For what it's worth, I'll add my thoughts to the mix, in the hope that my real life experience can be of some help to those considering a climb.
I think I can safely say that my experience was very similar to all people on my trek, so there must be something in that.
Firstly, should you do it?
If you'd have asked me on summit night, or the day after, or possibly the day after that, I would have said a resounding "No!"
It was without doubt, the hardest, most exhausting, impossible thing I've ever done in my life.
To tell somebody it's the hardest thing they'll ever do is pointless. I have no idea what you've done up until now, nor do I have any way of explaining to you how hard it is.
All I will say is this. Everything up to summit night is do-able, but gets progressively harder.
Summit night, is beyond difficult, and however difficult you can imagine something might be, times it by 10. It's brutal, cold, dis-orientating and utterly exhausting, and you will feel like giving up and dying, but unless you are actual ill, or suffering from AMS, you'll probably manage it...just.
And now the confusing part. Apart from being the worst day of my life, it was also one of the best.
I can't explain it, but all that suffering is totally worth it. It is without doubt, the experience of a lifetime.
So I would say if you're fit, healthy, no heart problems, of sound mind and not too elderly, DO IT!
Tips for training before the climb:
Try to lose a bit of weight if you're slightly over your optimum body weight (and lets be honest, most of us are)
Get yourself generally fit by being doing some aerobic training.
Train and work your walking muscles by climbing hills, and spend progressively longer so that before you go you can fairly comfortably walk 6-7 hours.
Don't go mad and over-do it. Ultimately, all you are doing on Kili, is walking. It's the lack of oxygen that really counts.
Tips for life on the mountain:
Sleeping: It gets cold at night, even on Day 1 at low altitude. It was sub-zero on our first night and I was cold.
If you wear too many layers in bed, the sleeping bag can't retain your body heat, because it doesn't get any. It's all trapped around you in your clothes.
The best tip I can offer, is get a silk sleeping bag liner.
When I used mine from Day 3, I was almost warm at night! I was certainly warmer than my tent buddy who didn't have one. Also wear a wooly hat at night, and get the best ear plugs you can find. Try them out before you go and make sure they block out noise completely.
The sound of people snoring when your sleep, which is disturbed by altitude anyway, is almost unbearable, and kept me awake every night. Lack of sleep will totally ruin your summit chances.
Some of our team took Night Nurse, which they said helped them sleep, but maybe take medical advice on that one as sleeping pills are meant to be a very bad idea.
Food: force yourself to eat. Altitude makes you lose your apetite and feel sick. You absolutely must take in calories otherwise your body won't cope.
Stomach problems: The first place you can get food poisoning is the hotel the night before you set off. Start being careful from the beginning. Only drink bottled water and don't eat anything that's not cooked/ piping hot. Washed salad, ice cubes in drinks or fruit that is already peeled is asking for trouble.
Drink: LOADS (not alcohol, obviously)
Toilets: The long drop toilets are grim, and get grimmer the higher you go. Once you've used one once, you just get used to it. It's got to be done, so just see it as part of the process. It's so different to what we're used to in life, but embrace it as part of the experience.
Take plenty of wet wipes, but not so many that weigh you down.
Be fastidious about cleanliness and use alcohol gel all the time. You cannot use it enough, and it's the only way to kill germs on the mountain. The water won't do it.
We all used it like a bunch of crazy people, and not one of us got stomach problems.
With that in mind, be ever so careful what you eat and drink on the mountain. Our water supply was filtered, but stay away from fruit that you don't peel to eat. I actually stayed off fruit altogether.
Medical Supervision: I wouldn't attempt Kili without a trained doctor on the team. It can literally be a life saver. If you're feeling ill, you absolutely have to tell people.
Clothes: The higher you go, the colder it gets. Have thermals and plenty of layers and a good down jacket. Also take a full set of lightweight waterproofs and good solid waterproof boots.
