When we arrived at Arrow Glacier I felt like I had already made it to a new milestone, but I had one more notch to attain in my belt. That night at Arrow Glacier Vanessa told me about the infamous American climbers who parished in 2006 in a rockslide on this side of the mountain. And sure enough that night there was a major rockslide. Vanessa asked me what the noise was in the pitch black of night and I said it sounded like a rockslide, but if the ground wasn't shaking we are ok. My guess was confirmed the next day by Ayumwi. The wind whapped and whapped that night.
The next morning we awoke at 5:15am to prepare ourselves for the toughest roughest route up the mountain. We got our packs ready, I took my diamox, ate breakfast, took vitals, put warm water in our bottles and put them upside down to avoid the freezing at the lip. The wind was still blowing (whapp!!), I gave myself the sign of the cross and we began climbing at 6am-up the jagged rocks that were probably the demise of the climbers in 2006. I thought to myself, "God help us." Every step was a step closer to the top. Pole' Pole' I had to take two seconds between each step - Vanessa was way ahead of me. I was feeling a little slow and breathing heavy-another symptom of AMS, but I figured I could go at whatever pace I needed to go to reach the summit. Finally a break came-maji maji (more water). I was so freaked out about this massive climb that still lay ahead- I did not want to have to worry about having to go to the bathroom too. No worries though, the shear adrenaline, cold, and rock walls that awaited kept me from thinking anything bathroom-wise. Continuing on we got to the first wall of rock, then another and another. It felt like the mountain got taller and taller with each step. About halfway up Vanessa had a panic attack because of our past, present, and future cliffhanger moments. This was one serious climb. I told Nessa that this was not the time to freak out!. The porters were singing us up the mountain and passing us by. We took another break and Ayumwi realized that we were not in a good spot - a shear and fractured mass of rock was above us - time to go! We were free-climbing from 15,981 ft to 18,783 ft. Nessa in her freakout moment screamed, " we should be roped in and harnessed!" To which I replied, "No! We don't, we're already halfway there!" Pole' Pole' (slowly slowly) up the shear rock-hands stick in the fractures to pull myself up. God get me up this mountain rock wall I kept thinking. We finally make it up at 1pm - 7 hours later!! The view extinguished my exhaustion - we still had 553 ft to go. This was Crater Camp.
Stopping for lunch was awesome! Our porters had the mess tent set up and the bathroom tent. Our lunch was my favorite! Grilled Cheese with tomato, green onion, banana and fried with Blue Bonnet butter-mmmmmmm! Nessa and I always had our appetite, that is why we think our crew liked us. Most trekkers loose their appetite the higher in altitude they go. When I was feeling bad I still managed to eat - very slowly so as not to vomit, but I still ate.
After lunch we continued up the rest of the mountain to the summit. Pole' Pole' we reached the top and yet we still had another walk to the summit post. I was enthralled with the view that my steps to the post were fumbling yet steady.
ARRIVAL!!! We made it to the summit at 3pm. I said some prayers, took some photos/video, left my mark (bathroom break, sorry Kili), and was ready to go.
Jackson (our other guide) and I took off to Barafu Camp in a sort of snowboarder meets dirt in heavy duty boots - It was an awesome ride/run down the mountain. We left Vanessa, David, and Ayumwi in the dust - literally. We arrived at Barafu an hour before them (our porters as usual had everything set up). I was able to give myself a wet-nap bath and change out of my dust clothes.
We went up one side of the mountain and down the other!
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