Kilimanjaro, pt. one

We've been walking up a steep hill for several hours, at first giddy will the novelty of a midnight ascent, now just trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other. In the early hours the headlamps behind us snaked down the ridge like a torchlight parade, now they are mostly just ahead, rising almost directly above us, the the length of the chain never changing before it disappears over a false summit. False indeed. I know from my watch we have hours to go. Lift a foot. Step forward. Lock the back leg. Pause. Repeat. It's very dark, but my headlamp is off, the cones of light in front and behind plenty with which to see. We shuffle along as tight as a chain gang. I look at my watch. 3:20. Could it possibly be only ten minutes since I last looked? In Swahili, I don't think there is even a name for this time. The day begins at six AM, so seven is called one o'clock. My feet are cold, but just barely. As long as we keep walking. It's the breaks I dread. The altitude and the night steal body heat like caravan thieves. Just keep moving, people! Even if it's a crawl. Pole pole is the mantra you hear from every guide and porter. Pole pole kama cobe. Slowly slowly like a turtle. Swahili is so melodic. It pleases the ear. Especially the honey baritone of some of the porters. The stars are incredible. Some familiar constellations- Cassiopeia, Taurus, Scorpio, Orion. But different- on their sides or upside-down. And also the southern hemisphere nebulas- like chunks of Milky Way, but free-floating. I've seen three meteors already. Enough of a reason to keep the headlamp off. It's definitely getting colder, and time is crawling. In college, I worked as a night security guard in the dorms. I remember the same kind of delirium creeping in between 3 and 4. Time slows, thoughts are disjointed, the neck slumps and snaps. Suddenly there is light in the sky behind Mawenzi Peak! The hard part is over. Soon the sun's rays, magnified at 18000 feet, will warm our bodies and recharge our spirits. Soon we'll reach the crater rim of this magnificent volcano, past the shimmering, shrinking glaciers, and then the summit. We'll get the clients to the top, despite the struggles, and take in the view from the rooftop of the continent. I came to Africa to lead groups up Kilimanjaro. But first, I had to climb it myself. There were two clients- a middle-aged couple from Tennessee, plus my colleague Caleb, Tanzanian guide Saimon, Abi the cook, Innocent the waiter, Babu the toilet guy, and six other porters. They work incredibly hard- charging up the mountain with loads slung along their backs and more balanced on their heads. In the evening they crammed into the cook tent, smoking cigarettes and joints and joking with Abi. The hike itself is fantastic. Starting in the cloud forest dripping with lichens and epiphytes, blue monkeys jumping tree to tree. The strange call of the Heartlaub's Turaco. Then out of the forest and into the moorland, the heather becoming smaller and more shrub-like as you climb higher. Into the alpine where the senecio and lobelia cling to the more lush valleys, only bare dirt, rock, and glacial moraine in others . Beautiful little yellow "everlasting" flowers defy logic at 15000 ft. And then the glaciers. Monkeys and glaciers in the same trip? The Machame route is perfect for acclimatizing because you spend a lot of time sleeping in the 12000 ft range. On day three we climbed up to Lava Tower at 15000 ft, then back down to Barranca Camp at 12. From there we climbed to the beautiful Karanga valley camp, then onto Barafu, the high camp. It was from here that we made our successful summit push. 15300 to 19331 in one long night. The trip down was maddingly slow, the clients pushed to their limits. Finally we put one in the "stranger", a wheeled litter with shocks driven by a team of eight porters, for the last 14 km. The rest of us plodded along, dropping back down into the forest full of wild flowers and Colobus monkeys. At the Mweka gate- Cokes and smiles. Had a date on Friday, but she had to fly to Rwanda. Got stood up for some mountain gorillas. Better than a mountin' guerilla. Tomorrow we'll climb that peak again. I can't wait.