Day 6 - Karanga Camp to Kosovo Camp
At 16,000 feet, I can't easily breath and yet our staff is opting to breakout in song.
We still have to get to the top of the large ridge behind us, but we stopped for a picture and to sign in. Our camp, Kosovo, is still an hour away, but its an hour we don't have to do in the dark tonight!
Each camp required us to sign in. It was their park service's way of keeping track of all the tourists on the mountain.
Strava map from Karanga Camp to Kosovo Camp
"Not to assume it's impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it's humanly possible you can do it too."
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Book 6 -
Scree is like walking a broken glass at least that's what it sounds like. The crunch of walking on scree was present for much of the day. Eighty percent of the time you can't even take quick, furtive glances around. It's better just to look at the person's feet in front of you and where they're putting them. You miss much of the amazing scenery but you reduce the risk of stumbling.
Getting to camp today was an achievement I immediately celebrated only to have it replaced by fear as the clouds cleared away to expose the path toward the summit. We're now at the Kosovo Camp at 16,000 ft, far higher than I ever imagined I would be but the mountain still looms very larger above us. Tomorrow we'll attempt to reach the summit. Actually we start the hike tonight at 12:30am. Today is a rest day, but how to rest when your mind keeps generating fear and uncertainty and there isn't enough oxygen in the air to slow your breathing? The link to today's hike on Strava is here.
While i had trepidations, the staff from Climb Kili was very happy to celebrate our arrival!
I feel better after talking to our lead guide, Manny. I was worried about my heart, but having a headache, experiencing shortness of breath, and an elevated pulse, is rather typical at this elevation. Our guides graciously offered to carry our packs on the summit push tonight and we accepted. I don't know how they do it!
Realistically, "I" don't have a chance of making the summit, but "we" do. Good guides are your partner in the effort. They want to help you get to the summit as much as you want to get to the summit. It seems like it, but its not an individual effort. I will achieve this only with the assistance of our guides Manny and Singha. My success will be theirs too. I look forward to celebrating "our" achievement tomorrow with them.
While I do feel better, I never paid this much money to suffer this much. I guess that's not actually true. I paid even more for the doctors to cure me of thyroid cancer a little while back. In this case, I paid Climb Kili, their guides and the porters to show me what I'm truly capable of. It was Teddy Roosevelt who said, "nothing worth having comes easy".
I'm reminded of one of my favorite self-improvement books, "Younger Next Year". This is somewhere between an epic adventure and trying ordeal. In addition to the views, the environment, and the people you meet along the way, this adventure is a stark reminder of what we're all capable of and what we can achieve if we commit to it. In "Younger Next Year", the authors introduce the nautical term, "kedging".
Hundreds of years ago, when the wind died and the sails would no longer propel the ship, the crew's only option to move the boat was to row an anchor out in front of the boat, drop the anchor and pull the boat forward a few feet at time. That needed to be repeated hundreds of time to move to an area where the wind could be found. What an ordeal! Going through the ordeal of kedging or whatever your equivalent may be, the authors described it as this, "...climbing out of the ordinary, setting a desperate goal and working like crazy to get there. To save yourself." The authors suggest that tackling something new and difficult "opens your head up in an age when you're attempted to shut it down". Journeys like this change you and maybe that's the point of it.