By Harish C Kohli
The air is painfully thin. Claire breaths heavily and hacks her breath out. "It is terribly cold" she says "I can't feel anything except feel wretched about it."
"I don't think I can make it, Andy," Claire sobs, collapsing pathetically on to a boulder, teeth chattering harder than the cutlery in a canteen.
"No worry, you'll make it," he croons, arm around her shoulder, trying to warm her up. "Not far now."
Andy seems unaffected. He coaxes her up the mountain one step at a time. Claire had been stumbling uphill since midnight. By the time she reaches the top, dawn had not yet come. The snow gleams an eerie blue-white in the blackness. I try to revive myself with a cup of strong tea but my hands are shaking too much. It has all slopped over before it gets to my lips which are completely blue.
SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO At the summit of Africa's highest peak, I stand almost paralysed watching the sun rise slowly and enjoying the colourful display. Then I turn and some distance away, before beginning the descent takes some rest. Then it is all sliding, skidding over loose scree which brings up to the base camp and takes less than an hour what had just taken me more than five hours to climb. I collapse beside the fire at the base camp. "So was it worth it?" asks Andy, who had been one of our party guides.
It is hard to say but in retrospect, yes "It was worth it". For the adventurers or most people who have an adventure in their heart, see it as an important event of their life, immortalised by Ernest Hemingway who wrote Kilimanjaro's snows that left mystery and romance in the readers mind. Kilimanjaro is now a must-tick-it-off ambition for adventurous tourists.
CLIMBING KILIMANJARO Kilimanjaro is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world (as opposed to one in a range) and the highest that can be scaled without technical climbing skills. It hurls its glacial summit free of the ochred Tanzanian plains to touch the sky just three degrees of latitude south of the Equator.
The 15 miles from Kilimanjaro's base to its polar summit form the shortest journey from tropic to Arctic on the planet. The walker trudges through the mud of dripping rainforests up into a realm of primeval heathers, past an alpine zone of rocks and flowers and over a bouldered wasteland before arriving at a base camp where the wind flings ice and the sun batters pain from your skin. The final climb to the 19,000ft summit is made, overnight, from there.
Like Mount Everest, the Kilimanjaro climb is now a steady two-way traffic. Amongst the thousands of people who climb Kilimanjaro annually (excluding the porters), less than half actually make it to the top.
HIGH ALTITUDE SICKNESS The biggest worry for those climbing Killimanjaro, is the altitude sickness. For climbing Kilimanjaro is not a battle against the slopes (physically the climb is easy), it's a battle against altitude sickness. If you don't get it you are lucky - it has nothing to do with fitness. If you do get it, you are piteous. I saw a party of young physically fit young men stumble vomiting down the mountainside.
Medical advice simply states that age, sex or fitness are no barriers to being struck down. Symptoms can begin as low as 8,000ft: headaches, nausea, breathlessness and disorientation. Climbers are told to not go too high, too fast as the body needs time to adjust to having less oxygen.
Some 75 per cent of people will experience mild symptoms over 10,000ft but these will disappear with steady acclimatisation.
At its worst the combination of high altitude and low air pressure causes capillary fluid to leak into the lungs or brain. Symptoms include coughing up blood or frothy spit, staggering like a drunk and even hallucinations.
In general after 10,000ft, your altitude should be increased by 1,000ft a day with a rest day every 3,000ft. Drugs to aid breathing are available but descent is the only cure.
One of Kili's biggest draws is the fact you don't have to be an experienced mountaineer to climb it. Guides joke that playing golf is good enough training. However, being reasonably fit is a great help.
ROUTES OF KILIMANJARO There are five ways up the mountain, each requiring different degrees of skill. Marangu route is the easiest and is dubbed the "Coca-Cola trail" because of the litter travellers leave behind; it also boasts flush toilets and huts with electricity.
Shira, Mweka, Umbwe and Machame are the other routes, requiring special permits and greater stamina. As an independent traveller, you can barter for guides and porterage at the base of Kili but beware - porters can be unreliable and you should choose your route carefully. There have been reports of people being casually abandoned without tents or food. To compensate, the views from Umbwe are the most spectacular.
Recommended clothes include water and wind-proof anoraks over eiderdown parkas, fleece shirts, waterproof trousers and thermals. Bring your own tent.
In the end, though, the answer to "was it worth it?" was for me yes. What I enjoyed most was my company on the climb, the chatter of the porters and the guides who helped me up there, and the welcome of Andy, without whom I would never have made it to the top.
Harish Kohli is a mountaineer, explorer who has been on both, the Mt Everest and Mt Kilimanjaro. He offers tips on mountain climbing and affects of high altitude. Check for Tanzania Holidays - Climbing Kilimanjaro at - Adventure holidays - Adventure Travel Worldwide - AwimAway
Article Source: Ezine Articles
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