Climbing Kilimanjaro - Day 4
The morning of Day Four arrived in gusts of wind, blankets of fog, and the realization that maybe I don’t actually enjoy tent camping. At this point I thought the wind was really bad, but I would soon find out it could get a lot worse. After a terrible night of sleep, I didn’t want to lie around longer than necessary so we got ourselves ready to go. This day I wore the same pair of baselayer tights and hiking pants, but wore a new wool bra, long sleeved base layer, midlayer pullover, and a pair of socks. We brushed our teeth and packed up our duffels (we’d become very efficient at this by this point), and stepped out into camp.
I was able to connect to the camp WiFi (thanks to that cable spanning the entire mountain) to get an update text out to my parents to let them know we were starting day 4 and all was well. After receiving their response and letting them know I’d be back in touch in a few days, I disconnected from the outside world once again and got myself back into the present moment. There is something so freeing about being completely disconnected from the noise of the internet, and immersing yourself in the moment of life that is actually happening in real time. I think it’s a habit we should all implement into our daily lives.
The Fog - Friend or Foe?
The first major task ahead of us was scaling the Baranco Wall - a massive, 900 foot rock face that people are usually either excited or terrified to experience. The fog was creating a misty, chilly morning and hiding the full scale of Baranco Wall from our sight. Since we couldn’t see the scale of the wall, there wasn’t much to amp ourselves up for except that we’d be climbing up for the foreseeable (or not to seeable) future. We ate breakfast and had our morning health checks around 8:30am. To start Day Four my blood oxygen was at 91 and my heart rate was at 99. I was thrilled with these readings as my blood oxygen increased and my heart rate decreased from the day before, and it definitely gave me a confidence boost.
When I was reviewing the elevation gain for the day’s hike during breakfast, I made quite a large mistake. The itinerary said we would be gaining about 160 feet of elevation on Day Four, but that was the difference between the camp we were at (Baranco Camp) and the next camp (Karanga Camp), not the actual elevation we’d be climbing throughout the day. What I thought was going to be about 200 feet of climbing turned into well over 900 feet (something I wouldn’t find out until halfway up the wall). As I exited the mess tent after breakfast, the fog had cleared just enough to give me a small view of the challenge ahead of us, and what I could see looked menacing. I could see brightly colored dots snaking up the wall, and I realized that those dots were people - dozens of hikers and porters that were getting an early start to avoid traffic. Our guides chose to get us started a little later to allow all the early risers to clear the wall first, but we still ran into a huge amount of traffic.
We got our filled water bladders from Jimmy, packed up our day packs, and started our trek toward the wall. The first half mile or so was a cruisey, flat trail that had us crossing small streams and winding through plants that looked like they were from another planet. We were moving fairly quickly during this first section, then we reached a small bridge crossing the stream, and started our climb up.
Red Light, Green Light
Y’all know that game red light, green light from childhood? Climbing the Baranco Wall felt like an amped up version of this game with all the stopping and starting. Before we started the climb our guides told us that they were the only people we were to listen to while climbing the wall. While the previous three days we would step aside for porters or faster climbing groups to pass, the Baranco Wall came with a new set of rules. Our guides told us not to listen to the porters that wanted to pass us, and that they (our guides) would give the only directions we needed to follow. Abuu was in the lead spot, followed by Danny, me, Kim, Katie, and LuLu bringing up the back of our group. They worked to keep our entire group together and not allow porters, or other climbers, to split us up. This was important because the trail was extremely narrow and didn’t allow for space to step aside if our group was to get separated. One section of the trail brought us to the famous “Kissing Rock”, which is so named because we had to get so close to the rock to pass the section in order to avoid falling off the large dropoff on the other side of the trail.
Now I know what you’re thinking - climbing up a wall means only climbing up, right? Well if you’ve read my other posts, you know that there is almost as much down as there is up on the Kilimanjaro trek. There were sections of the Baranco Wall where it was so steep we opted to sit and scoot down instead of trying to test the flexibility of our hamstrings. We would stop and wait for an entire group and a few porters to scale a particularly tough section, then take our turn and reconvene at the top. With all the stopping and starting, we did get a lot of breaks to drink water which I saw as a huge benefit. Our group had made an agreement that if anyone went to take a drink of water, we’d announce “Water!” to the entire group - hydration was a team sport on this trip.
