'I Slept like a fat baby girl.... with alot of nerves'!
It's here.
It's snowed even more.
It's pitch black.
I'm having a quick morning wizz by the side of the tent when from above (we are camped on a steep slope) an Amercican lady shines her headtorch on me yelling 'oh look! That girls trying to have a pee!' From the darkness - what seems like a billion headtorches are turned on in my direction. Lovely. Can't stop now... already peeing...
I finish - pull up my 4 pair of pants... and bow.... to hear Praygood from the other side of the porters tent sniggering away.
Hilarious.
I'm sooo friggen nervous.
I look up to see once again, the procession of head torches already ascending.... trying to get the the first sumit 'Stella Point' (5735m) by sunrise... goodluck guys... its going to be scramble.
We begin by about 12:30.... climbing over the loose volcanic scree, headtorches on, following our guides up the well beaten zigzag trails.
Its hard. Very hard. The lack of oxygen is now at its lowest. And my cold has developed a nasty cough to help it along. Perfect timing of course. Remarkably, I thought the snow would make it harder but in fact it seems to be softening every step and actually helping with the shock absorbtion.
I'm slow.
My breathing is laboured.
I have to keep stopping although Ben keeps saying no stopping! Just Polepole!
I can't NOT stop.... just for 20 seconds...
He doesn't like it.
Eventually, William and Ben have a conversation and decide that it's time to part. Wiliam will walk with Nic... and Ben with me. Its kinda sad, I know I can't keep pace so Nic and I wont summit together, but afterall it's an individual challenge.
After we spilt, I actually feel a little less pressure. People are passing me and its ok. I focus on my own breathing and my own steps and nothing else. Then sunrise happens. Ben and and I stop to watch it... it's almost religious. There's no one around us... most have rushed to the crater edge at least. But we aren't there yet. I climb for about 9 hours (I kid you not) before I start seeing the start of people decending. In a moments panic, it only now occurs to me that I might not make it all. It's a horrible crushing feeling, that is not helping my state of mind. Yes this thing is physical, but mentally challenging against all.
Can I seriously still do this? Is there enough time?
I fire 101 questions at Ben... and he takes a moment to process them all.... his responses:
'Why not?'
'Whats the rush?'
'You have no signs of altitude illness'
'If all you are suffering from it tiredmess... that is nothing'
....ummmmm ok, I'm friggen exhausted... and even if I make the 1st summit I still have to get down and walk another 4 hours from base camp!
'No problem Simone -.just Poĺepole'
So we continue... one step at a time...
I can almost see the summit, and have chosen to ignore the majority of decendants well wishes, ment wilth golden intentions of course, the weird stranger encouragement is grating. Then I think I hear my name amongst all the babble coming at me, and I look up to see a girl handing her poles to her guide and launching herself at me. It's Alex bless her. She's summited and is on her way down. She hugs me, I cry, and she says all the right things about keeping going. She's right of course. I'm incredibly lucky not to have any signs of altitude sickness. So I mush on. Not long after I pass Nic on her way down, and that gives me further fire. I'm seriously moving like a tortoise...but I'm moving.
At one stage I yell to Ben 'Kili is killing me!'
He responds of course in song.....:
'Killing me softly.... with his words' etc but changes all the lyrics around to match my climb story.- hilarious.
And then, almost out of no where (11 hours on)... I'm at the Stella Point - with just two other people up there. Yep the crowds have left.... and perfect for me.. so have the clouds! I have the best weather all morning - and clearly, will have the best photos.
I'm exhausted but have an extra bit of energy from somewhere.... when Ben chimes in with... 'so are we finishing this?' The 2nd summit, and the tallest point Uhuru Peak is at 5,895m and is another 45min climb.
Ummmmm can I find the energy?
Again Ben chimes in.....
'You know we have a saying in Swahili; it's better to eat the whole cow and not leave the tail'
I can't look at him.
I know I must be driving him batty with my slowness. I simply pick up my sticks and keep walking.
It's not a steep climb... but the air is even thinner and of course this slows me down even further. Ben does eveything to distract me AND keep me on track. We pass a few more decenders.... but they are thinning out super fast. And then I see the signpost. I nearly wee my pants (or Praygoods pants).... Ben has been checking my lips, tongue and eyes now for the past half an hour. I think he thinks I'm not being honest about the Altitude sickness. And well.... APPART from the weird flashes of red and blue light I seem to be seeing.... I'm perfect.
We make the final summit. It's only Ben and I. I'm a blubbering mess, but I love that its just me and him and the glaciers and the clouds below. It's cathartic, and hands down the best thing I have ever done.
We take pictures, share the last of my snake lollies and pretend like we are just sitting around at sea-level. But only for 10.minutes or so... its about -12 but with a pretty decent wind chill factor..... it's time to go. We move down to Stella Point, theres just one person there now, and back.down the massive mountain. About 2 hours into the decent.... I see some familiar faces... Search Party no#2 has arrived with food and drink (4 of the crew) Praygood amongst them. I am sooooo blessed. Skulled some weird nectar and skied the best I could down the mountain as fast as I could. And just a bit further William had climbed up as well. Amazing, I checked with him that Nic was good etc and she was.
Whilst my knees took a hammering on the way up, my toes AND knees copped it on the way down. (They re still sore). I knew I was pretty much the last one off the moutain for the day. .. but thought I'd give the camp a couple of Koooweeees! On my approach. Much to the delight of my now 6 posė team of blokes who all had a go. No response though from camp. I wanted to try 'KaKah KaKah! (Nod to you K Young) but no one else would get that one! Anyway.... made it to the tent.... the boys took my shoes off (again) and then we had to decide what to do about the next retreat.....
Neither Nic or I could decide, so we asked the guides to. They gave me around half an hour to re-group, eat, shed some layers and instead of walking another 4 hours, we just did 2hours and stayed at an intermediate camp site. Phew, my knees and toes are painin', and my brain has lost all capacity to make valid sentences. We had an early dinner, and a visit to the mess tent from Baba no#1 (William) and Baba no#2 (Ben) to talk about the hacking cough I'd developed on top of the cold I have. They're concerned I've decended too fast now (can't win). I explained that it is just a cold and that I would goto sleep early etc and be better in the morning.
I cant comprehend that I made it.
I summited.
I friggen did it.
Was it a dream?
