Route:
Barafu Camp to Uhuru Peak

Time:
6 hours

Outfit:
Head: balaclava, 75 lumen headlamp, hood from jacket
Top: Snowboarding jacket with liner, t shirt, long underwear
Bottom: snowpants shell, gym shorts, long underwear
Shoes: gaiters, boots, double layer socks

Temu woke us up at 11:30 like he said. I was already up and pumped with adrenaline. Already dressed in everything but my jacket, I slid it on and popped outside. I swear in all of my life, I have never seen as many stars as I did this morning. I was almost stunned. Every constellation was in sight.

We began the pitch black 6 hour ascent to the summit at 12:30 in the morning. To my surprise, hiking in the dark with a headlamp was not that difficult. We were a little late getting started so every time you looked up you’d see paths of bobbing lights up ahead. It wasn’t until the moon showed it’s head around 1:15 or so that you were able to start making out the shapes of the hills. This was a blessing and a curse because you kept thinking you were close, but you never were. I had to keep reminding myself that we weren’t going to summit until at least sunrise.

2 hours in and T and I were starting to get tired. The adrenaline was wearing off. Shutting my eyes was just so easy. I swear I fell asleep while walking. We stopped several times for water along the way (our camelbaks froze at the top). We just had to keep reminding ourselves of everything we’d been through the past four days to get to this point. At about 4, I took my first adderall of the entire trip. Holy crap was that a boost.

We got to Stella Point at about 6:30am and the sun had just begun to rise minutes before. We were 130 easy meters from being at the top of Africa. As we walked, the scene was just otherworldly. You had a purple orange sky in the background with huge honkin’ glaciers sprinkled all over the place and a huge crater on your right – the remnants of when Kilimanjaro was active. It was cold, but it certainly wasn’t as cold as I was told it would be. Actually, the entire climb I had my jacket unzipped almost all the way. Maybe it was because I was using every bit of energy to get up there, maybe it was because the sun had started shining, but I am pretty certain it was not -5F.

I do have one regret about today and it’s that I had camera issues. Sometime in the night, my battery died and for one reason or another, my back up would show full charge at one point and no charge the next. I kept trying it throughout the ascent and it just wouldn’t work. Thankfully T had her compact so at least I had something :).