How did the kit do & Diamox

So for my final blog entry in the Kilimanjaro saga, I’d thought I’d share my feelings on the kit, clothing and how it worked and what we would have done differently. Previous entries documented my decision on the sleeping bag choice and other such excitements.

Clearly it’s important to have a good set of ‘broken in’ walking boots. We carried them in hand luggage as this was the one bit of kit we felt we simply couldn’t afford to be without if the luggage was lost – which it wasn’t. So a fairly obvious tip 1: carry the important stuff in your hand luggage.

On the whole the kit all worked more or less according to plan. The main lesson, I believe, is that you do absolutely not have to throw money at kit. All our kit worked, delivered the goods and there was no point when I felt that I wished I spent a bit more on the stuff. I’ll come onto the minor things I’d change later.

We (well the porters) actually carried our kit in four 50 litre ‘dry sacks’. We had purchased dry sacks from Lidl for £6.99 each. However, my sleeping bag wouldn’t fit through the opening of the Lidl dry sack (you get what you pay for) and we had to borrow a more expensive, flexible Alpkit dry sack for my sleeping bag (and other kit) and used three of the Lidls sacks. However, in principle, the dry sack approached worked well.

The Karrimor self inflating sleeping mats (which actually, in reality, require you to blow them up more for maximum comfort) were indispensible. The campsites were mainly very hard stony areas and the mats made the sitting and sleeping in the tents bearable. You will spend a lot of time in your tents (about 7:00pm – 6:00am) and comfort there is well worth while. I can’t believe that the much more expensive ‘Therm-a-rest’ mats would be any better. When you consider the Karrimor mats were about £20 (brand new) from eBay compared the ‘Therma-a-rest’ mats at circa £65 - £70, I believe we made the correct decision.

We took several pairs of socks and changed them every other day with a fresh pair for the summit. It’s a balance but we think we had it about right. Some days were fairly short and we changed out of walking socks into woolly socks after walking. The woolly socks are also useful for the electronic kit – see later. In terms of clothes, we had two sets of kit which was about right.

The cheap kit (head torches – with new Duracell batteries) all worked beautifully. We never got the metal ‘SIGG’ water bottles filled up with hot water to act as a hot water bottle (but it’s still a good idea) but it is worth noting that the SIGG bottles places in woolly socks didn’t freeze on the summit whilst at least one of our supposedly ‘insulated’ bottles (but they were cheap) did freeze on summit.

My sleeping bag (the Royal Marines Commando Arctic Weather Sleeping System- rated to -30degC purchased 2nd hand from eBay), with the silk liner, performed superbly. It was only the last night at Barafu (4,600m) where I needed to wear anything other than boxers in the sleeping bag and then it was almost too warm. My wife’s borrowed sleeping bag (from Alpkit), again with a silk liner, was also fine and she was perfectly snug.

Most of the time you are walking with a simple shirt and fleece because, whilst the sun is shinning, you are at altitude and there is a chill in the air. For the summit, I was dressed in a ‘skin base layer’, a standard walking shirt, two fleeces and my Katmandu walking jacket. I was so warm the jacket was never done up. I also had my standard skiing thermal pants and both my pairs of walking trousers on. My ski gloves with thermal liners and my ski hat completed the kit. All perfect and no worries.

Take lots of baby wipes. There are no showers (most days, except the last at Barafu which is a dry camp, we got a small bowl of water between two to wash with) and a ‘baby wipe bath’ does leave you feeling a lot better. We over provided for baby wipes but no-one had a serious case of diarrhoea which is when you go through them fastest. If you don’t use them all and don’t want them at the end of your trek, the guides are always grateful for them.

A brief note on water purification. Given the conditions, it’s a testament to the staff that none of us had any serious diarrhoea, Once the bottle water had run out it was water from streams boiled. They used a pressure kettle to ensure that the water boils at the proper temperature (as, at altitude, water boils at a lower temperature). Despite the fact that the water was boiled, we always added water purification tablets to our water bottles. We used a ‘one tablet’ solution (Life Systems, high strength Chlorine Diox Tablets) purchase in an outdoors shop. Others used a two tablet solution which is fiddly because you have to remember to add the 2nd tablet after ½ hour and this is not ideal when walking.

