2am arrives quickly. It is chilly and damp getting out of our sleeping bags, but the excitement of what is ahead, and Kenyan tea, warms us.
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| Mt Kenya or Mars? |
We put on multiple layers, grab our trekking poles, turn on our headlamps and start the climb upwards in single file. Aside from the headlamps twinkling on various parts of the mountain ahead, it is very dark. The stars are bright above, as is the moon which is surrounded by a huge hazy corona. The portents are good; it will be a night to remember.
The first 45 minutes are relatively easy going. Then we hit the shale. Our guides spread out to help us negotiate the moving rocks in the darkness. My headlamp has been getting increasingly dimmer which really annoys me because I purchased fresh batteries and put one in an hour ago. Evidently, moisture from the deluge two days earlier is affecting the battery. When my headlamp goes out, Darrin and David, our Athletes in Action father-son duo, give me a spare hand flashlight, which is very kind of them. But it, too, doesn't know its job description, and keeps flickering weakly. I beat it with my trekking pole and it cooperates for a while till it dies out, or I kill it, I know not which. Stumbling around in the darkness, Benson, our guide has pity on me and gives me his headlamp.
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| Dawn breaks near the icy summit of Mt Kenya |
Fifteen minutes later, dawn slowly begins to break. All around us, appearing as if out of nothing, are the majestic peaks of Mount Kenya. It is not a single cone like the slightly higher Kilimanjaro, but a multi-peaked stratovolcano. The two highest peaks, Batian and Nelion, are technical climbs requiring mountaineering skill and technical climbing equipment. Of course, I can't even get my flashlight to stay on. Good thing we are headed toward Point Lenana.
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| Did Sir Edmund Hillary wear his New Zealand beanie? |
We scramble and climb and clamber. There are some large rocks to negotiate and some very slippery spots where ice conspires to send the novice places he definitely doesn't want to go. But we are almost there. The last obstacle is an iron ladder pounded into the rock, caked with ice. "Hold very tightly," Joshua says. He gives the same advice for a rope strung between two precarious points, also heavily covered with ice. This is not where I intend my final resting place to be so I hold on for dear life which is kind of hard to do when you have to move along the rope and let it slip through your fingers. Then, we are up!
This is what we have come for. The spectacular view. The rush of adrenaline. The sense of danger which fools court in order to feel brave for an hour or two.
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| Point Lenana, 4985 meters, 16355 feet above sea level |