The Baranco Wall was so much fun, but it was a trickster. I remember when we were preparing for this hike, our contact from WHOA Travel said “When you’re climbing and you start to wonder whether you’re at the top of Baranco Wall, you’re not. You’ll know when you reach the top.” Even though we knew this going into the hike, we still caught ourselves getting fooled by several false summits. As we got closer to what I thought was the stop (spoiler alert, it wasn’t) we came to a wider section where we could step off the trail and stop for a short snack, water, and bathroom break.
Harry, I’ve Reached The Top!
(Quick Home Alone 2 reference for y’all - IYKYK). After the final push of the Baranco Wall, we knew without a shred of doubt we’d reached the top. Kibo Peak was massive from this perspective, and the fog had parted to give us a picture perfect view of it framed by blue skies. We were all so excited that we dropped all our bags in a pile and ran over to take it all in. Abuu, being a seasoned professional, grabbed all of our gear and safely placed it in a small alcove where we’d have another break for ginger tea, cashews, and cookies. We spent a while at this spot, soaking in the majesty of the mountain to one side, a wall of fog to the other, and embraced the sun shining on our faces. We were already reflecting on our achievement of conquering the Baranco Wall, and I couldn’t stop smiling at what an amazing, fun experience it was.
After we were rested and ready to keep going, we had a long downhill hike to finish out the day. We were also prepared for this part of Day Four and knew that we would reach a point where we could see Karanga Camp in the distance, and while it appeared to be fairly close, we had to descend into the valley and back up the other side before we reached camp. Down we went, working a different set of muscles and testing how much weight I could put on my hiking poles. We entered an area of the mountain that was ravaged by a wildfire a couple years earlier, and the contrast of the ashen tree carcases with the flourishing new growth was incredible. There were such interesting trees and rock formations in this area, one of which looked like a massive mushroom that made me giggle. Whether it was really that humorous or the laughter came from delirium, we’ll never know.
We kept our pole pole pace as we descended into the valley, then searched deep into our energy reservoirs to finish the final ascent of Day Four into Karanga Camp. It was around this time that my heartburn returned again and this time I was just pissed off. I didn’t understand why it kept happening when I had cut out the porridge, the goo packets, and the eggs as of that morning. (The eggs were cooked in sunflower seed oil and I thought that could also be contributing to my issues). I took another Pepto pill and just kept pushing, ready to get to camp, and trying not to have a bad attitude. When we reached camp, the sign was a bit farther up the mountain - in the opposite direction of where our tents were. We were all struggling in our own ways but I requested that we all go straight to the sign to get the picture done, knowing we wouldn’t return to it if we didn’t. The others reluctantly agreed and with the picture captured, we ventured down to our camp to have lunch and rest for the remainder of the afternoon.
Yes, The Wind Can Get Worse
Remember earlier in this post when I said I’d soon learn how much worse the wind could get? The wind arrived with a vengeance as a storm system started forming on the summit of Kilimanjaro. We could see the storm gathering strength, and had to reassure ourselves that we weren’t going to be up there for another day and a half, and it wasn’t our concern at the moment. It was also another 6000 feet up, so we figured it would clear out by the time we made our summit attempt.
We were supposed to go on another acclimation hike (like we did on Day Two) but between us forgetting about it and Abuu enjoying his nap a bit too long, we ended up skipping it. None of us were too upset with the extra rest we got and didn’t feel strongly about trying to squeeze a short hike in. The wind was continuing to gather intensity, so much so that our tent poles of our mess tent were swaying launching in towards us while we tried to enjoy our meals. Salim, our chef, made these amazing pizzas for dinner but our appetites were all too shaky to really enjoy it. My mind wanted to eat the whole thing, but my body was not interested in anything outside of our traditional evening soup. Abuu and Lulu shared a bit of concern at our lack of appetite, reminding us that we needed to eat as much as we could. We also did our evening health check, where my blood oxygen was at 91 and my heart rate was at 95. We shared our highs and lows, got our briefing for the next day of hiking, and opted for an early night.