However, having said all that, it’s all a bit of a fallacy because the 1st thing you do is drink gallons of tea and soup made from the boiled water which is the exact same water you are adding the tablets to – so, in retrospect, I’d say that the water purification tablets were a waste.

On the technical kit we had one or two disappointments. The Olympus uTough camera we purchased specially (rated to -10degC) and which had been kept in my wife’s down jacket inside pocket (the jacket was open), froze on the summit and was useless for about 10 mins whilst it thawed out. Whereas the cheapo ~5 year old Nikon Coolpix I’d stuffed inside a woolly sock inside my jacket (which was also open) worked perfectly – it did have a set of new batteries though :~).

My little ‘Vado’ pocket video cam also had the woolly sock treatment and was fine. There was GSM mobile phone signal most of the way (as is evidenced by the regular tweets I supplied on progress). I found no signal at Uhuru Peak itself, but plenty at Stella Point. It is worth noting that my Blackberry had a much better capacity to pick up a signal than Pat’s iPhone which rarely had a signal.

Obviously, for the kit with lithium-ion batteries I had taken a spare battery and made sure both were fully charged before we left and I’d saved a new one for the summit – all standard stuff really.

So what didn’t work and what did we wish we had done differently? The only thing which really springs to mind is that we had not taken enough spare batteries for the head torches. We had a couple of wind-up torches for use in the tent but these were not really useful for reading. I mentioned previously that you will spend a lot of time in your tent and here is why:

The mess tent is the tent in which the porters sleep (& eat). You are fed first and, whilst you are being fed either the porters are outside in the cold, or, if it’s really damp and cold outside, they are in the tent lining the sides watching you eat and waiting patiently for you to get out so it’s their turn. So, in short, the longer you linger in the mess tent, the colder and more hungry the porters. Therefore there is a lot of pressure (not overt) not to linger in the mess tent and to go back to your tents when dinner is over. This means you are in your tent by about 7:00pm and it’s absolutely pitch black outside.

So, because we had only one spare set of batteries for the head torch (and you need a fresh set and a spare set for the summit attempt), we ended up not using them for reading in the evening. Thus we lay in darkness. So, pack more batteries for your head torch or take some form of lantern.

The only other thing I’d recommend is some form of dust mask or bandana you can place over your nose and mouth for the way down. Most of the team were left with hacking coughs from the dust. Stupidly, I actually had one in the luggage but didn’t pack it for the summit trip – mistake.

That’s about it on the kit front. I’m selling my sleeping bags back on eBay but everything else is being kept for future use as the kids go camping regularly and we will, of course, continue to enjoy walking in the Welsh countryside.

However, by far the best investment of the whole trip was the additional payment for the private chemical toilet. The camp sites are provided with ‘long drops’ but the smell as your approach them is fairly spectacular and, at night, they can be quite a long way away from the tents (thank god). So invest in private toilet facilities – you won’t regret it.

A final word on the Diamox front. In the end, we decided to take ½ a pill on day two (before we set off for the Shira Plateau @ 3, 840m = 12,500ft) and then a full pill every morning before the summit. I did get the pins and needles in the toes and my fingers from time to time but it came and went and was perfectly bearable. Yes you needed to pee more often (in fact, pee breaks were rapidly renamed ‘diamox breaks’) but as I didn’t suffer any altitude sickness at all (of course, I have no idea whether this was due to diamox or not) I was happy with the decisions in this respect.

If you are going – enjoy!

We did it!

Well just back from Africa where all seven of us scaled Kilimanjaro and reached Uhuru Peak. There is/will be a story of the trip on the Church website shortly. Click here.

