Mike Kim Travels...: Day 9.3: The Kibo Calm Before The Storm...

... that's at 15,420 feet for the metrically challenged (or lovers of the extremities of English kings).

Only one update this week. Sergey is back from Africa! Bittersweet for him, but good for me as I'm excited to hear his tales.

Anyways, we made it to Kibo Hut, which is pretty much the base camp for the rest of Kilimanjaro. Between Kibo Hut and the summit at Uhuru Peak (by way of Gilman's Point), there is nothing resembling civilization except 1,100 meters of dirt and rock.

Barack is excited as well.

Above is the first real sleeping hut we have seem for trekkers. As I covered in a previous post, this is a part of the "Whiskey" and "Coca-Cola" routes where trekkers don't have to sleep outside. The outside looks solid enough, but inside is kind of a B-O heavy bunkbed central. Because we were combining with those other routes, however, the number of people we encountered easily tripled.

As you can see, we set up right beside the sleeping hut, as the tent setting area is actually fairly small. This made things pretty loud, and since trekkers leave to summit in the middle of the night, there is a fair buzz going on at all hours. However, we were so tired that we didn't really notice. Resha and William pretty much immediately went to sleep, as we had to get up in about 10 hours. I couldn't just go to sleep, however, and not take the opportunity to explore this area, so I fought off sleep and wandered around, hoping I didn't regret this.

Here is an aerial view Kibo Hut at the base of Kibo peak. Pretty cool aye! I took the above picture from on top of a rock facing almost due west.

Here is the view from the same point facing due east, where we came from. As you can see, the path on the middle left just disappears into the clouds of the Saddle.

Here is a view of that same path taken from a different angle. The above photos were taken from atop that rock in the middle. It looks deceptively flat, but it easily gains a couple hundred feet before the cloud.

I actually don't remember taking this, but this is a picture of Mawenzi in the distance, where we had hiked from the previous day. The clouds have most burned off just long enough to give us this magnificent view.

Still my favorite peak. Looks way more majestic than Kibo below.

That's Kibo. Looks more like a big rockpile than anything else. You can see the path kind of meander into the middle of the photo, and then from there it pretty much is switchbacks all the way to Gilman's Point and the crater rim you see at the top. That's what 900 meters vertical looks like.

That gap you see in the middle of the top of the rim is our target for sunrise at Gilman's Point. It looks so deceptively close, but don't let it fool you... it is the harbinger of death.

So, here is William, happy before the final ascent. Little does he know.

Here is me, calling my Babe Ruth shot. I think the mountain heard me, and as a result of my arrogance, decided to teach me a lesson. And boy, what a lesson it was.