Day Six-Brutal

Today was by far our toughest, hardest, most brutal day of the climb.

We woke at 4:30 and put on all, I mean ALL our clothes. A quick breakfast and on the trail at 6 with headlamps. The trail was hard and up ALL THE WAY. Unrelenting. Oh, and there was a fine layer of snow on the ground and fine snow falling all day long. We had expected to shed many layers as we went, but no- everything stayed on all the way. We had a break for hot beverages after about 4 hours which was nice to get but the break was very chilling. Then onward we went- much of the climb was scrambling over rock (with ice) and loose scree and breathing was extremely difficult. Right after our break, as we were huffing our way up again, the crew sang us fun songs at the TOPS of their lungs- lots of calling songs in kiswahili and a very strange version of la bamba. They love bob marley too.

At about 11 am we reached the rim of the crater which meant no more climbing, but we faced a very strong wind. The is a huge wall of ice- one of the remaining glaciers. Got to crater camp, elevation 18300 ft at 11:30. There were hugs and congratulations all around between our group and the crew. Everyone was very emotional, including the crew whose mark of success is getting our sorry selves up here.

We got in our tents to warm up in our bags and collapse. We have never had a harder day at anything for so long in such brutal conditions.

Another note on the snow- our guides told us that they used to always encounter snow at Shira Camp and up (12000 ft). We saw the first permanent snowfield just below the rim of the crater (18000 ft), and then the glacier up here in the crater.

Everyone has killer headaches up here. But, making it here is a very big deal because the summit is only 800 ft further up, and seems doable at this point. Just one more night of freezing to go.

One last note-after dinner most of us are feeling much better. Up at 4:30 again tomorrow for summit day!!!

PART TWO

Photos

1. Climbing up to the crater

2. Dede celebrating reaching the crater.

3. Giant glaciers at Crater Camp.

4. Our cozy camp for the night.