Kilimanjaro #11 of many- Barafu and Uhuru Peak!

At the last camp... Barafu... we got there after a short morning hike. This is Day #6.

 at camp

 Mt. Mawenzi... one "sub-peak" of Kili. Apparently it is the third highest peak in Africa after Kili's Kibo summit (where we went) and Mt. Kenya. I'm not sure where Mt. Meru stands... maybe 4th?

 Me, Godo and another porter. They wished us luck in the evening as we tried to get some rest before summitting. We went to bed at 6pm to wake up at 11:30pm for a small bite and a 12:30am departure towards the top!

 A view of Barafu camp from above... this is from the decent from the peak about 8:30am

 A close-up. Literally a camp forged out of nothing

 At 5:58am officially... we made it to the very top. Uhuru Peak at 5895m or 19,340ft. Definitely suffering from ataxia and altitude sickness but nothing too bad.

 The whole group, sans our American guide Brian who got sick half-way up the climb. He went down with another guide. He was OK but had been fighting a sickness so he was too weak to continue.

We had reached here at 5:00am on the way up. I was jabbering on about nonsense at that point, one of the "drunk" conditions of mild altitude sickness. James gave us some hot water that he schlepped up the hill and we stayed warm till we got to Uhuru about 30 min later. I took this picture on the way down... probably was about 6:45am. Then we began the long decent down, plunge-stepping down a scree field which was awesome but required intense focus and energy to place each foot right with momentum on the rocks... Dusty too! We got down in about half the time it took to ascend.

Kilimanjaro #10 of many- Karanga continued...

More shots from my #1 campsite:

 Mt. Meru sticking up like a cloud nunatak (look it up if you don't know this "glacier" vocabulary word!)

 Same shot at sunset

 13,000 feet is cool!

 Dad in front of Kili and alpenglow

 Dad-less

 Same shot, 2 hours later...

 Big Dipper is upside-down over the left of the Mtn.

Another night shot!

 Southern Cross (like a Kite) almost in the middle of this frame

Cloud-floor with the near-full moon setting to the West

Kilimanjaro #9 of many!

to KARANGA camp...

We left Baranco and conquered the wall and earned some nice views... it wasn't a lot of hiking that day and we ended up at Karanga. That was an awesome place and I really bonded with that place. It remains one of my favorite places on Kili.

 Gideon and Jake after the wall.

 One of the last plants I saw for three days

 Despues de escalar!

 Ever upwards and onwards

 Karanga

 I liked this camp and felt inspired to do Yoga. Yes, that small building is the loo... with a view! I led some (late) sun salutations for Nick and Brian as others laughed and egged us on (and took our pictures!) I felt rather wonderful after some stretching. This was a great place!

The sun beginning to set and shadows are cast on Kili

Kilimanjaro #8 of many!

After hiking past the Lava Tower, we made it to Baranco camp... it was a long day of hiking!

Yours truly enjoying a little bit of Hank Lentfer's Faith of Cranes before tea time at 5pm

 A view of Kili... we get some definitions of a couple glaciers. Our approach to the summit was around the right side... but it's hidden from view at this angle.

 Two "White-necked Ravens." No joke, can you see their necks?!

 The next morning... folks starting early up the Baranco Wall.

 Steep going and slowly... Pole pole as they say in Swahili. It means slowly. The phrases I picked up for these types of situations are Pole pole kama kingonga which means, "slowly like a chameleon" and Imara kama simba which means, "strong like a lion." Both of those came in handy both as reminders to hike my own hike and to make conversation with the porters along the trail.

More climbing... almost to the top of this reach!

Kilimanjaro #7 of many!

High Altitude plants:

I haven't spent much time researching the names or scientific names of these species but they are cool and worth putting up here. Please excuse my lack of effort in the scientific realm for this post!

 Succulents... (*edit: These are the beginnings of Senecio kilimanjari)

 Hiking towards Baranco camp... on the left is the infamous Baranco Wall. It's nickname is also the Breakfast Wall. As it is a sharp climb out of camp first thing in the morning, guides informally tell you that you'll either "Use your breakfast" or "Lose your breakfast!"

 More plants endemic to Kilimanjaro's alpine.

 Walking through Dr. Seuss-like forest on the final approach to Baranco. More Senecio kilimanjari!

Everlasting flower (grey leaves, white flowers- always open apparently); some yucca-family plants (probably the baby-version of the forest seen above- dang, I forgot the name!); Yellow daisies too!

Kilimanjaro #6 of many!

Life Above the Clouds. After Day #3 we spent our lives above the cloud-line. I have always had dreams of writing a song entitled something like, "Pilots Never Have A Cloudy Day" because they always fly above the clouds... even in awful weather they are in the sun because they get so high up. Instead of writing that song now, I can just write this blog. This is our life above the clouds... it lasted until the end. We had sunny days with some few clouds hanging out over the glaciers and snow on Kili itself. The good life indeed!

 Dad and Jake chillin at camp one afternoon

 Alpenglow on the African ceiling!

 Above the Rim!

 Sunny days

Heading down to Baranco camp. All rocks... except for some plants which I'll post next.

Kilimanjaro #5 of many!

Day #?... onwards to Lava Tower (15,300 feet). This marked the highest elevation that anyone in our group had been to, except for the guides and porters of course. We peaked out here and then hiked down to 13,000 feet at Baranco camp (post #8). From this point on we averaged our days around 13k' until we reached the summit camp at 15-something. It was awesome to be at such high altitude.

 Simon with us three

 The crew heading towards the Lava Tower... the top of which was 15,600 feet ad involved a little bit of rock climbing/scrambling to get to the top.

 Getting closer...

 Me and James at the top of the Lava Tower. His nickname is Baba Bigwa in Swahili... it means, "Father Champion." He is one of the oldest guides on the mountain, VERY well-respected among the porter and African staff from all guide companies, and has summitted over 250 times. Wow.

 Throw the Shaka, bro!

Jake after our lunch at the Tower.