Some Final Thoughts

Post written August 8, two weeks after returning

Processing time was needed

Kilimanjaro,

Your Spirit speaks in my soul.

Asante Sana.

~Stephanie Hall, August 1, 2013

Most likely taken on the second day...

Marc - looking totally fine!

I gave everything I had to Mount Kilimanjaro: physically, emotionally, and mentally.  In places, I left my sweat, my tears, and even my blood on her ancient stones.  There were times when I felt empty, that there was nothing left that could even make me take one more step, and in those times she always found a way to fill those holes.  She would show me something new, or another living soul on the mountain would have something that would spark the energy:  the porters would sing at camp, another climber would say “Jambo” with a smile, one of my mountain family would sing or touch my arm for encouragement.  It was amazing.  Words cannot really express how profound an experience this was for me, how deeply spiritual.

I mentioned before that I felt her enfolding me and that I knew if I gave her everything she would replace my efforts with something else.  And she did.  I gave her my worry, my doubt, my anguish, my anxiety, my terror, and my despair.  She gave me love, assurance, pride, and accomplishment.  I never realized that the summit wouldn’t matter until I turned away from it but that was never the goal.  The entire point of the trip was to feel her, I just didn’t know it until Day Five. 

Walking away from her and back down was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but when we left her slopes, she didn’t leave me.  She still sings in my heart and if I close my eyes, I can see her glowing in the dark.  For people who haven’t been there, you won’t understand, but for some of you who have, you know exactly what I am talking about.

My mountain family will always be just that – family.  I don’t think there’s any way you can go through something like this and not form a close bond with the others who went with you.  Jen, Sandi, and Tim will always have a place in my heart because they share all these memories with us.  Though we never saw the other faces we had grown accustomed to after our summit attempt (Phil, Claire, Noel, Bruce, and others whose names we didn’t know), I remain hopeful that every single one of them made it to the summit without any problems.  I’ll probably never know for sure, but that’s my hope.

Tim

Jennifa!

Sandi - Tim took all these portraits
They're fantastic!

I want to be perfectly clear that I would do this trip again in a heartbeat, though I would skip the summit attempt.  I hit my altitude ceiling and I will never be able to go above that, but just because I will never touch the sign at Uhuru doesn’t mean the mountain doesn’t hold a huge attraction for me.  I would do the hike, wait at basecamp, and make pancakes for everyone so that when they came down, I could throw my arms out, scream about how awesome they were to the sky, then offer them pancakes.  I know, weird dream, but it’s still there.

Stock of Injuries: Sunburn to my nose (peeled) and left hand (I was wearing long sleeves and didn’t even think about sunscreen), bruises on both knees, a slightly swollen ankle, a few blisters on my feet (not as many as I thought there would be), a blister on the pad of my right hand (it popped and blistered twice, actually) and several small cuts on my hands from the wall.

Brian: He made the summit without many problems, though it hailed on the camp at Barafu and the summit push was made in snow.  Instead of being able to surf down the mountain on the scree, they had to be careful of the ice that had frozen into ruts from other climbers that had gone before them, but he did make it!  The cigar wouldn’t light at the top and I think he was faintly disappointed that it was easy for him, but I think he should be very proud – not many people even think of attempting Kilimanjaro and not everyone, as evidenced, makes it to the top.  He says the best part of his trip was the safari with us.

Our Guides:

Anderson

Meckson: "Mad Max"

James