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Day 1
There are a handful of routes to reach the summit, and we chose one that would allow us to acclimatize well and also see different aspects of this great peak. We started on the north side of the mountain from a town called Loitoktok in Kenya. On the first day of the climb, we were driven to the trailhead at 6500 feet to meet our guide and porters and begin the climb. Camp one was to located at 8700 ft about 4 miles up the trail making it a relatively short hike to reach our campsite. The climb on this day was through a large area of cornfields created by Tanzanian squatters at the edge of the park, then a brief incursion into a thin band of forest before the trees turned into tall scrub. Our guides were most interested in whether or not we were able to walk slowly enough – they wanted to train us in a pace that would get us to the summit. Normally, as a family we hike at a brisk pace so this was a bit of a change for us but necessary for a chance to be successful in our summit bid. The slow pace made it possible for us to hike without breaking a sweat.
The other thing our guides
were dealing with was the presence of our two children, Daniel and Kristin, ages
14 and 11. It was pretty clear that
the guides had doubts of their chances of making the full climb to the summit.
There were many animated discussion going on between the guides in
Swahili early on in the trip that seemed to be about this topic.
As the days went on, there was a shift in their thinking as they saw how
well adapted to climbing the kids were and the ease with which they made each
day’s goal.
On to the next page - Day 2
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