I finished my last blog entry with the words:

“The only thing I know for sure is that “No plan survives the 1st encounter with the enemy” and it’s not always clear who or what the enemy is – only that there will be one. So, in summary, the chances that it will all go to plan (which is broadly: arrive in Tanzania, swan up Kilimanjaro tweeting as we go, summit and descend to a night of wine drinking) is approaching zero percent – we will soon find out how it goes.”

Amazingly, the plan did work and there was no enemy. We arrived in Tanzania, walked the walk, tweeted the progress, did the hard yards to the top and then descended. Wine was drunk. We all returned home in good shape with no injuries, mishaps or other calamities.

I personally, was lucky enough not to suffer any altitude sickness. Others in the group were not so fortunate but, importantly, we all made it to the top.

So, what are my impressions?

Firstly, it’s well worth putting in the hard yards in training. The initial walk to the camp from which the summit attempt is made is long but not particularly challenging (please note that this is a personal perspective and my wife disagrees on some of this). The main difference between it and what we did in training is that it’s rougher and longer. So the climbs are on rougher paths, steeper and go on longer and the descents are much the same. So, whilst training builds up stamina it’s difficult to replicate exactly the trek to Barafu camp (from where the summit attempt is made).

I had read (but never put into practice) that the best training for Kilimanjaro is to walk for a day, camp, get up walk for another day, camp and so on. That is basically what the trip is about and the camping and the associated lack of sleep some people suffered was draining.

However, our training did pay off in that, whilst undoubtedly the actual walk was tougher than the training, there was never any doubt that the team would make it to Barafu. Even the fabled ‘Breakfast Wall’ (which was, I felt, overrated in the guide books) didn’t prove a serious barrier and whilst, my wife and Lyn claimed to find it ‘terrifying’, there was never any doubt they’d be up it and moving onwards.

Secondly, I wasn’t really prepared for the crowds. This is a busy mountain. Take our group, there were 7 walkers which required a support crew of 25. This comprised 1 chief guide, 3 assistant guides, 1 chef, and 20 porters (bear in mind everything, absolutely everything, is carried up and then back down). So, with an estimated 75 walkers on the same route on the same day you are looking at around 270 support staff – a total of ~350 people all camping in the same spot and walking the same route.

The pattern was quite simple, you set-off and then the porters come rushing past you. Cries of ‘passing’ ring down the trail. Where the path is wide enough you simply walk on the right in single file, where it isn’t you step off the path to let them pass. This can be quite disruptive. This crowding gets really bad on breakfast wall when there is literally a line of walkers and porters all waiting to negotiate the tricky bits. However, by mid morning the porters are all long gone and the groups are spreading out and you can find yourselves all alone on the mountain – much nicer.

It’s not all bad. You do start to recognise the other groups and brief conversations and greetings are swapped. Groups tend to rest at different times so it’s not uncommon for a group to walk past you and then you find they stopped 10 mins up the trail and you are passing them.
The summit attempt itself is much as described in the books. You are continually walking upwards in the dark with the only view being of the boots of the person in front. We set off at 11:00pm and reached Stella Point at around 5:00am – 6 hours of relentless uphill slog.

I think a couple of things helped:

• •We were walking as a group. No-one wanted to let anyone else down. There was a noticeable lack of banter compared with the easier walking on previous days but everyone was determined to push on;
  
• I had an altimeter on my watch and was calling out every time we gained another 100 meters. We knew that Stella Point was about 5,700m (we set out from Barafu at 4,600m). So, even though it was pitch black and you couldn’t see anything there was a sense of progress.

The other good thing is that it turned out my altimeter was under reading. I’d called out 5,600m and we reached Stella Point about 10 mins later. This is good because we all thought we had further to go.

At Stella Point, you have done the hard yards. You are now on the crater rim and it’s a 45 minute walk (with a gain of about 150m) to Uhuru Peak. This was a tougher walk than the guide book suggested and one of our party suffered from a momentary loss of heart (soon rectified). The guide book says 35 mins. This may be the case later in the season but we had to walk over compacted ice (over the glacier) for a good distance. As the season progresses the ice gets worn down and there is no ice walking.

