Made out of people

Down from the Mountain

I made it up to 5900-odd meters yesterday, looked around, and deemed it rather cold, and the air a little thin. Then I hiked down.

That is: the Kilimanjaro climb may have suffered from poor weather throughout -- an hour or two of clear morning, followed by a day of rain and thick fog -- but thirteen of our sixteen members got to the Uhuru summit and have pictures of themseves there to prove it. I'm on that list, and it's good to have made it.

We then dropped three kilometers in five hours' hiking; I have a photo of Kili's peak looking very, very far up and very, very far away. I'm glad I've done it, but I'm looking forward to flatter hiking now. Like the Cascade mountains.

Our return was a little bit muted by the news that someone had just broken the world record for Kili ascent: 8 hours, bottom to top and back. That's a 4500 meter vertical ascent and back, going from full to half-atmosphere.

Wow. Makes our five day amble on the Mechame track with 36 porters and a dozen tents feel a bit ... slow.

Off to Tanzania now...

Yes, I know about the blog spam. Later, ok?