2 July, 2023 - Kilimanjaro Day 1

 We're officially on Kili!  This morning was a series of checks and paperwork... all morning.  We left our hotel at 7:30 for the Altezza hotel.  We weighed in, listed all of our valuables, checked items into the safe (for future reference, you're not allowed to carry much cash on the mountain at all.  They ran our cash through a counting machine, printed the receipt, had us sign it, then sealed it in a plastic bag, which would go into the hotel safe until our return.  They also did this with some of the other valuables (such as my zoom lens, etc, which weren't going on the climb).  They set me up with my rental gear, most of which was fine - the rental gloves were nowhere near as good as the ones that were stolen from my luggage, but, I still have all my fingers, so I guess they did the job.  Everything else was pretty good.  Ended up renting the sleeping bag, gloves, and a few various other things that I needed.  At 9:30, we met our crew and departed for the Londorosi Gate.  We made a pit-stop halfway, where I actually really enjoyed having my Tanzanian Shillings to buy some snacks.  Finally, we made it to the checkpoint for the park.

Quick side-note... Kili is an interesting experience all around, but let's talk about the nitty-gritty, while I'm thinking about it.  We're talking about the world's tallest mountain (from base to summit)... obviously not the highest, we all learned about Everest in school, but base camp at Everest is already at 17,598' (5,364m), which is almost at the summit of Kili (19,341', 5,895m).  So, a full climb on Kili is greater elevation change, but lower total elevation.  It's also a mountain that can be "hiked," meaning you don't really have to have specialized equipment such as ice tools, spikes, or ropes.  This attracts a very interesting crowd.  I'm in several online forums for people prepping for Kili, and you get everything from seasoned backpackers to people who have never bought a pair of boots before.  This made the preparation a little bit harder for me, because you had to filter through information that's just designed for privileged tourists who are basically paying big money for a summit photo, however they get there, from experienced outdoorsmen and hikers.  Due to the extreme use of the trail, the Tanzanian government strictly regulates who and how you get up.  By law, you have to go with guides and higher porters.  When I first decided to climb Kili, I wanted to go with a company that would allow us to climb it under our own power, carrying our own gear.  I actually found a couple, but you basically were then robbing locals of work by not having a full team of porters.  We found something comfortably in the middle, where yes, the porters carried the crew gear, and we were able to hike with a 45l pack, which, at times, almost felt too light for me, but it seemed to work for what we wanted to do.  We were also investing a lot of time and money into this experience, so we wanted to ensure success.  As a side note, always choose an operator that participates in KPAP (Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project), which ensures fair wages and treatment of your crew.  Law limits the porters to 15 kg of weight they can carry, and this is monitored at the gate to hopefully ensure they are being treated fairly.

So, our checkpoint was the Londorosi Gate.  Today was an experience of hurry up and wait all day.  You can see in the photos below the process for all of the porters checking in for all of the crews.  We also has to register with the park for our permits to climb.  

Londorosi Gate

Porters weighing in

Our first climbing group photo

While this was being done, we were served our first trail meal.  They take feeding us very seriously!  Fresh chicken and veggies, as well as the now infamous tea and coffee (which, by the way, they say not to drink caffein, but they always had tea and coffee available).  After lunch, we continued on about another hour to our starting point of our hike, which was the Morum picnic site, 3407 meters above sea level (11,177').  I actually didn't realize we were starting this high, but I think for most of us, it was just right.  It started the altitude acclimatization process, and frankly kept our clothes more dry because we drove through the rainforest rather than hiking it.  

The hike today was 2.43 miles, done in about 1:45.  The common phrase is "pole-pole", which is Swahili for slowly, slowly.  You want to just get accustomed to the thinner air for several days before the summit push.  

Let's talk about the shape of this mountain before you see my photos.  The first image below is from Kenya.  What you canNOT appreciate is how big this mountain truly is... Having backpacked in the Rockies, Sierras, Patagonia, etc., I'm used to the forced perspective of mountains in the distance, and you still have no idea on this mountain.  If you look at that first image, it looks like it's this tiny little volcano above the savannah... but look at the shadow between the trees and the snow.  It rises out of the Shira plateau, which is barely half the height of the mountain.  This is where we were hiking today.  We NEVER saw the full mountain before starting our climb... or basically until 2 days after we were done.  

When we started hiking, you could just barely see a little bit of the summit (or Kibo).  As we hiked, it started to clear, which was a really cool way to begin the trek.  I've included a few of the progression photos below:

Here's the first squatty "long drop" toilet of the trip... It was fun to see everyone's reaction to this beauty.  To be honest, I was kinda surprised it had tile inside and everything.

This man's a good sport... How many folks just say, "sure" when your cousin calls and says let's climb one of the seven summits...

This was out first time getting to see the top.  With the forced perspective, this is still 8,000' above our hiking location.

It's always good to know where your water is coming from.  On Kili, the common practice is to boil the stream water.  This is just down from our campsite.

Sorry to do more bathroom pictures, but... you have NO IDEA how badly I would have liked to see these before we started our climb.  Quick summary - a "toilet tent" is a popular add on for the Kili climb.  If you can picture it, you hire a toilet porter to carry a little phone booth size tent with a marine toilet to every camp throughout.  If you go on the forums, 99.9% of people recommend doing this.  It was very hard to wade through the information before the trip, and we waited until almost game time to opt for the toilet porter.  My thought was, I've grown up in scouts, I can use any bathroom, I'll be fine.  But, when I read about people getting norovirus and other stuff on the mountain, I thought maybe it was safer to spend the money... as well as provide another local with a job.  I think we would have been fine, but I have no regrets about the expense.  

But just in case, here's the inside of the bathroom at Shira I camp.

Let's also talk smartwatches for just a moment.  Garmin for the win!  The folks tracking with Apple watches had dead batteries every day, then the watches wouldn't sync with GPS, so the only ones who got full tracking were us Garmin users.  I was able to track each day individually, then combine the activities at the end to see the full route.  I zoomed out on the map so you could see the crater of Kili below.  

Finally, a couple of hiking photos...

Tea and shortbread was a staple for the trip.

JT checking out home for the week.

Dining tent.

The usual campsite set up.  Wash buckets on the table and the dining tent.

JT between our sleeping tent and our bathroom tent.

Dinner the first night was really good.  As we got further from the road, the amount of vegetables got a lot less...

After dinner, we always did a "med check." Which, was basically a quick interview with our lead guide, Baraka, and a pulse oxygen check.  90% and higher was fine.  80%-90% you were allowed to continue, but closely monitored... under 80% and they would start planning on your evacuation.  They would also be watching how much you ate, and how you behaved throughout the day.  Already on day 1, we had a couple of folks struggling with the altitude.

Finally, we chose a full moon ascent.  Not really on purpose, more because it fit our schedule.  It was really neat to see the full moon above Kibo from camp every night.  These pictures were taken late at night... all the light is from the moon.  Sorry for the long post, this is purely stream of consciousness... 2 years later.  If you made it this far, thanks for reading.