We arrived at Uhuru Peak at ~5:45am just as the first glimpses of day were breaking. I had read (and heard 1st hand) that when you are up there the only thing you are interested in doing was getting back down again. Not true of most of the group. A couple were suffering the altitude and went back to Stella Point almost immediately. My Wife, Charles and I were enjoying it. It was getting lighter and lighter, it wasn’t that cold (~-12deg C – which if you are a skier is not much of an issue) and the views of the ice walls and crater were spectacular – I’m not sure the photos do them justice. So, whilst the guides we trying to hurry us down, we were taking our time, taking photos and enjoying the views. After all it had taken us 5 days to get up there and we weren’t in any hurry to get back down.

Uhuru Peak itself was surprisingly and delightfully empty. There was one group ahead of us taking their photos and then it was our turn. There was no real rush (apart from some people’s desire to get back down again) and it wasn’t like you had to line up for a quick photo. As I recall, another group were arriving just as were finished the photos.

Then the tough stuff starts.

All the guide books talk about getting up to the top. They barely mentioned the way down. From Stella Point to Barafu this is mostly a walk down very loose, dusty scree which is tough on the knees. Some people (presumably the younger people) claim to be able to ski down the scree. Probably the same ones who can bounce over moguls. My mogul bouncing days are long since gone and going down was tough for me – and even tougher for those in the party with ‘older’ knees.

Once at Barafu, after a brief rest, lunch and packing it’s on for a further descent to Mweka Camp. The guide book suggests that it’s a gentle 3 to 3.5 hour walk – not for us. Maybe guide books don’t anticipate a group with an average age of 58yrs doing Kilimanjaro but, suffice it to say, the older the age group the slower downhill it will be. Barafu to Mweka took us about 4.5 hours and, once again, was very tough on the members of the group with ‘older’ knees. Also remember that, at this stage, you had been up since 11:00pm the previous night and already walked almost 7 hours uphill, then almost 4 hours back to Barafu and then you are walking again onto Mweka.

So let us summarise. Having spent 6hrs and 45 minutes getting to Uhuru Peak, you now have a descent of 2,805m (Uhuru Peak to Mweka Camp) which is about 9,200ft which equals 1.75 vertical miles before you stop for the day. It’s probably just as well the guide books don’t dwell on this. Don’t get me wrong, the descent is not a reason not to do the climb, but it is just as much of a challenge as the climb.

At the time, having reached Mweka, we all discussed over dinner the day and felt that the day was very, very tough and it would have been better to stop at High Camp (~3 hours) from Barafu. This would have made the day easier but it would have made the last day longer. The last day was a reasonably gentle 3.5 hour walk down to Mweka Gate where there was a ‘champagne’ lunch. We were back in the hotel by about 4:30pm.

If we had stopped the previous night at High Camp, we would have missed the lunch and not been back to the hotel until the early evening. So, upon reflection, I think making it to Mweka Camp was the correct thing. However, it is a very long tough day.

I remain in awe of the over 60s in the group. Tom (67 yrs), Pat (66 yrs) and Lyn (62 yrs) are three tough cookies. I can only hope that I have their fitness and stamina in ~15 years time. If so, I may have another crack at it then :~).

It’s time to go

Well my final blog entry before the attempt. We leave the house at 2:45am tomorrow morning (Sunday) for a 6:30am flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam and then onto Kilimanjaro International Airport.

So what to report?

Well we are all packed and it’s possibly worth re-visiting a couple of changes on the kit front. Having purchased the two military arctic extreme sleeping bags from eBay (see previous kit post) we are only using one of them as the wife (Kha Koon) borrowed a more expensive sleeping bag from someone who has climbed Kili previously.

