Day 8: Climb to Summit Uhuru Peak
MOUNTAIN ROUTE OVERVIEW
Summit is an 11 to 16 hour day. Climbers go to sleep after an early dinner the night before and are woken up around midnight to being their summit attempt. After a light snack, they ascent into darkness, cold, and wind. Temperatures usually range from -4° to 5° fahrenheit. This is where climbers feel the altitude, so they’ll carry as little as possible, hike slowly, and take many rests to ease the symptoms. They’ll make their way up a trail that is flanked by the Ratzel and Rebman Glaciers. After climbing for around six hours, they’ll reach the edge of Kilimanjaro’s crater between Stella and Hans Meyer Points. They’re just an hour from the summit when they get here! After a hot cup of tea and rest, they’ll begin climbing on a rocky and icy trail to the summit, Uhuru Peak, at 19,344 feet which is the highest point on the continent of Africa. Once they reach the summit, they’ll spend a few minutes making sure they touch the sign, celebrating with the group, and taking pictures before descending to Kosovo Camp. Once they reach camp, they’ll eat lunch and take a short nap before continuing their descent to Mweka Camp. Once they arrive at camp, they’ll have dinner and go to bed early after a 13 to 19 hour day of hiking!
MOUNTAIN ROUTE STATS
ASCENT
Starting elevation 16,000 feet
Ending elevation 19,344 feet
Elevation gain 3,344 feet
Distance hiked 4.5 miles
Average hiking time 8 to 10 hours
DESCENT
Starting elevation 19,344 feet
Ending elevation 10,200 feet
Elevation loss 9,144 feet
Distance hiked 8 miles
Average hiking time 7 to 9 hours
EMAIL UPDATE
Friends & Family -
We've got our next Beyond Kilimanjaro Team resting right now at Barafu Basecamp (~16,000 ft) preparing to begin their Summit Night trek to Uhuru Peak (19,341 ft).
Thankfully the group has had amazing weather and all are in good spirits. They even got to celebrate a 32nd and 50th birthday today with champagne and a fresh cake! Happy Birthday to Adair and Frank!
We invite you to take a moment and pray a special prayer over these friends as they begin their climb around 5:30 EST.
Pray for strength & safety.
Pray over our Guides and Porters leading and serving the team.
Pray their spirit would be filled.
Pray for their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs as they journey to Uhuru Peak (“Freedom” in Swahili”).
THE TEAM
Adair Ziegler
John Ziegler
Gill Clements
Colson Horton
Micah Horton
Paul Harter
Frank DiPentino
Drew Voyles
GROUP UPDATE
It’s the climb
What we know:
7 climbers
1 host
2 guides
40 porters
Months of planning / preparation
The goal: hike approximately 42 miles up to summit Kilimanjaro at an elevation of 19,344 ft.
In the beginning of the trek I learned how to find my breath. I would find my pace in the quiet, listening to the joy in other conversations, or I would find The Lord in this simple mantra that was shared on day one: “Thank you Jesus, Praise you Jesus” as we took small steps forward and up.
With many small steps behind us, we are now beginning the accent to summit. We started our hike at midnight on only a few hours of sleep. There was a crisp chill in the air and an energy all around us that was eager/excited/scared to tackle what we had been working towards this entire trip.
The mountain was dotted with tiny head lamps illuminating the path to the top as the rest of the hikers had already started their journey. We began with a prayer of provision and started our slow accent that ultimately would take us 7 1/2 hours to reach our destination.
We were hyper focused, pushing through the cold temperatures in the negatives with a tough biting wind. We watched the moon rise from little glances as we trudged upwards stopping for quick breaks when we could drink water that hadn’t frozen yet. At dusk we found ourselves watching the most majestic sunrise I have ever seen between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Mcwenzie (sp). We were so far above the cloud line, and then the colors began to paint the sky.
I couldn’t take a picture, I couldn’t get my clumsy hands out of my gloves. It was brutally cold. At that stage I recognized that i was just so worn thin. We were gifted with the biggest boost of a hot drink from our porters who are the most incredible people. As a woman of faith, I just knew that I couldn’t do this feat by myself. And then the clarity came to me: I have been pruned to focus on slow intentional steps with one foot in front of the other, and to focus my breath, my life force. I’m not alone.
We eventually made it to the top of the rim which felt just like a 80 degree incline and there sat the biggest joke. A sign that said you’ve reached the top, congratulations. Well… it’s old and you have to keep curving around the rim for another 45 minutes to reach the newly established highest peak.
I feel confident to say that we were all spent. I found myself battling so many internal demons that would try to push into my head when all I need to think about was the cadence of my breath, and where I put my feet. Thank you Jesus, I praise you Jesus.
Glaciers on one side, the crater on the other - we were floating on the roof of Africa. We took our pictures as best as we could and then it was a very quick turn around to then… go down.
When you are working so hard to get to the top, it’s very easy to forget you can’t stay there, you have to come down. So we did our down hill rock skiing, tested all of our knees and brutally wobbled back into camp in about 2-2.5 hours. We ate and THEN we climbed another 4 hours down the mountain to 10,000 ft to our next base camp.
I can’t process the amount of climbing we did in 24 hours. I can hardly process that we did it at all. It now just feels surreal. I vaguely remember the 20 minutes that were at the top. What I do know is that I couldn’t have done it with out these people, this family that we have made on this journey. We did it, “pole,pole” (slowly,slowly) “pamoja,pamoja” (together, together).
Thank you Jesus.
I praise you Jesus.
~ Colson Horton