Hi all:
Now having a basis for comparison, I can give this opinion. Taking six days for acclimatization on Kili made it seem that a day hike on either the main trail or the mountaineers’ route for Whitney has about the same difficulty level as the hardest day on Kilimanjaros hiking trails. In fact, such day hikes may have been a little rougher on my body than doing Kili.
Summit day (up to 19,340 feet) was difficult but only because we went 31 miles (Kibo Hut to summit, than all the way to Kilimanjaro National Park HQ), instead spending one more night at an interim camp or hut. For our group of four, only one person had any AMS symptoms, and not until 18,000 – so we all made it. We did it very slowly, taking 6 days, which was probably a huge help in acclimatization.
I finally got all my Kilimanjaro pictures on the Net at Webshots. I was waiting for my new computer to do so. And the Ngorongoro Crater safari was likewise enthralling. To see the pics try this:
Cut and paste this address to your browser:
http://community.webshots.com/user/TonyTarn Or, Go to the webshots.com site and search for TonyTarn
Here is our trip report:
Day 1: 9/24/2007 We drove to the northwest side of Kilimanjaro to start at the Rongai Route. We began at about 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) at the Rongai Gate. We ended Day 1 at an elevation of 9,446 feet (2,880 meters) at the first cave, called Simba Camp, just out of the rain forest and into the heath zone.
Day 2: We left for the second cave at 10,496 feet (3,200 meters) We stayed up to watch the stars and the appearance of the milky way galaxy. It was overwhelming.
Day 3: At the end of Day 3, we camped at Kikelelwa Camp at 12,710 feet. (3,875 meters) We clearly left the heath for the moorland zone.
Day 4: This was particularly exciting, as it was for me the highest I have ever been. We camped near the Mawenzi Tarn Hut at the base of the magnificent Mt. Mawenzi, one of Kilimanjaro’s peaks and the third highest peak in Africa (at 16,890 feet); our camp was at 14,104 feet (4,300 meters); then we day hiked, scrambled, up a ridge to 14,760 feet (4,500 meters), which is about 260 feet above Mt. Whitney.
Day 5: We headed out over the high alpine desert, the saddle between Mawenzi and Kibo, to arrive at Kibo Hut at 15,580 feet. Day 5 blended into Day 6 as we took a nap and after some tea, began our final ascent at 10:30 at night, September 28, 2006.
Day 6: Two other groups left Kibo Hut with their guides and porters at 11:00 PM. Both passed us between midnight and 1:00 AM. A light snow … got worse. We hit Gilman’s Point (elevation 18,630 feet, 5,680 meters) around 5:00 AM (GMT + 3) in the dark still, which is only about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) or less, from our goal, Uhuru Peak, the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro at 19,340 feet. We made it at 7:15 AM.
Tony B.
