In a little less than 3 weeks, February 12th to be exact, I’ll jump on a plane for Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain on that continent and what is known as “the roof of Africa". I’ve always wanted to climb this mountain and I feel that now is the time. They say that the glaciers, the “Snows of Kilimanjaro” may be gone by 2015 because of global warming and this may be the last chance to see this natural phenomenon. And, I’m not going to be around forever, either. And finally, it sounds like a lot of fun.
I’ve done a little mountain climbing in the past. I’ve climbed Mt. Rainier 3 times (2 summits and one attempt called off because of bad weather) and Mt. Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe in Northern Italy. I didn’t make it to the top of Mt Blanc for a number of reasons but it was an incredible trip. Mt. Kilimanjaro isn’t a difficult climb, technically, but we’ll be gaining a lot of altitude. Altitude affects people differently. They just carried Martina Navratilova off the mountain in December when she was diagnosed with high-altitude pulmonary edema, fluid accumulation in her lungs. She’s fine but it goes to show that even an athlete like Martina can have problems up high. I came across a great piece in the New York Times a while back, Climbing Kilimanjaro which is reporter Tom Bissel’s account of his accent which includes a video blog and his heart rate and oxygenation levels on the way up. It really illustrates what happens to your body on one of these trips. He didn't seem to have a lot of fun on the way up but he made it. We’ll start our trek at 5,380 feet and climb to the top at 19, 340 feet and if you do the math, that’s almost 14,000 vertical feet. It makes me a little light-headed just thinking about it. There’s always Diamox (more about that later).
We’re taking the Machame Route which is also known as the Whiskey Route, “because the views are so intoxicating”, which is a line someone must have written for a brochure somewhere along the way (I love a good copywriter). I’ll be going with RMI, Rainier Mountaineering Inc, which is a great guide group out of the Northwest. I climbed Mt. Rainier all 3 times with RMI and they are simply the best.
Whenever I mention that I’m going to do this, the first question people usually ask is, “Have you been training?” “Are you in shape?” The answer is, “Yes” and “Maybe”. I mean I’ve been working out everyday, running, doing stairs and leg and core exercises. Every weekend I go out and hike for six hours with a 40 pound pack in the Santa Monica Mountains. I think that should get me in shape but I guess I won’t know if I’m really “in shape” until I’m standing on top. I don’t think I’ll have a problem with the actual hike (40 miles over six days) but there is that altitude thing…14,000 vertical feet. Whatever happens, it’s going to be an amazing, once in a lifetime experience. Now that I finally got this blog off the ground, I'll be making daily entries going on and on about all aspects of this project. If your interested, check in from time to time. Tomorrow..."Where there's a will, there's a way".
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