Best Advice

Best advice: Pay for a portable toilet. I also wanted a guide trained in wilderness emergencies and who carried a hyperbaric bag up the mountain. Both cost extra.

JACKIE CROSBY

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http://sevensummitsquest.blogspot.com/2010/01/kilimanjaro-2010-final.html

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I'm sure that any of the expedition companies will provide detailed lists of the required clothing and equipment but here are some practical tips on what to do with it.

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An amazing list of travel websites

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The Right Clothing

You probably haven't been able to escape the fact that earlier this year Jessica Biel (?) and a group of other celebrities (??) climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for clean water. They called their climb Summit on the Summit. A documentary of the climb will air on MTV on March 14th.

My wise friend Diane suggested that I check out the clothing that these hikers wore on their trip. Certainly they would be outfitted in the state of the art. It turns out that Eddie Bauer was a sponsor of the climb so much of the clothing was from that company. But it's a good company. It has a line of clothing called First Ascent. Here's what they wore and the category of each piece. I think I now understand the difference between "hardshell" and "softshell".

Outerwear Down Cold & Dry: Downlight Sweater Jacket
Outerwear Down Ultimate Cold Weather: Peak XV Down Jacket
Outerwear Hardshell: Frontpoint Jacket
Outerwear Softshell: Mountain Guide Jacket
Insulation Ultralight All-Activity: Bat Hang Hoodie
Outerwear Ultralight Rain & Wind: BC-100
Hardshell Pants: Rainier StormShell Pant
Trekking Backpack: Little Tahoma

At least this is a place to start. I ordered the backpack so that I can start practicing on day hikes this spring and summer.

The Routes

When I first started this blog, I set up a Google alert for "Kilimanjaro." So every day I get an email with links to any new posts on blogs and websites that contain the word "Kilimanjaro." It's amazing how many there are every day. I usually spend about an hour a day reading these alerts. Just when I think I have read all that I need to know and/or that I am really wasting my time, I find a site that just blows me away.

I have been trying to wrap my mind around the differences among the various routes - unsuccessfully until now.

Here is it: just as the name says Africa Travel Resource. There is a list on the left of each route. When you place your cursor over the name of a route, it highlights the route on the map. I assume that the dots are the overnight stops. Maybe I am a visual learner but I find this really helpful. This is the first site that I have found that describes a "North" route.

Here's what it says about the different routes:

"Trekkers who are less than absolutely confident about their fitness, or who are pressed for time should start with the Rongai route. Those absolutely confident in their fitness and willing to spend longer on the mountain to increase the chances of summit success should start by taking a look at the Shira route. People not too worried about costs but who simply want the ultimate trek should look at the North route."

This is going to be a really difficult but critical decision.

Getting Acclimated

How does this sound for getting acclimated to altitude before starting the Kili climb:

1. Fly to Amsterdam

2. Fly to Geneva

3. Take the train to Zermatt (5,315 feet)

4. From Zermatt, take the cog-wheel train up to Gornergrat (10,000 feet), then take a cable car to Stockhorn (11,588 feet) and hike around

6. Next day, from Zermatt, take a cable car to Little Matterhorn (12,533 feet) and hike around

7. Next day, take train back to Geneva, fly to Amsterdam

8. Stay overnight at the airport and then fly to Kilimanjaro

That's what the authors of Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (Carmichael and Stoaddard) did to acclimate to altitude and get over jet lag. They also suggest going to Chamonix, France as a closer, less expensive (but also lower) alternative to Zermatt.

Sounds great to me. All it takes is time and money!

Amazing photo

Apparently there is an individual Soichi Noguchi who is an astronaut on board the International Space Station who has been tweeting and sending pictures from space including this one of Mount Kilimanjaro.



The tag on the photo says that it was taken January 19, 2010. Pretty scary if it is supposed to be snow-capped!

You can see more pictures here. It also allows you to rotate the pictures which is very cool.

This is serious!

Forget the travel brochures. To take a page from Rudyard Kipling ("If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs..."): If you still want to go after reading this description, then you are serious...or seriously crazy. I love the title: Climb and Punishment. This is the most graphic and detailed (and realistic?) description that I have read yet. And she took the Rongai route which is supposed to be the easiest!

Do I need my GPS?

I have a Garmin nuvi 760 which I bought to use in my car - before I bought my new car that has a built-in GPS screen. I was thinking that I no longer had a use for the nuvi but then I found this great site GPSTravelMaps.com from which one (I) can download a topographic map of Mt Kilimanjaro onto a GPS device including my nuvi.