We parted ways and ventured to our tents for what we hoped would be a good night of sleep. Our hopes would not come true.
Sleepover!
As Danny and I got snuggled up in our sleeping bags, we were trying to rest but without much luck. The wind was so strong that being inside the tent felt like being trapped under the parachute you would bounce balls on in elementary gym class, with the same volume level of screaming children. I put my AirPods in to try to distract my brain when we heard a loud ripping sound - the last sound you want to hear coming from your shelter in a massive wind storm. From the inside of our tent, we could tell that it was the rain fly that was affected so we both got out (our first mistake) to see whether it had just come unzipped or if it had fully ripped. It was the rain fly, and it was ripped all the way to the top of the tent. As we tried to finagle it back into place, I noticed one of the stakes had come out of the corner of the tent, and before we knew it, the entire tent was upside down. To make matters worse, we realized we didn’t zip the front entrance back up when we got out to inspect the rip (our second mistake).
The bottom of mine and Danny’s tent after it flipped.
At this point Danny was wrestling with the tent as I’m running around camp trying to wake Abuu or LuLu or any porter that would respond to my call. Several people finally emerged to collapse our tent fully and gather all of our stuff that was inside before putting everything into Katie and Kim’s tent. Miraculously, Danny and I didn’t lose anything in our tent flip catastrophe, even if I’m still blowing sand out of my AirPods case to this day. With the wind as aggressive as it was, there was no fixing the tent that night so we had an impromptu sleepover. The four of us “slept” in a row, in one tent, with our four 90L duffel bags, four day packs, and a whole lot of chaos. It was a cozy fit to say the least. The sides of the tent were blowing so hard it was coming into my sight as I laid in my sleeping bag, my arm flying up to stop it in reflex. Katie and I were in the middle and just kept chuckling to ourselves about what a ridiculous, memorable moment we were living.
Laughing at how wild the day ended, with all of us packed into one tent and the weather outside continuing to gain strength, we did our best to find pockets of rest. While it was not the way any of us would’ve chosen to sleep that night, it turned out to be a fun side quest on our journey to the top of Kilimanjaro.
Day Four Stats
Day Four starting elevation at Baranco Camp: 12,959 feet
Day Four ending elevation at Karanga Camp: 13,123 feet
Hiking distance: 3.1 miles, 164 feet of total elevation gain
Highs and Lows
A nightly tradition during dinner was to share our Highs and Lows for the day. It was always a fun way to recap the day and see what everyone took away from it. Sometimes one person’s Low was another person’s High. I’ll share my own Highs and Lows for each day at the end of every blog post.
Day Four Low: the return of my heartburn and having some digestive issues
Day Four High: climbing the Baranco Wall was so much fun and I felt super strong throughout the whole climb
Health Checks
Morning Check at 8:30am - Blood oxygen: 91 | Heart rate: 99
Evening Check at 8:15pm - Blood oxygen: 91 | Heart rate: 95
Note To Reader
If you are reading this purely for entertainment, awesome! This disclaimer does not apply to you. If you are reading this in preparation for your own climb of Kilimanjaro, it’s important for me to note the following things. Before my climb of Kilimanjaro:
I was living in Colorado at an elevation of 5350 feet above sea level
I was in excellent physical condition and was 36 years old
I did not smoke, rarely drank alcohol and did not have any for two months prior to the trip, and did not have any other medical issues
I had been hiking to elevations above 12,000 feet for years and hiked in the mountains every weekend for three months before the trek
I physically trained for a year before my trek through cardio and weight training at OrangeTheory Fitness
I had a lot of gear already, although I did purchase a lot
Why do I include this information? Because research will be a part of your trip preparation and you’ll most likely read a lot of blog posts like this. A trend that I saw in my own research was that people didn’t include their personal background before giving advice or recaps of their own trip. To best understand my experience, I want to give you a basic understanding of me as a human, and the benefits I had before embarking on this journey. This may help you better prepare for and relate to the experiences I had along the trail.