Pole Pole: Everybody will tell you to walk slowly. As you get higher, above 10,000 feet, I can promise you that any strenuous effort will stop you in your tracks. At extreme altitude, just bending down to tie your laces is a huge effort. When you get to final camp before summit, TAKE IT SLOW. Force yourself to move slowly otherwise you will hamper your chances of a successful summit.
Try to stay calm and relaxed. Even the slightest annoyance or aggravation will affect you at altitude, it honestly will.
Summit Night: It's freezing cold. My water froze instantly. Don't bother with a camelback. Even the insulated ones. You cannot prevent them from freezing. I even wrapped mine in a heat pad, but the pipe freezes. Best to take a number of Sigg bottles or simliar and keep a couple near your body. The larger volume of liquid takes longer to freeze. My camelback froze straight away, so I only had a 1l Sigg bottle and a small plastic water bottle, which wasn't enough for summit night and beyond.
That for me was one reason why I didn't make Uhuru.
The other was lack of sleep and lack of food, and the final straw which is my final point; do not rush.
You must take your time even if it means dropping back down the group. I was near the middle as we approached Gilmans and we pushed too fast in the last 10 minutes for me, and it finished me. The boulders near the top are huge and you cannot imagine trying to scramble over a boulder in the last few hundred yards after walking all night with 50% oxygen.
This got me stressed, which resulted in my suffering from the altitude quite badly. I started falling asleep due to lack of oxygen.
Gilmans Point is tiny. It was mobbed, over crowded and dark when I arrived.
With the effort to make it up there in the last 10-30 minutes, I was exhausted, dis-orientated, nauseous and literally on my last legs.
If you take your time, from here, as long as you're not ill, it's approx 2 hours further to Uhuru and back.
Most importantly, trust your instincts and listen to your body. I knew I could go no further at Gilmans.
You cannot afford to push yourself beyond what you feel is safe. You'd have already done that at this point. You'll know if you can continue or not, but there's no prizes for being stretchered down or even dying on the mountain side.
Remember, it's not a life or death situation, it's life only. And it's only a mountain. BE SENSIBLE.
The descent, in many ways, is much worse. You have nothing left to give physically, yet you now need to walk back down the way you came up overnight. It's actually harder to stay upright walking/sliding down the scree slope from summit. It's so difficult, and camp seems to never get nearer.
Descent is totally exhausting. I fell over 3 or 4 times, and fell asleep every time I was down. It is tortuous.
From camp you'll stop for lunch, and then continue another 4-5 hours to a lower camp. You'll feel like a zombie. It's hideous, completely and utterly hideous.
So my main points would be: Sleep, eat, don't rush, listen to your body. Easier said than done on all 4 counts.
Tips for life after the mountain. What nobody tells you:
The physical side:
My legs were painful for about 3 days after returning. I lost the feeling in the tips of my big toes (from the arduous descent) for about 3 weeks.
My body was physically drained for a good few days.
My stomach wasn't right for at least a week.
The emotional side:
Returning home from Kili, leaves you feeling like you're in bereavement. It's an emotional roller-coaster that honestly took me 3-4 weeks to get over.
Nobody tells you how much you'll miss your trekking buddies. Nobody tells you how much you'll miss the experience. Nobody tells you that the trauma, euphoria, suffering, joy of climbing Kilimanjaro will affect your emotions so deeply.
We all experienced it. We all missed each other like somebody had died. We all remembered our trip with enormous fondness even though it had been so hard on so many levels.
The emotional toll is very very real, and it will serve you well to expect that.
So that's it. Probably the best and worst thing you'll ever attempt in your life (unless you're a serious explorer)
But I can safely say, the good completely outweighs the bad, and if you do climb Kilimanjaro, you will have the experience of a lifetime. I would urge everybody to do it. It's amazing.
If you're about to go, and have any questions, drop me a line: mail at set-design.tv (replace the at with an @ and don't leave gaps, this helps keep the spambots away)
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