Team members were able to post updates on the trek Web site of their trip to Kenya via London or Amsterdam (with various connecting flights) that left them exhausted prior to this amazing climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro to benefit the resources and research supported by the Alzheimer Society of BC. This ability to communicate via Web sites, blogs and Tweets on a regular basis from such distance and altitude makes this a particularly exciting and engaging journey for all who follow the Ascent. I encourage you to read their entries, for they are engaging and I assure you that you will learn something interesting by reading them.
Lori is documenting the majority of the trip of Team #1 via blog or phone to the Society, giving first-hand accounts of the surroundings, the feelings of the trekkers as they meet their new guides, porters and other Kenyan friends, the arduous climbing of the Mountain, the beautiful surroundings of the African landscape, how much this landscape varies from place to place, and even encounters with elephants and others sorts of wildlife! Her accounts paint a vivid picture of Kenya and Kilimanjaro, particularly of the stark contrast of climate and vegetation from region to region on the Mountain as they trek from one area to the next.
A team doctor, Dr. Susan Hollenberg, accompanies the team on the trek for safety reasons, as do 2 guides who know well the lay of the land and 35 porters who carry the heavy equipment for the trekkers and supply the larger meals. The team spends their first night in First Cave, then will begin their ascent of Kilimanjaro via the Rongai route, which runs along the border between Tanzania and Kenya.
After hiking for 9 hours the following day, the team settles in to Mawenzi Tarn, the sole alpine lake on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, to spend 2 nights in order to acclimate to the surroundings. Amazingly, as one nears the summit of the Mountain, the lungs can only absorb half the amount of oxygen as when at sea level. This is one of the main reasons that acclimation is necessary, and one of the main reasons the Society’s Ascent is so successful, for it allows time for climbers to acclimate to the thinning air while many trekkers don’t. While five of the team members had altitude sickness, Dr. Hollenberg was able to give them medication, and they were able to continue the journey, walking along with a friendship walking stick handcrafted by Vancouver artist Chris Knowles each year for the Ascent.
The team then took a van to Mt. Kenya National Park up Sacred Mt. Kenya, where they got out, bundled up, and began the trek. They moved slowly, hiking the red dirt tracks to Mozes Camp at 11,000 feet, guided by local guides, Albert and Francis. Fortunately, Albert and Francis knew well what to do when the group spotted some baboons. Then the thundering crash of Forest Elephants nearby and it was time to call the warden and get the team to safety.
Then the glory of it all, the summit of what they had prepared for for so long. Team 1 reached the summit of Kilimanjaro on September 14th! Congratulations to them all! Said Dr. Hollenberg after a 15-hour day “That was the hardest thing any of us have ever done.” She stated that reaching the summit was like “doing the Grouse Grind for 7 hours in the middle of the night in the dead of winter, freezing cold with a headlamp and six-months pregnant.” (the pregnancy regarded the thin air)
Great cheer and tears filled the thin air at the summit. The view was immaculate, as it was a clear, cold day, no wind. The team then headed down past glaciers through a number of marks, facing shortness of breath, headaches, and other typical maladies of altitude changes. Yet, as Lori writes, it is the team support and commitment, the knowledge and strength of the guides and porters to keep them going, the level of dedication that began a year ago, not a week ago that gets them to the summit, or at least give it a go. For many of the climbers, it is memories that keep them climbing, memories of loved ones who had climbed their own mountains in the face of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. For these climbers it is this most personal strength that has brought them to this remote, challenging peak high in the sky, its snow slowly melting away each year.
biOasis is a proud supporter of the Ascent for Alzheimer’s. You may offer your support at Alzheimer Society of BC.
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Congratulations to everyone who completed the trek. What an amazing journey!