The days were long and tough! For the experience try walking 1-2miles per hour at a 30 degree incline and have someone blast you with a heater for an hour, then spray you with a hose for another hour and lastly drop the temperature to below freezing for an hour...yes all consecutively!
Pole, pole (pronounced po-lay) means slowly slowly. I was utterly sick and tired of that phrase by the time the day of the ascent came! It was quite useful the entire time, though. For 4 days I had an italian couple with me in my group and on Day 5 they decided to call it quits and descend secondary to a headache. (I don't blame them, headaches at altitude are rough)! So Day 5 I walked, pole pole, to Barafu camp with only my guide. That portion of the trek was easy. Upon arrival I was given some food and advice from other climbers. Thanks to my friends from Spain I had some Chamomile tea to settle my belly. At 700pm I went to sleep in preparation for the 1100pm wake up call to summit Kili in all it's glory. I woke, had some tea and biscuits and suited up with headlamp and all!! Half-way up to Stella Point I became nauseated and nothing would settle my belly this time. I lost all of my energy, but pushed on. I ran into my British friends who offered me some energy boosting supplements, but that really had no effect on me. So I struggled and dry heaved all the way up the mountain, to finally reach Stella Point at 5700m!!! AWESOME!!! The sight was amazing!!! I took out my dad's Steeler's hat and snapped a few quick pics...in between the dry heaving...and then quickly began my descent down the mountain. All my energy was spent and I have no idea how I made it back to camp and then 2 hours later to the next camp!!
On my Kili trek I've made some wonderful friends, without their encouragement I would not have made the summit. Also without the music given to me by my brother and sister-in-law and Tim I wouldn't have had the motivation to get from one camp to the next, so thank you!!!
