Berg Adventures on Pinterest
Berg Adventures on Pinterest
Berg Adventures on RSS Feed
Berg Adventures on Facebook
Berg Adventures on Facebook

Follow us:

Title image - BAI takes you to:  Kilimanjaro
Why climb with Berg Adventures

Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

September 13, 2008 – Dave Climbs Hard and Makes It to the Summit of Kilimanjaro!

A team climbs to the summit in the dark of night so they can see the spectacular sunrise from the top of Kilimanjaro.

A team climbs to the summit in the dark of night so they can see the spectacular sunrise from the top of Kilimanjaro.

Hi everyone! Many people were confident I would make it, I wasn’t completely confidant that I could, but I did! As I was climbing, I was thinking “Why did I decide to do this? What was I thinking?” My guide told me that not everyone summits Kilimanjaro, I made it!

We left our camp at School Hut and then went pretty much straight up for the first few miles. We had great weather and a spectacular full moon which is one of the reasons I chose this date. We didn’t even have to use our headlamps for the first few hours. We were the only ones on this trail for the first three hours. When we hooked up to the more used trail, I could see why. I think this was because the trail was basically covered with scree. It was one step forward and a half a step backwards. It was harder than any trail that I have ever done it Colorado! The climbing was very tiring and then when I reached the top I was very exhausted. It was about an 8 ½ hour hike in total to the summit, but I did it!

The views from the summit were quite beautiful. There was no snow, but it was surrounded by glaciers. I was totally exhausted but I knew that I still had to go back down. As some of you know, going down can be a little harder than going up! We literally skied down the loose gravel scree and rocks. I was fortunate to have my two ski poles and our 8 ½ hour summit climb turned into a 3 hour descent.

We stopped at a camp for lunch but by then I was too tired to eat. I wasn’t really looking forward to the 3 hour trek to our next camp. I was one whipped puppy! By the time we reached our next camp, I crawled into my sleeping bag and went straight to sleep. I managed to sleep at least 12 hours and woke up feeling rested for the next phase.