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 | Ascend 14,000 feet to the top of Baranco Wall
Ending elevation 13,300 feet at Karanga Camp
Net elevation gain 400 feet
Distance hiked 3 miles
Average hiking time 4 to 6 hours
Praise God for amazing weather and good community! Today we had eggs and sausages for breakfast along with millet porridge which we have all grown to love. Personally Nutella is my favorite thing to doctor it up with but other options include raisins, honey, peanut butter, or fruit loops. We left camp around 9 and scaled the Baranco wall! Some of us even got to kiss the famous kissing rock on the way up. We hiked up to about 15,000 feet for a short break and John Simon blessed us with some more of his riddles. Then we headed back down to tonight’s camp at 13,500 where we got to each lunch (PIZZA!) and spend the day resting up for tomorrow night. The porters all came together and sang and danced for us as we got to witness an incredible sunset. The Lord has really been revealing himself to us through His creation the past few days. We even had a competitive card game going—Olivier, the Rwandan leader who joined us on our trip, came out victorious. Dinner was amazing because we got to share what the Lord has been teaching us and some of the ways He has pushed us throughout this trip. Olivier also got to share his story of how he met the Lord and became a Young Life leader. John Simon, our medic, said we are in great shape and he is really optimistic and excited about our summit! Certainly ready for some good sleep to gear up for the summit climb starting tomorrow night!
~ Hadley Carmichael
We were given a late start and I think everyone was excited for an extra 30 minutes of sleep after a long hike on Day #3.
We were camping at a marvelous spot with fantastic views of the mountain. We also got to see a multitude of stars including the southern cross the night before.
First step today was to climb “the wall”. This was about a 1000 foot vertical wall. We were asked if anyone was afraid of heights and a few hands were raised (including mine). I was pleasantly surprised and it wasn’t very scary at all or anywhere near as difficult to climb as it looked. It was more like bouldering up a really big hill.
We then had to descent and ascend a large ravine. But we could see the campsite so everyone was excited to get there. This was one of the easier hikes to me.
We were greeted with a wonderful lunch of pizza. Nothing so good as fresh pizza at 14000 feet. We then had the afternoon to rest and relax. We also played some cards and had some fun.
We also got to join and listen to our African friends sings many songs for us during the afternoon. Several of our trekking crew are learning the Swahili lyrics.
Another great dinner with plenty of wonderful conversation on what we are learning or observing. Many of our table topics are led by Tank. We also got to hear more about what Olivier is doing in Rwanda.
Off to get to sleep.
~ Kevin King