August 14, 2006 – Team Reaches Summit of Kilimanjaro

The Summit Sign on Kilimanjaro

Hello this is Andrew from Mweka Camp after our descent down Kilimanjaro.  We reached Stella Point yesterday at about 3:00pm and decided to go to the summit.  We spent the night in the crater and we left there at 8:00am this morning and now we are at Mweka Camp.  We are completely tuckered and it’s been an adventure of a lifetime.  Safi, Rodrick and the whole team have been unbelievable and I’d do it all again but not tomorrow.  Thanks!

Hello this is Twyla calling after Andrew’s message.  From where he left off, we had beautiful weather yesterday for our summit day.  We were reminded of how real the altitude effects can be as two people were sent down from the group who camped beside us that night.                       

So up we went on our way to a junction near the top where we could plan to go and sleep in the crater or head on to the summit.  On our way up we saw many hikers on their way back down, for lack of a better description they looked horrible.  They had done a night ascent, which means they left at 11:00pm at night and hiked through the night until 6:00am to the summit and then headed straight back down.  They were very tired stumbling over their feet and hanging on to their guides.  Andy and I were happy that we chose the 9-day option with Berg Adventures to acclimatize and to allow us to do a daytime ascent.

So when we reached the junction we both decided we felt good enough to go to the summit, and we made it to the roof of Africa!  We were very happy, there were 4 of us up there, Safi, Rodrick, Andrew and I.  We stayed up there for half an hour to 40 minutes or so just enjoying.  I asked Safi to take my blood oxygen level just for kicks and found out it was at 66% and if I was in North America I would be in the hospital.

We descended down into the crater after that and there I got a headache and it was -22C overnight so that was pretty cold.  Both Andrew and I woke up this morning with headaches so we were happy to start our descent.  So we began our descent from 18,700 feet (5700m) down to 10,000 feet (3050m) where we are now.  Tomorrow we head back to Arusha and we can send you a dispatch before we leave the park here.  Bye.

All Text, Images and Audio Files © Berg Adventures International 2006