Day 4 Kilimanjaro Barranco Camp to Karanga Valley

Thursday February 10^th.

3,950 m to 4,200 m

Gas problems again, but as severe. Slept off and on, then really windy for a couple of hours and I thought the tent was going to take off! Made too much noise to sleep. Listened to three albums on the iPod and finally drifted off.

Camp has a great view of the summit – Yikes!

Started really steep uphill climb at 8:30. There were lots of people as three different routes up the mountain merged and camped at this spot. As a result there was a traffic jam going up especially at a couple of real treacherous spots where we had to work around and clamber over rocks. The traffic jam slowed things down, pole pole, and made breathing easier. We climbed for two hours, up, up, up and finally reached the Barranco Wall and then had a rest and some water.

Now it's a long climb down! That sucks, because you know you are going to have to reclimb it later! But apparently, the up and then down for awhile helps you to acclimatize. Down a half hour. I slipped on loose gravel twice and wiped out. We crossed a stream and then a half hour back up the other side to Karanga campsite. It was a long hard climb again. So, I made my decision, I'm doing 7 instead of 6 days. I couldn't bear that hike, then lunch, then another three hour climb, sleep and then be woken up at 11:00 for the all night climb to the summit. Not staying here at Karanga, I get to rest for the rest of the day (cause I'm exhausted) and then tomorrow I have a short three hour hike to base camp before the afternoon and evening nap and rest time, before the all night climb and morning descent back to base camp. I hope that makes some sense.

Emmanuel was okay with the decision. I collapsed into my tent, had lunch delivered, fried chicken, fries, mango, cucumber and tea. Then I napped for awhile, and then it started to rain! Not really hard, just enough to make climbing more miserable and slippery. So, I'm glad I made the decision I did.

Talked to the Russians about tipping the guides, it's a lot of money expected (more later). We exchanged e-mails and I took a photo of them.

Found out I have a five and a half man team! I have a guide, Emmanuel, a cook, Joseph, three porters, Amiri, Paul and another Joseph and a toilet porter (who I share with the Russians), whose name I don't know.

The porters have to go back down ½ hour hill to get water from the stream for this camp and for base camp. There is no water from this point up, it's all below us. So is fresh food, by the way. The porters make trips down to get more food each day. I think they climb the mountain about three times to my one, and they carry 20kg of gear on their heads when coming up! There is no way anyone could do this climb without the crew.

Slept some more and read. Cold, damp and lonely in the tent. That's one reason I wanted to do 6 days, to get off the mountain faster and back to warmth. But realistically, I know I will be more successful in 7 days. 6 day success rate is 80% and 7 day rate is 88%.

The first camp was 3000 metres, and now three days later, I'm only at 3900 metres! It's because we have gone up and down following the terrain. We've hiked a long way, but don't seem to be much higher. So if you figure it out, I thought we had to climb about 4000 metres, but actually it's probably closer to 5 or 5 ½ thousand metres when all is said and done. The summit is 5895 metres – still a very long way to go.

For the second night, I slept with socks, long underwear (top and bottom), a shirt, my fleece, a wool hat, pants and my boots inside John's sleeping bag, with mine draped over top!