Here is how it is described on their website: "In addition to the contours of the mountain, other geographic features are included in the map. Park boundaries for Kilimanjaro and Urusha National Parks, hiking routes to the summit, national and local roads, rivers and streams, lakes and wetlands, airports, campsites, and many more. This map is continually being upgraded to provide the best GPS map for the area."

But in truth I have never learned how to read a contour map. Should I try to learn now?

And what about keeping it charged? Obviously it would have to be with solar power. I do have a small device called a Microlink FR150 that I bought (for my son who has never used it) at Cabela's. It is a "Solar-powered, self-powered (read: hand crank) AM/FM/Weatherband Portable Radio with Flashlight and Cell Phone Charger." But it does have a USB port. So if I connected the nuvi to the Microlink using a USB cord and charged the Microlink using the solar panel, would I be able to charge the nuvi? I'll have to check it out. The wonders of technology!

But I'm still left with the question of whether to take the nuvi on the trip. If anyone out there has an opinion on this subject, please leave a Comment.

The Phases of the Moon

Here's something else to consider when scheduling the ascent: the date of the full moon. Most of the trips seem to make the final approach starting around midnight to arrive at the summit for the sunrise. Of course a headlamp will be a necessary piece of equipment anyway but having the "illumination" of the moon would be a great advantage. My science is very limited but from my reading I understand that the nights for about five days after the full moon are well illuminated from midnight until daybreak.

Here are the full moon dates for the latter half of 2011:
July 15
Aug 13
Sept and Oct 12
Nov and Dec 10

So I guess I will be looking for a trip that starts a few days before one of these full moon dates probably the Sept or Oct one.

Next Year Already!

Yikes! How did it get to be NEXT YEAR already? When I heard myself say "I hope to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro next year" I couldn't believe it. That sounds so much closer than saying "2011" when it was only 2009.

I picked up another book Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro by Stephen Carmichael and Susan Stoddard. It includes a 6-page appendix of items to take, all the way down to Ricola cough drops "to suck on at altitude where the air is very dry" and playing cards. They made their climb in 2006. That's nothing in geologic time but eons ago in technology. I won't be taking rolls of film or a Walkman tape player with cassettes. No mention of cell phones or GPS units, both now ubiquitous.

The lists of Warm weather clothes and Cold weather clothes as well as Gear (sleeping bag, backpack, etc) are long and cumulatively costly. Rather than shocking my bank account all at once I guess I will start eyeing purchases this year with whether or not they are "Kili ready." I watched a few episodes from the recent Summit On the Summit expedition by certain international celebrities. Jessica Biel (unknown to me but I am not a moviegoer) seemed to be a featured spokesperson and she was wearing a bright orange puffy jacket. Definitely good looking - the jacket. Bright colors are probably something to keep in mind in selecting clothes and gear. Less chance of getting lost.

hakuna matata

Learning Swahili

I was given a gift certificate during the holidays to Barnes & Noble. I didn't want to use it to buy more books. I already have a stack of TBR that will carry me through the next months if not year. But in browsing the shelves I found a package called "Teach Yourself Swahili". It consists of a book (300+ pages) and 2 CDs. The book is a series of lessons, vocabulary lists and a section of "useful phrases for visitors."

Certainly I don't expect to become fluent. From the introductory pages it seems that there are enough dialects of this language that exact pronunciation is not an issue. That's good for me. The only foreign language that I ever studied was French and I never could speak it - just read it with some proficiency. Nor do I think that any knowledge of Swahili is necessary for this adventure. But also from my reading it seems that the attempt to speak the language in whatever limited doses is viewed as a sign of respect for the local culture. And anything that generates good will in such a difficult and strenuous environment will be helpful.

Finally, learning a new langauge always seems to be on the list of "alzheimer prevention exercises for the aging brain." So I'll get out that old portable CD player or download the CDs to my iPod depending on the memory space required and give it a try. Fortunately we have become so used to having people walk along seemingly talking to themselves on their cell phones that probably no one will notice if I am practicing my Swahili out loud along the walking path.

Hujambo? Sijambo.

For viewing pleasure

To start your new year, get your beverage of choice and settle in for an hour to watch this documentary by Colin Nanka of his hike up Kilimanjaro and follow-on safari. It makes it seem very real: real people, real weather, real trails, real triumphs. You can enlarge the video to full-screen mode but it seems to lose some clarity when you do that. Imax it's not but it doesn't matter.

There is also a PBS NOVA video called "Volcano Above the Clouds" about Kilimanjaro which has a lot of good information from a different perspective.

As I was watching I found myself alternating between really, really wanting to do this with full confidence in being able to train for it...and being completely intimidated by the physical and mental challenges it presents. I think I have to do as the song says: Jump in and never look back.