I was then left with the decision as to whether to take the "Royal Marines Commando Arctic Weather Sleeping System". Rated to -30degC (2nd hand) or the absolutely brand new "US Issue extreme cold weather sleeping bag" again rated to -30degC for myself. In the end the UK one got the vote because it is lighter by 2 Kg and stuffs up more compactly, and I was happier in it than I was in the US bag which was a much more ‘mummy’ design and felt claustrophobic. Having said that the UK bag doesn’t exude as much confidence that it will keep me warm at extreme temperatures as the brand new US extreme cold bag, so I hope I don’t live to regret the decision.

The other thing we have added to the kit list on advice from the Tanzania tour organiser is metal drinking bottles. What they do, apparently, is fill them up with boiling water in the evening. You then stick them in the sleeping bag as a hot water bottle and then it’s your first litre of drinking water the next day – smart! We found these in Chepstow discount shop for £3 (~US$5) each!

Other than that, we are pretty relaxed on the kit front. Most of the stuff has been purchased from discount shops or the ‘cheap’ supermarket outlets. For example the head torches came from Lidls. They cost about £3 (~US$5) each as compared with up to £15 (~US$25) and more elsewhere. They are adequate and will do the job. We even purchased a spare!

We have lots of wet wipes, energy bars, sealable plastic bags (to bring ‘stuff’ down off the mountain and ensure we are not littering the place), etc.

Another ‘necessity’ we have packed is 2 x 2.25 litres wine boxes for the Monday evening (i.e. on our way back down having, hopefully, has a successful climb). That is 4.5 litres between seven of us – should be just about enough :~)

The good news was that we booked our flights last year when KLM had a ‘two baggage piece’ policy. This means that in addition to our kit we can take a load of stuff out for the school we are supporting. We have two cardboard boxes full of pens, pads, books suitable for primary schools kids, wall charts, and even a couple of old Dell laptops – although I’m not 100% sure the school has electricity. If not, they can sell the laptops and use the cash elsewhere.

We have our medicines and have already start taking Malarone the anti-maleria drug. We do have Diamox with us but there is a wealth of conflicting advice as to whether to take it.

Wikipedia neatly summarises how Diamox works: “The drug forces the kidneys to excrete bicarbonate, the conjugate base of carbonic acid. By increasing the amount of bicarbonate excreted in the urine, the blood becomes more acidic. Acidifying the blood stimulates ventilation, which increases the amount of oxygen in the blood”. It continues: “Note that acetazolamide [aka Diamox] is not an immediate fix for acute mountain sickness; it speeds up part of the acclimatization process which in turn helps to relieve symptoms”.

The debate on whether to take Diamox is fairly neatly summed up in this thread from the Lonely Planet travel forum.

So, on one hand it seems that Diamox can have a beneficial effect by speeding up the acclimatization process and relieving symptoms. However, not only are there side effects but also there is a danger that Diamox can masks the symptoms of AMS (“acute mountain sickness”) which can be fatal. The first side effect is that it is a diuretic and therefore you could not only spend a lot of time by the side of the trail or leaving the tent at night, but also become dehydrated. Other side effect is apparently an uncomfortable tingling ‘pins and needles’ sensation in the fingers and toes.

So we have the drug but no-one in the team is planning to take it as a matter of course and we will make the decision on the mountain. We are hoping not to have to use it. The Machame route is a gradual route with time for acclimatization (unlike the Marangu route) and is a ‘climb high sleep low’ route (see the route profile here).

Well in one weeks time I hope to be en route to Barafu Camp from where we plan to make our summit ascent at 12:30am on Sunday 11th July aiming to be at Uhuru Peak at around daybreak. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes. We are planning to tweet at least daily (there should be a mobile phone signal all the way) so you can follow us here: www.twitter.com/kilitweets.

The only thing I know for sure is that “No plan survives the 1st encounter with the enemy” and it’s not always clear who or what the enemy is – only that there will be one. So, in summary, the chances that it will all go to plan (which is broadly: arrive in Tanzania, swan up Kilimanjaro tweeting as we go, summit and descend to a night of wine drinking) is approaching zero percent – we will soon find out how it goes.