Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch
March 5, 2008 – Team Settles in at Lava Tower Camp
Hello it’s Tracy and I’m calling you from Lava Tower Camp at about 15,215 ft. I am currently, to my left, looking at the top of Kilimanjaro. The clouds have opened up and we are able to see it. It looks so close but yet so far. I can also see Lava Tower. We are literally camping right below the 200 metre peak.
The team settles down at Lava Tower Camp which is
at approximately 15,090 ft/4,600 m
The hike here today was a 1,250 ft hike gain. It was a little tougher than before even though it was a four hour day. We took it nice and slow. When the sun shines at this altitude it gets quite hot but when the clouds roll in the temperature drops extremely low which means we are stopping many times to adjust our clothing.
Once we got to our camp, we were again greeted by songs by our crew, we settled in and had lunch. After lunch Trevor, Greg, Julia and I, along with our guides Eric, Simon and Frank made our way up to Lava Tower in a slight storm of sleet and snow. It is an interesting scramble to say the least; a couple of scary sections for down climbing but we have wonderful guides and everyone did very well.
The other team members are now currently advantage of the sun peaking through and heading up to the tower.
Some of the team has decided to start on the Diamox program. This is a diuretic that you use at high altitude to ward off any symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness. We are taking this to ensure our success of the summit. When we did our pulse oximeter readings last night everyone read well and all are still feeling great.
As I mentioned earlier, it is much cooler at this altitude. We had frost on our tents this morning when we woke up and will probably have it again tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have a longer hike to Karranga Camp. We will go down into the Barranco Valley and then up the great famous wall. Stayed tuned as this amazingly strong BBBS team continues on to the summit of Kilimanjaro.