This is a panoramic shot of the Barranco headwall with Kili in the background.
(all pictures are High res, for low res click here)
This is a panoramic shot of the
Barranco headwall with Kili in the background.
The next morning we began our trek
from Shira Camp to
Brarranco Camp. Along the way we stopped at Lava Tower Camp (14,500 ft) for
lunch in the sun
. We climbed a little further
in the high alpine desert
before we headed back down
into the high moorlands
and the really old Senecio
Kilimanjari's
.
As we got to Barranco Camp (12,500 ft), the weather was kinda crappy, so I
didn't get too many photos, although the weather greatly improved the next
morning and I was able to take the panoramic shot you see at the top of the
page. The next morning we began our trek up the headwall, where we noticed one
of the few high altitude waterfalls on Kili
. As we climbed higher (4200
m), the views of
Mt. Meru
and Kili were outstanding
. The day's climb was fairly
short as we reached Karanga Camp (13,000 ft)
within a couple hours.
The next morning was beautiful as we were still above the
clouds.
Today we were to go to high camp, Barafu (15,600 ft) to prepare for our summit
bid tomorrow. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of the natural arch in the side
of Kilimanjaro
as well as a clear view of
the route we'd take from Barafu to the summit
.
As we hit the alpine desert again
it began to snow
Finally, we reached high camp or Barafu camp (15,600 ft)
but the weather was coming in and it was snowing fairly hard
(luckily it wasn't sticking!). It is hard to get things to high camp,
especially water, so the porters only carried the necessities, so we actually
had to sit on the floor for our summit dinner. :-)
After dinner, we all went straight to bed, however this being the sleep before
the summit, no one could catch a wink. A couple hours past and I decided to take
a walk outside, and to my amazement the snow had stopped and the sun was
setting.
A beautiful view of
Mawenzi (the third highest summit on Kili) was seen from here.
After I took that picture, I went back to my tent to await our 11 pm wake up call. At 1 am we were to start for the summit! Check out the summit pages!