Kilimanjaro climb was successful

[stobbart]

The past 2 1/2 weeks I was in Africa as a leader for a boy scout troop and we did a climb of Kilimanjaro and a safari. We had a group of 17 total for the climb (this included two Tanzanian scouts) and only 8 made it to the top. It was a wonderful experience and a great climb. The summit day was a killer. We started hiking at 1230am to have sunrise on the top and to keep the sun from beating on us during the entire climb. I thought there would be some interest here on the pictures, so enjoy. There are way to many to put here so I picked just a few. If there is interest in the rest ill have to figure something out.


Day 4 of the climb. Heading up to the final camp before the summit.


Me being tired (and unflattering) like everyone else during the hike to the top.


Some of the snows of Kilimanjaro that will soon all be gone.


There I am standing on the top of Africa.


Me and my brother. Some more glaciers.


We really lucked out with our weather for the week. Going through the rain forest on the way down, was the worst that we had.

Like I said there are hundreds more. And it was a fantastic climb, albeit the most challenging one I have done.

[Cy Kaicener]

Congratulations. Cool pictures. Which route or trail did you take?

[stobbart]

The Marangu route

[Cy Kaicener]

Thats route is less crowded I have heard. Here is a description of it
http://climbingkilimanjaro.com/marangu.htm

[tinaballina]

Wow, great pics and congrats for sure.
i am thinking this one may be my first out of country climb as well.

[physicslord]

I am trying to figure out what mountain is not free-standing?

It's hard to believe there's a rainforest looking at the first pic.

[zippetydude]

Yeah, I agree. Perhaps the windward vs. leeward sides. In Hawaii it's amazing how the windward side is a rain forest, and the leeward side is pretty dry. Maybe the same effect here?

z

[lilbitmo]

Nice work, great pictures

If you started at 12:30 AM what time did you hit the summit? How many miles was it from the last base camp? and how much ascending did you do on that final push?

That is one nice climb, I'm jealous.

Once again, great job

[stobbart]

That first pic is taken at about 14,000 feet, the rain forest is well down the mountain.

We started at 1230 from about 15500ft and made it to Gillmans point just at sunrise around 630. Gillmans point is about 500-600 feet below the summit, so its a little over 3000ft of elevation gain. And you are hiking straight up a scree slope. That would be the right hand side slope on the very first picture. Its a lot steeper then it looks there. Finally from Gillmans point you have a little less then 1.5 miles to the summit and the 5-600 feet of elevation gain. This was the hardest most exhausting part that took us 1h 45m to complete. You hike back down to camp at 15500 have a small meal then hike another 6 miles back down to about 12000.