Uhuru Peak (19,341 ft) to Mweka Camp (10,190 ft) Distance: ~7 miles
Adam woke us all up at 11pm. After having hot tea and biscuits, we had a gear check and were on our way. We had a one-to-one guide/hiker ratio - Iddy, Issa, Nass, Abdulla and Patrick were all with us. Patrick was the only one carrying a backpack - which contained the guides gear, a thermos with hot tea, and glasses. We assumed the rest didn't carry anything in case they had to take one of our backpacks.
We started out almost right at midnight. It was a full moon and a clear night, so we could see almost the whole way up at any time, but really we had our heads down and focused on the feet in front of us. The first part was the steepest - having to use our hands at some points. Other than that, it was just us, our headlamps, and staring at the feet in front of you. There was a little chatter, but mostly everyone was just concentrating on their breathing. As the air thinned out, it was really easy to get out of breath and getting harder and harder to catch your breath.
Although it seemed like we were going really slow (maybe 0.5 mph), we caught up to and passed quite a few groups. We were one of the fastest turtles on the mountain! During rests, Patrick would hand out hot tea, which tasted good. We weren't allowed to stop for very long though because you got cold really fast if you weren't moving.
About an hour into the hike (it might have been three hours, time was hard tell during the first 5 hours), Karla gave her backpack to Issa. All she had in it was water, but 4 liters of water is heavy! She felt much better and was able to stabilize her breathing easier carrying less weight. Issa didn't seem to mind a backpack - he's a rockstar and probably the reason Karla made the summit! (She might have made it carrying the backpack, but definitely not as fast and would have been miserable.)
Matt really started to feel the altitude after about 4.5 hours. He had a headache and was nauseous. Once we got to Stella Point (18,848 ft) around 5:30am, Nass told him to take a longer rest than the others. Karla wasn't excited about leaving Matt behind, but we made a pact beforehand that if one person couldn't make it, the other one was supposed to go on. Karla and the other 3 started out for Uhuru Peak while Matt took a longer breather with Nass.
With the hardest part behind them, the stretch from Stella Point to Uhuru seemed to go by fast even though it was probably an hour. When the big sign at Uhuru Peak came into view, the guides started dancing and singing. It was quite inspirational and made the last 5 minutes go by fast!
Once at the peak (around 6:30am), we all took a moment to take in the view...the sun rising over the clouds...the glaciers...it was all breathtaking. Everyone was taking pictures and hugging and high fiving. All had scattered about the peak to take pictures and were getting together to get a picture taken in front of the sign when Matt appeared - woo hoo! He was only 10 minutes behind everyone else. At Stella Point, Nass had Matt tell him his symptoms. Nass determined that while Matt wasn't feeling well, it wasn't bad enough to send him down, so they started toward the peak together. It does flatten out so Matt didn't lose much time and was able to join everyone at the peak. We got our group picture taken at the peak - all 5 of us - just as it was meant to be.
After getting a group picture, the guides wanted to get us off the peak as soon as possible. Especially Matt. The best cure for altitude sickness is to descend. The descent trail from Uhuru to Barafu was interesting. It was a lot of scree, so you sort of walk/slide down it. Issa held Karla's hand and helped her glide down. It reminded her for roller skating growing up, so she kept calling it a couple's skate.
The descent to Barafu took about 2.5 to 3 hours -with all of us getting there by 9am. Once there, we crawled into our tents and had a good two hour nap. Adam then woke us up and asked us to get packed up. After packing, we had lunch and then were hiking again down to Mweka Camp. Matt's altitude sickness went away once we got under 13,500 feet or so.
Our knees and hamstrings were complaining quite loudly by the time we got to Mweka Camp. 9,000 feet is a long way to descend in one day! The camp itself helped us forget the tiredness because it was so pretty. We were back in the rainforest, so lots of trees, thicker air, and a joyous feeling since we all had made it to the summit! Oh, and we had our toilet tent back - it's the little things like a toilet tent that make you happy while on the mountain.
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