September 15, 2017
Hiking up to Lava Tower (Dustin Balderach)
Another great day on the trail, is how Dustin described today. He said this team is super strong which means they’re able to enjoy every aspect of the climb. Two big highlights today, the Lava Tower and their sighting of the elusive Eland antelope.
At close to 8 hours, it was a long day on the trail, but it wasn’t a grind. Lots of ups and downs and plenty of open air trail up on top of the Shira Plateau. It’s nice to get above the trees and feel the breeze. Dustin did say they got their first real glimpse of Kili. It’s been cloudy the past few days which has kept the temperature down, but they’d been waiting for the big view of the mountain their climbing. They got one today.
Tomorrow is the favorite day of the climb for a lot our climbers. They’ll get to use their hands a little bit as they scramble up the Barranco Wall. It looks more ominous than it actually is (and sounds). For most climbers it’s a fun 1-2 hours of early morning scrambling. Once on top of the wall the trail continues to Karanga Camp, their stop for the night.
All is well on Kilimanjaro!
Tye Chapman