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We were "awoken" at 23:00 although none of us had slept much due to the gale force winds going on outside and nerves about what was ahead of us. It was cold as soon as we left the tents and the wind whipped through all our layers in what felt like seconds.
We had a very light breakfast in the mess tent of ginger nut biscuits and tea. Tarryn pointed out it was like an elephant was sitting on the tent the wind was making such and imprint on it. Matt felt we were like paratroopers about to jump out of an aeroplane. We all agreed it was very windy! We were ready to set off at 00:00 sharp as Charles had told us to be ready by then, he turned up at 00:15 (African time keeping) and we set off. Charles and Paul would be our guides up and we had 2 extra porters that would accompany us to the top and help us by carrying some of our water and extra layers.
It was very cold and windy as we set of in single file with our head-torches on following the little lines of lights ahead of us. They were the only guide as to how steep the climb was going to be as the rest of the mountain was in darkness. We had all our cloths on and despite this we were still cold. I still had a headache- a constant feature since 3500m and felt nauseous. I had no idea how I was going to walk uphill for the next 6 hours in this wind but just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. The wind was constant and strong making every step uncertain. It was bitterly cold and miserable. We didn't talk to each other and even when we did manage a few words the wind blew them away so we couldn't hear each other. It was a slow trudge of literally each step being the length of your foot, it felt like we were barely moving but yet I still was unable to go any faster. I was just managing to put one foot after another. Whenever the terrain changed and we had to take a big stride I was instantly gasping for breath and felt like I needed to rest.
After what felt like a life time we stopped for a short break, there was little shelter from the strong wind so as soon as we stopped we were even colder. Charles told us we had been walking for 3 hours but were making very bad time due to the weather and so had at least another 4 hours of this ahead of us.
We were all struggling Ruth and Tom were very cold and struggling with the slow pace that was providing little opportunity to build up a sweat or any body heat, they were keen to pick up the pace. I on the other hand was struggling even with the pace as it was and knew I couldn't go any faster. Tarryn was also cold and exhausted, we had had no sleep and only a few ginger nut biscuits so were running on empty. She considered quitting at least 4 times. I told myself if she gave up I would defiantly go down with her. Matt was struggling the most at this point but didn't really tell anyone except for a fleeting comment to me that he was hallucinating. I feel very guilty I didn't ask him more about this but I was exhausted and talking and making yourself heard involved so much energy. He later told us he was seeing rocks as tents and people waving at him. The floor felt unsteady to him and like it was opening up. I think had we been able to communicate properly and all been aware of how we were feeling we would have given up but we were all isolated in our own thoughts and wrapped up in just keeping going and surviving. I was also very aware that there was no easy way down and giving up would just mean walking down in the wind and the dark back the way we had come.
At 5.30 it was obvious we were all struggling and we had no idea how far was left but we made a pact to walk until the sun came up and then decide if we would go on. The sun came up at 6.00 and it was the most stunning sight I have ever seen. Unfortunately we were all so shattered we did not stop to appreciate it and no one had the energy to take their cameras out. The sun coming up did make us feel better though and it gradually began to heat up our freezing bones so we trudged on. Many groups had overtaken us during the night but there were still a few trailing behind us.
By some miracle at 7.30 (after over 7 hours of plodding uphill) we reached Stella point, 5756meters. We were all euphoric at this, I was close to tears. We had our picture taken and a short break. I think to be honest at this point we would have all gone down the mountain and been proud of our achievement. It was here that Matt told us just how unwell he felt, he was very breathless and unsteady on his feet. Charles checked his saturations which were reading as very low (rumours vary from 0.5-52% but we can all agree very low), Charles seemed to feel that this was due to his cold hands and told us he was confident we would make to it Uhuru Point- the true summit of the mountain.
So we carried on, Ruth guiding Matt up the mountain (later known fondly by the group as leading him to his death- subnote to this Matt did not actually die on the mountain, he made it down in one piece!). The glaciers around the top were stunning but I was too tired to get my camera out to take a picture. We walked for about another 30 minutes and the true summit was in sight. By the time we reached it all our previous excitement had evaporated. We took a few quick photos (I have no idea on whose camera as I am yet to see them). Some Australian's pushed in front of us so Tarryn had a few sharp words with them. Matt was keen for us to leave and so we started to head off again. There was absolutely no way we would ever have managed to do a 3 legged race at this point we had no energy left. The last 2 hours we had been running on glucose powder that Charles kept pouring into our mouths, affectionately calling it cocaine!
After we had come down a little way Charles stopped to listen to Matt's chest, he at this point decided Matt really was sick, he tried to give him oxygen but the tubing for the cylinder was broken and so it did not work. At this point without talking to us at all the 2 porters picked Matt up one under each arm and pretty much ran down the mountain with him. Matt tells us as soon as he was a few hundred meters below Stella point he felt better and was able to walk and breathe again normally. Ruth was understandable concerned (as were the rest of us) so followed Matt quickly down the mountain. Jack and I were struggling with tiredness so stayed behind and took the decent a bit more slowly.
The walk down was almost as miserable as the way up, our legs were so tired and walking down the steep shale hill was horrible. Our legs were very achy and so there was a lot of slipping and falling over. It took us 2 more hours of steep slippery downhill for us to get to camp. We were tired and hungry having only eaten chocolate bars and glucose powder for the last 10 hours. We were also dehydrated as our water had frozen early on in the night.
After 10.5 hours of pretty much constant walking we made it back to camp. We were relieved to hear that Matt was feeling much better and that we were going to get to rest for a couple of hours before we had to walk again. Nasuru helped us take off our boots and brought us hot drinks before we retired back into our wind beaten tents to sleep. This time the wind did not keep us awake and we all slept deeply for 2 hours before being woken again for lunch and another 4 hours of walking down to our next camp!
Lunch was vegetable stew and eggy bread but with the altitude I still wasn't feeling hungry. Then we started walking down again, our camp for the night was at 3100m so we had a long way down. It was sunny and as we got further down there was gradually more plants and that meant more oxygen so gradually the effects of altitude wore off. The views were stunning again and our spirits began to rise, we even managed to finish the walk with a sing song as we entered a spectacular campsite in the jungle. We walked for 14.5 hours today, our bodies were aching and despite us all making it to the top none of us felt particularly ecstatic about it, all we wanted to do was rest.
- comments
Nicky Wow Holly, this really creates a very vivid sense of everyone's anguish, each in their own way but it also reveals the tenacity of your group.