Day 4 - Conquering the Barranco Wall before summit climb
06/04/12
Today is the Big Day! Today we are going higher, and the words "Pole Pole" will be heard a lot. They mean "Slowly Slowly" in Swahili, and that is the key to success on Kili.as anything faster will stop you from going on. We start with Barranco Wall and then base camp, before our summit attempt.
Barranco Wall
We start by climbing the Barranco Wall. This is proper climbing and its steep. We wont use our poles as we need our hands here, and looking down makes you realize why a few people say it could be dangerous after the rain. Its easy to slip if you aren't careful.
Pole pole up the wall, and six fascinated faces looking at the porters that climb the wall with big bags on their heads and backs like its an easy walk. Gosh, they are soo cool these guys!
After a while we all get up and rest a bit on the top before we are descending again to lower altitude before getting up again towards Barafu Camp, our home for the next 24h. This day we walked through a very interesting landscape looking more or less like the moon. We got to the last steep section before getting to camp, and now Abel wanted us to practice our breathing technique so we would be prepared for the night climb to the summit.
In through the nose, out through the nose, in through the nose and out through the mouth. And again and again. This actually helped, we all got up and I could really see that it had helped me, so I was optimistic. We walked further to get higher to Barafu at 4600m, and somewhere along this route, I got hit badly by the altitude. My legs didnt want to move, my breathing got really bad and I felt dizzy. I walked in some kind of way after the others, but noticed that I was falling behind, but I couldnt do anything about it. This is a very strange feeling when you are used to being able to push yourself a lot more. I started doubting myself and at the same time push myself so that I would at least reach camp. After a while, Abel came up to me and said that he would take my bag the last 15 minutes. In my head, that meant that he had seen and realized that I wouldn't make it. This ended in tears of course, and I just felt miserable. We walked to the cabin to register, and I was sitting very quiet. Abel held his hand on my shoulder and after all of us had registered we walked out. Then the guys realized that I was upset so they sat me down on a rock and sat with me, not saying much just showing their support. All for one, one for all. I didn't know what to say, but I didn't have to either.
As we sat there, two men came down from the mountain. They were led by their guides and looked like ghosts. White faces and blue lips: typical symptoms for altitude sickness. The first looked like had totally lost it and the funniest moment was when he passed with his guide, and politely said "Hello" to us. Like you do when you want to pretend that you haven't done anything wrong. Two heroes that probably didnt make it to the top.
We then went to rest a bit before dinner, and that night we had to eat properly as we had a long hard walk in front of us.. Kili was still covered in clouds so it was hard to know how close we were but it surely felt far.. After our rest I went out and looked up at the huge mountain and it suddenly obeyed. I felt how my whole sense of failure that I had before changed into something else. Strength. I would show the bloody mountain, I would show myself and everyone else too!!
I went into the tent where the boys were sitting and told them that we would all make it, as the mountain actually looks do-able. No way we would let anyone stay behind. I felt calmer after getting this vision in my head, and the butterflies started to fly in my tummy.
After dinner, we went to have a last nap before the summit climb.
Nite for now xx
Today is the Big Day! Today we are going higher, and the words "Pole Pole" will be heard a lot. They mean "Slowly Slowly" in Swahili, and that is the key to success on Kili.as anything faster will stop you from going on. We start with Barranco Wall and then base camp, before our summit attempt.
Barranco Wall
We start by climbing the Barranco Wall. This is proper climbing and its steep. We wont use our poles as we need our hands here, and looking down makes you realize why a few people say it could be dangerous after the rain. Its easy to slip if you aren't careful.
Pole pole up the wall, and six fascinated faces looking at the porters that climb the wall with big bags on their heads and backs like its an easy walk. Gosh, they are soo cool these guys!
After a while we all get up and rest a bit on the top before we are descending again to lower altitude before getting up again towards Barafu Camp, our home for the next 24h. This day we walked through a very interesting landscape looking more or less like the moon. We got to the last steep section before getting to camp, and now Abel wanted us to practice our breathing technique so we would be prepared for the night climb to the summit.
In through the nose, out through the nose, in through the nose and out through the mouth. And again and again. This actually helped, we all got up and I could really see that it had helped me, so I was optimistic. We walked further to get higher to Barafu at 4600m, and somewhere along this route, I got hit badly by the altitude. My legs didnt want to move, my breathing got really bad and I felt dizzy. I walked in some kind of way after the others, but noticed that I was falling behind, but I couldnt do anything about it. This is a very strange feeling when you are used to being able to push yourself a lot more. I started doubting myself and at the same time push myself so that I would at least reach camp. After a while, Abel came up to me and said that he would take my bag the last 15 minutes. In my head, that meant that he had seen and realized that I wouldn't make it. This ended in tears of course, and I just felt miserable. We walked to the cabin to register, and I was sitting very quiet. Abel held his hand on my shoulder and after all of us had registered we walked out. Then the guys realized that I was upset so they sat me down on a rock and sat with me, not saying much just showing their support. All for one, one for all. I didn't know what to say, but I didn't have to either.As we sat there, two men came down from the mountain. They were led by their guides and looked like ghosts. White faces and blue lips: typical symptoms for altitude sickness. The first looked like had totally lost it and the funniest moment was when he passed with his guide, and politely said "Hello" to us. Like you do when you want to pretend that you haven't done anything wrong. Two heroes that probably didnt make it to the top.
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| Barafu Camp, above the clouds, 4600m |
I went into the tent where the boys were sitting and told them that we would all make it, as the mountain actually looks do-able. No way we would let anyone stay behind. I felt calmer after getting this vision in my head, and the butterflies started to fly in my tummy.After dinner, we went to have a last nap before the summit climb.
Nite for now xx
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