It was pitch black in our banda when our alarm went off at 2:30am, and Victor, Jacob, and I slowly unraveled ourselves from our respective sleeping bags, preparing to enter the cold, dark night. We were at Shipton Camp, just a few hours hike away from reaching Mount Kenya’s Lenana Peak. The camp was simple: two long, narrow, and green buildings with wooden walls and corrugated steel roofs — they reminded me of railroad apartments. One of the buildings was used by the chefs and porters and the other by the hikers. The building for the hikers was segmented into a room with long picnic tables lined up end-to-end for eating and a second segment with bunk beds packed in wall-to-wall. The accomodations were modest — maybe what you’d expect at 4200 meters above sea level — but they suited us just fine the night before our final ascent.

We strapped on our headlamps and headed out into the night, hoping to reach the summit by sunrise. Our guide Joe continually reminded us to move “pole pole” (Kiswahili for “slowly slowly”) on our way up, being very aware of the risk of altitude sickness if we moved too quickly. For this final push, we continued to move slowly taking breaks every 100 meters or so, catching our breath and drinking water. It was a bit of a tricky balance between moving slowly enough to prevent headaches, dizziness, & fatigue and moving quickly enough to keep our bodies warm in the sub freezing temperatures.

We arrived at the peak slightly before dawn, and the views above the clouds were magnificent. We explored each side of the mountain, snapping a handful of photos along the way. As the sun rose in the sky, the temperature grew a bit more bearable, but the persistent cold eventually convinced us to bid farewell and begin our descent.

After a long three days, we had made it — 4,985 meters above sea level, the second tallest mountain in Africa. We’re looking to hike Kilimanjaro next — come join us!