Offtopic: "Pole Pole" to the Top of Kilimanjaro

Today is the last blogging day before Memorial Day on Monday, so as is now traditional, I go off-topic. Today, high points of my life. As in high points in the world that I have been to.

The highest point in the UK is Ben Nevis in Scotland, at 4,413', and I have been there. If you live in the US, Ben Nevis, at less than 5,000' seems comically low. If you drive to pretty much anywhere in the Sierra such as Yosemite, you pass this point on a routine road surrounded by trees. But Ben Nevis is 57° North (almost the same as Juneau, AK) and the tree line is something like 2,500'. Days are short, and the weather is harsh in winter.

The highest point in the lower 48 states of the US is Mount Whitney in Southern California, at 14,505'. This is also the end of the John Muir Trail (JMT). The JMT starts in Yosemite Valley and goes about 220 miles to the top of Mount Whitney, which is how I got there. Of course, although the trail officially ends there, in practice it actually ends much lower down at Whitney Portal where the parking lot is. We started our last day from Guitar Lake (see the pic) and got to the summit before the park service closed the whole mountain down due to an incoming thunderstorm. Amazingly, for the highest point in the main part of the nation, there is a building on the summit (see the pic).

The highest point in Africa is Uhuru Peak of Kilimanjaro at 19,341', which I have also been to. That's me in the picture below. You have to go a long way to get to somewhere higher—Kuh-e Shashgal, which is 3,456 miles away in Afghanistan.

So how do you get to the top of a nearly 20,000’ mountain? Slowly.

Slowly on two different levels. The first level is giving your body time to acclimatize to the altitude. And the second is to go so slowly that you minimize the demand for oxygen as you ascend.

We took five days to acclimatize. Each day we would go higher to a new camp. But more importantly, we would be higher still during the day and then come back down again, or take an acclimatization hike out of the camp to a high point nearby. “Climb high, sleep low.” With weight training, it is the rest days when your body rebuilds your muscles stronger. In the same way, it is at low level that your body adjusts to the altitude stress you just endured.

The second slow is going up the mountain. “Pole, pole” the guides say the whole time. “Pole” is the Swahili for slow (pronounced like “pawley”). You move your feet very small steps, not very fast, but you are still making progress. On a steep slope, the speed might be only be half-a-mile per hour but by going so slowly you are not demanding more than your body can deliver with the limited oxygen and you don’t find yourself panting with your heart racing, which happens if you try and go too fast.

From our base camp at about 15,000’, we went for the summit leaving at 11:30pm in the dark. It was a full moon so head-lamps were barely needed. The first part is not too hard since your body is already used to heights like that. Plus you are walking on smooth gravel underfoot, so it is easy to set up a rhythm and stick to it. The last 500m (1/4 mile) to the crater rim (Gilman’s Point) are really tough. You are already up at about 18,000’ and you can’t really go “pole, pole” since you are clambering over big rocks and stepping up. You can't get from beside a big rock to on top of it in small steps, you have to step up all the way. Your body is telling you to stop, you are short of breath, and needing to stop and rest every minute or so. Eventually, you make it to Gilman’s point, which is on the crater rim. Kilimanjaro is a volcano (or a volcono as the spelling error on the carved sign on the summit has it). You want to rest but it is sub-zero centigrade, maybe 10F. The water bottles are a mixture of ice and water, the camelback hoses have frozen up. It is comparatively flat to go around the rim to the real summit, just a few hundred feet of ascent, but it is still about an hour and a half to get there. “Pole, pole”.

In reality, the last part around the crater is a three-hour round trip for a photo in front of the sign on the summit. But what a photo. As the sun comes up it starts to get warmer. Then it is down again. Lunch. Then an eight-mile hike to the next camp further down towards the entrance. That day is about 15 miles of hiking over about 18 hours with one meal.

Here are the snows of Kilimanjaro, made famous by the Hemingway short story. They used to be much more extensive. People who have never thought much about it mutter about global warming, but actually the temperature there never gets close to freezing (thawing) point, so the temperature has nothing to do with it. The snows actually evaporate without turning to water (sublimation), due to changes in the wind patterns over many decades.

This was the first trip I have done with porters carrying gear. Our party was 28 people. The seven of us. Harold, the lead guide, Nelson and Emmanuel, the other guides, and 18 other people, mostly porters but also a chef and a cook. We ate our meals in a big tent sitting in canvas chairs with a table covered with a cloth. It felt a little bit Hemingway colonial, back in the era when a safari meant shooting animals with guns not cameras. The porters carried everything we didn’t need to keep in our day-packs: tents, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, extra clothes, all the other stuff apart from waterproofs (it can rain at any time), something warm, sunscreen etc. Plus all the food, the mess tent, propane, stoves, and who knows what.

So if you’re thinking of doing Kilimanjaro what would be my advice?

• You really can do Kili with no technical mountaineering experience. It is a walk. But it is the toughest walk I have ever done, especially the last hour to the crater rim. Don’t underestimate it, even if you are fit. Being fit at sea-level will help, not being overweight will help, having hiked some high mountains before will help. But unless you have experienced that sort of altitude before you don’t know how your body will take it. Martina Navratilova didn’t make it and I did. She got altitude sickness badly and I didn’t. Even in retirement, I’m sure she is way fitter than I am. You can’t take it for granted but the best way to improve the odds is to give your body time to acclimatize and don’t try and rush it. But 30-40,000 people a year attempt it and about half make it.
• Find a good guide company. We went with Team Kilimanjaro, who are headquartered in Britain and I have nothing but praise for them (their boss has done Kilimanjaro up and back in 18 hours, which is close to the record). The cheapest you are legally allowed to do is to go with one guide and one porter but you will have a better experience if you don’t try and pretend you are still a 20-year old student.
• If the trip is short, consider having them add an extra day. It will add a couple of hundred dollars to your bill but as a percentage of what you are already spending it is minimal. The rule of thumb apparently is that on three-day tours 30% of people make it, four-day tours 40%, up to seven-day tours at 70% success. All seven of us made it, and our ages ranged from 49 to 72.
• You need good clothing for the final ascent. You need three good layers for the ascent. A good base layer, pants, and windproof pants. On top, a good base layer, a shirt, a fleece and a down/synthetic jacket with a hood. Thick mittens. Your guide company can probably rent you the stuff you don’t have.
• If you have a porter carrying the stuff you don’t need in your day-pack, bring a few extra things like a pair of sandals (so you can take your boots off), a couple of books or a kindle. Maybe even some single malt scotch (we were dry all week since none of us had thought of that).
• Bring some old t-shirts, hats and that sort of thing. It is traditional to give away clothing to the porters and while a six-year old Disneyland t-shirt might not be that interesting to you, they will love it.
• It is malaria country, although it is rare compared to down near Dar-es-Salaam and the coast. Take anti-malarial drugs. Typically you start two days before you get there, and continue for at least a week after you get back home. You also need other stuff like Hepatitis A/B, typhoid, tetanus if you don’t already have them.
• It is also safari country, with several national parks within a couple of hours drive. Having gone all the way to Africa, it is great to see some giraffes, lions, zebra, elephants, water-buffalo, monkeys and more in the wild. These are my pics, not National Geographic or something.

Bottom line: it is a wonderful experience but don’t underestimate it.

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