They set us up so that Helen is with Justaz, Jen is with Hamisi, and I’m with Kefas. Jen’s in front, I’m in back. Using your powers of deduction, figure out where Helen is.
Early on it looked like Jen was going to beat us all there. Helen had problems with her boots (they were too tight and she didn’t have circulation), her hands (the hand warmers weren’t working). Jen was way ahead, and I was expecting to title this comeuppance. Justaz asked if I wanted to go ahead, and Kefas and I took off.
It’s a beautiful night, with a half moon and not a cloud in the sky. One of the porters is singing “How great thou art,” and while I’m still thinking of anything other than left foot, right foot I take a minute to appreciate how beautiful it is up here. It’s so bright that I switch off the head lamp, and just follow Kefas’ footsteps. I pass Jennifer, and ask if she wants me to stay with her – she tells me to go on, so I do.
Then I just turn off. I know there was a mind-numbing trek up loose gravel, and that the straw in my water bottle has frozen. I’m retching every 10-15 minutes, and making noises that indicate something bad is about to happen, but manage to keep everything down.
Kefas and I made it to Stella around 5 am. Thanks to my determined ignorance I didn’t understand why he was hugging and congratulating me. In typical lizard-brain fashion all I could think was “This isn’t the summit, what’s the big deal?” I asked Kefas if we should wait for the rest of the crew, but he thought they were at least an hour behind, and that we shouldn’t wait. We took a protracted break, during which I almost fell asleep, and then headed for the summit.
About 6 am I made it to the summit. The official certificate says 6:13 am, 24 July 2008. It was cold, it was dark, and I just wanted to get down. Maybe if we come back I’ll be able to appreciate it better, but this time I just wanted to get a couple of pictures and get down. Kefas was surprised I didn’t want more pictures, but it was so dark that the LCD on my camera didn’t show what you were taking pictures of.
Heading back down I ran into Helen, who looked awful. I mean god-awful. Evidently she had just been sick, but she did make it to the summit. I asked about Jen, and they had just passed her.
We crested Stella, and I could see Jen at the bottom of the gravel. I was so empty at the point I just started breaking up when I saw her. She had a similar reaction. When I got to her we tried to go back up together, but were both too spent. Think we look a little beat here?
We ended up turning back, where the real beating began.
There are two ways to get back down the mountain. You can go back the way you came, which is both a beating, and requires navigating around the people still headed up, or you can go down the “quick route.”
The “quick route” essentially consists of dirt skiing. Seriously. I saw people using their trekking poles like ski poles, kicking up little trails of dust. You don’t realize how far you’ve come until you spot the camp way off in the distance, and keep reaching new plateaus where the camp isn’t.
The only comparable experience I can think of is running a marathon – a parallel that Helen echoed.
When we finally got back to camp they tried to feed us. For the entire hike I ate about two bites of Clif Bar, and I’m not hungry now.
We got a brief nap and then had to hike about 4 hours down to the last camp site. I don’t know that I’ve ever been more tired. I did, however, finish the Clif bar.
On the plus side, I got a good night’s sleep.
2 comments:
Which way did you go back down,
the way you came up or the quick
route?
A mixture - when I met up with Jen we went down the quick route.
Post a Comment