The Climb, pole pole
Day 7
The Climb, pole pole
Our time finally comes, we get ready quickly since we slept in most of our clothes already, all we had to put on was our outer shells, gloves, and hats. We start by eating tea and cookies unlike every other meal Amos warns not to eat or drink too much. Our blood ox looks good and we start. Gabe has made another come back. He had me worried last night he was really sick but he gets dressed and jumps in line for the summit.
It is dark and we move like snails zig zagging across the final 3000 vertical feet of the mountain. We are climbing with our guide Amos leading me Luke Gabe and 2 other assistants in a single file where they carry the water, and cameras both of which freeze before we get too far. We meet a large group of 30 climbers from the UK that camped a couple thousand feet above us, at the start they are laughing and have party lights on their backpacks as they pass us.
The Climb, pole pole
It is dark and we move like snails zig zagging across the final 3000 vertical feet of the mountain. We are climbing with our guide Amos leading me Luke Gabe and 2 other assistants in a single file where they carry the water, and cameras both of which freeze before we get too far. We meet a large group of 30 climbers from the UK that camped a couple thousand feet above us, at the start they are laughing and have party lights on their backpacks as they pass us.
Amos is setting our pace and route pole pole (slow slow) is what he keeps saying. I can still breath with my mouth closed and talk; that didn't last long. The next two hours I start laboring to breathe my heart rate spikes I don't want to look at anything but Amos feet staying close and trying to stay out of the head wind. I am still able to talk but when I do I pay the price by taking me a few minutes to get breathing back under control. I can see the boys shadow from the headlamps behind me. I don't look back anymore I now am dizzy have terrible cotton mouth we have 5 liters of water in the guides packs but the hose coming out is frozen we get it broken loose and we look like we are nursing. we blow water back after we drink to keep the tube from freezing. The last 500 ft are a group of refrigerator size blocks stacked on top of each other very steep. I am more than dizzy now I am in a surreal state not talking I hear Luke and Gabe struggling behind me. The guides start singing. Every block we climb up someone has left a pile of vomit when we try to duck behind a rock someone has claimed it for a bathroom leaving a mess. We finally climb around the last group of large rocks and see the peak. Still dark but starting to see the sky brighten.
We finally reach the summit look into the glacier for a brief minute the storm stops we can see people in every direction most of them were in the high tent camps, we didn't want to waste time so we take the quickest route. We ain't having a party no disco lights on our bags in fact we get our cameras they are frozen phones also. We are now met by half the UK group with their disco lights flashing they aren't having near as much fun as 4 hours ago they had some of their group had to turn back and waited behind some rocks until they split. Finally found an old camera to snap the pictures as we stepped aside for the next group.
We finally reach the summit look into the glacier for a brief minute the storm stops we can see people in every direction most of them were in the high tent camps, we didn't want to waste time so we take the quickest route. We ain't having a party no disco lights on our bags in fact we get our cameras they are frozen phones also. We are now met by half the UK group with their disco lights flashing they aren't having near as much fun as 4 hours ago they had some of their group had to turn back and waited behind some rocks until they split. Finally found an old camera to snap the pictures as we stepped aside for the next group.
It looks like we chose a bad night. Our plan is to reach the summit by sunrise, watch the sun rise, and enjoying what we had just done walking along the rim of the crater. It now is sleeting ice pellet's blown by 50 mph winds that are sandblasting my face; visibility turns to shit. Luke and Gabe did great on the rocks and we are discussing next move as Amos checks blood ox Luke is low 50s he says he feels ok other than his heart feeling like its going to explode but that's normal. To complicate things more we look over the boulders and Amos yells its the Chinese and we don't want to be crossing trails up and down. Plus we are in the wind exposed getting colder by the second.
We weren't spiting up it has been an adventure we reached the summit now we have to get down to better air. Luke and Gabe are taken by the the arms by Stoney and Antonio and the jump hitting a gravel pit like a alpine skier they skate down the steep part of the mountain where I see them falling rolling but they are flying down. Me on the other hand fell 3 or 4 times, rocks are now snow covered, my balance is bad so I gave up skiing down the gravel therefore I start back on the zigzag path I came up still winded having to stop I am maybe half way to base camp and I see Gabe and Luke now on the flatter surface they will be at base camp an hour earlier than me. We have 1 hour to get breakfast then we continue 4 hours back to Horombo this is the start of the 2 day walk out. We don't eat Amos is not watching our food and drink so we quit both. We try to sleep but any type of sound sleep will not happen at this altitude. The good news is as we descend we start shedding layers causing us to get warmer. We are very tired but we begin to breath easier.
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