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September 26, 2007 – Total Success on Kilimanjaro
Good morning, it’s Wednesday, September 26, we slept beautifully at this high camp at 16,000 feet, 3,000 feet below Stella Point and the crater rim of Kilimanjaro. The full moon has been up over Mawenzi all night, and there was a beautiful sunrise over Mawenzi as well. This group is doing very well; they acclimatized well enough to sleep even at this higher altitude.
What an inspirational team the Berg crew is here, their dedication to service, their experience on the mountain, their love of their culture, and of course their beautiful voices when they sing and welcome the group into each camp at night even these higher camps. I am going to tell you that this IP group has done well too, supporting one another, believing in themselves and climbing this mountain one step at a time. We’re going try to make it to the top now; we’ll keep you posted as we go.
Afternoon It’s about 2:35 p.m. on the 26th and I’m calling you from Stella Point on the crater rim of Kilimanjaro. I’m going to try and describe what the last few hours have been like for me. It’s been a privilege and it’s been great fun and inspiring to see this IP trek team roll past here on their way to complete success on top of Kilimanjaro today. A group first arrived early, not much past noon here at Stella Point and as they came towards the top, everybody had the same comment, “Wow, I had no idea.”
Now there are different tables set up right at Stella Point in a really sheltered spot with plenty of food including what I found most surprising, fresh sliced watermelon, a remarkable morning at 19,000 feet. We’ve been talking to people who have reached Stella Point and we’ve been encouraging them to go ahead and reach Uhuru. Right now, the entire team has crossed the top of Uhuru peak, except Richard, the chief guide and myself, and Linda and David Keltie. We’re thinking we might as well go over the top as well, we can hear the radio call from most everyone that has reached the top asking to speak to me and telling me that it has felt great. Today, the 26th of September, has been a remarkable successful day for this team. I’ll report to you from the crater camp tonight This team has performed great today and things have been really fantastic. A couple of hours later
As we were coming across, I saw the porters scoot past the bottom of the crater bringing the last of our supplies into the crater camp. I know all the members that I spoke to earlier have crossed the Uhuru and descended into the BAI crater camp. Understand, the entire team has had remarkable success, all of them leaving the high camp and reaching the top of We’ll be sleeping literally on top of Kilimanjaro in the crater, 18,700 feet. It’s going to a cold night, but we have a great team, great equipment, and we’ll spend our final hours at the top of All Text, Images and Audio Files © Berg Adventures International 2007 |
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The anxiousness and anxiety yesterday that Linda and I and many of the others had discussed – I can report to you today in the early morning sun, that’s far away because now it’s time for action, it’s time for this group to begin moving to the top of Kilimanjaro, Stella Point and on to our crater camp and hopefully on to Uhuru, our scenic peak at the very top of Kilimanjaro and the top of the continent of Africa. This IP trek group has had an amazing adventure, and as a team they have performed beautifully over these last long days.
What they are about to see is that they look down into and across the massive crater of Kilimanjaro filled with glacier and snow, and far away about a kilometer and a half away at that sign post, the famous sign post that marks Uhuru peak at the very top.
Now it’s 4:30p.m. in the afternoon on the 26th and I’m calling you myself from Uhuru peak the very roof top of Africa after all I’ve reported to you about the other summits to Stella Point where David Keltie and Linda met me at Stella Point, Linda said, “I need a good cup of tea” but after they took some tea, rested and got hydrated and a little bit of calories in them, the final six Berg Adventures staff members, we’ve been waiting for them, and myself started out around the crater rim and in fact, David and Linda reached the summit of Uhuru just past 4 pm.