August 26 – From the roof of Africa

Hi, this is Kellie calling from the summit of Kilimanjaro this morning.

We had a wonderful walk up this morning from our high camp. The sun came up and we had just this sliver of a moon that was sitting on the edge of the crater’s rim. It was a really beautiful sunrise as we climbed up to the top of the mountain.

This was despite people sleeping very restlessly last night because of the high altitude. We had a few high altitude headaches and a few people felt nauseous. We did have a little bout of nausea in the middle of the night.

At any rate, it was a wonderful climb. Everybody made it to the summit. Now we have to descend 9000 vertical to the Millennium Camp.

Cameron along with her husband Keith, who together won this trip to climb Kilimanjaro with Berg Adventures International from Outside Magazine, took the cover of the magazine to the summit with them for a photo, to thank Outside for the trip.

A little side note is that there have been a few boyfriends made here. Cameron and Liz have new boyfriends! Ertus and John, who are our Chagga guides, were holding their hands pretty much all day yesterday and today to the summit. If it wasn’t for those guys, these gals might not have made it up here and they are very thankful that they are with them and helped them so much.

The group agrees that anyone who says Kilimanjaro is just a walk up should come and try it themselves. They’ll see for themselves that it is quite a challenge.