I killed Kili at 50

By siliconindia | Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 08:45 Hrs

“Did you kill Kili?” asked a smiling porter. It was just past 7pm. The sun had just about set, though you had enough reflected light to see the steep, dusty, scree filled mountain slope from where I had shuffled down. I had climbed down from 19,300 ft, from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, down to the base camp at Barafu at around 15,300 ft. We had made the summit around 3pm and then almost immediately started back down so that we could return to the base camp before it became dark and we had to use our headlights.

I turned 50 at the end of May. It seemed like as good a time as any to do some serious introspection of what was going on with my life and what changes, if any, I should be thinking about. I knew then that I had to get out of my comfort zone and pick something that I would normally not do. I decided that climbing the tallest mountain in Africa was a good target. It required no technical climbing skills. It was a well traveled part of the world with great support infrastructure and something that looked doable for an out-of-shape couch potato like myself.

The day started with much anticipation and nervousness. We were a group of friends, all around 50 years old. It has been years since I did any serious physical activity or played any real sport. I did work out 2-3 days a week for 30 mins but that was about it. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro was perhaps the first challenging physical activity that any of us had undertaken.

We left the camp at 4am. Many climbers start at midnight so that they could see the sunrise from the summit. Our Thomson Safari guides and porters were probably the most professional folk I had ever met, singing songs, saying highly motivational phrases, making sure we drank enough water and ate enough food, anything required to make sure we realized our dream of making it to the summit. The hardest part of the climb is probably the one hour before you get to Gilman’s Point, around 18,700 ft up. Large rocks and boulders make the going difficult and exhausting. Once you get to Gilman’s Point then it is a relatively easy walk for the last kilometer or so to get to the summit.

That last kilometer, I have been told, was all snow and ice until 10 years ago. It would have required ice picks and studded shoes to navigate your way through the ice to the summit. But now it is all just soft mud. The only remaining ice at the top is a large glacier to the side. Our guides tell us that they do not expect any ice to remain in 3-5 years.

The overall climb up and down from the base camps took a total time of around 15 hours. We took around 2-3 hours longer than the average climber but we did not mind. We were delighted to have made it to the summit and back down. The 4-5 hours you spend at an elevated altitude of 17,000+ ft can be tiring as the oxygen levels are low and breathing is difficult. Other than that, it is just a very long and tiring day. Exhausting but satisfying.

“Yes, I did it,” I said to the porter. “I killed Kili.”