickness however, each incline, gentle or steep results in tachycardia and breathlessness making me pray for Jesus’ strength to enable me to take the next step. 

Today’s highlight is a toss between everyone making it to the top of the Barranca Wall and that delicious cup of steaming tea brought to my tent this morning by one of our amazing porters. The lowlight may have been spilling part of it in my tent!

Thank you all  for your prayers- we need every single one! This is certainly the hardest thing I have ever attempted!

Journal Entry by Christine Taylor