Day 5: Team pole pole vaulter 17.5 Miles Later

They woke us up promptly at 11 PM and we were served tea and cookies. No one ate much. After the snack I put on all my layers. This included a base layer, a winter running long sleeve, a fleece (with hand warmers in the pockets), my summit jacket, a base layer pant, a fleece-lined pant, and the summit pants. We were off pole pole-ing with the best of them. The hours passed sometimes very slowly and sometimes quickly. It still doesn't make a ton of sense. We told stories and listened to our guides and other guides near us. One guide just in front of us kept telling his two trekkees "Do not fall asleep. You will want to but stay with me." 

We took breaks. TG kept laying down. Our guides really didn't like that.  I don't think I ever believed it would be tough. Everyone's lower back hurt. We saw people attempting to stretch it out in a variety of ways. 

Still in darkness we were told 45 minutes left. This time seems to have flown by looking back but at the time it was tick, tick, right foot, left foot, right foot...

Later we would read to "ignore the sound of retching and sobbing" while on this part of the mountain and press on. Finally we made it! Or so we thought. However,  it was a "got tricked" vs "just kidding moment". 

The 45 minutes was only to Stella Point not to Uhuru Peak. That was 45 minutes further. I momentarily thought "I am good with Stella Point. This is great." 

And then the sun started to rise. Off we were again maybe a little less pole pole than before. 

Uhuru peak was beautiful as were the glaciers surrounding it. Holy moly we were standing at the top of Africa. I can't tell you how amazing this felt and surreal. Although I have said that I would summit Kilimanjaro for a very long time, I am not quite sure I believed myself. 

It was beautiful weather but as expected quite cold at the peak which I blame for my lack of pictures because I didn't want to keep taking my gloves off. 

After the necessary pictures were taken we began our descent encouraging other climbers along the way.

It was worth it and by the time we saw them they had pretty much already made it. 

The descent was an assault on the knees. I used my walking poles possibly incorrectly and took off. Most of the way down I wished for skis or even a trash can lid. The trail was soft black dirt and could have been easily turned into a slide of some kind.

On our way back I asked how often they have to transport someone off the mountain after two of the gurneys passed us going up. Our guide said possibly every day. It takes 8-12 porters to get one person down because they have to switch off due to fatigue. They also have to redistribute the weight they were already carrying. 

Back at camp they served us lunch and asked us if we would like to just walk the whole way out today instead of spending another night. Initially we were told it would be a 3 hour walk (we should have asked 3 hours to what?). Two hours in we asked how much farther again and were told 3 hours. One hour later we again Yeshua laughed at us. He throughout our trip always gave the right amount of time. We should have asked him from the beginning. The "short" walk were turn out to be 11 miles and six and a half hours of steep downhill rocky stairs. It was beautiful as we descended through the various zones and we didn't rush. We listened to music and had snacks (cashews are surprisingly cheap in Tanzania). 

We finally made it to the gate and all piled in the car. The first stop was to return our rented gear and drop off the porters. We said good bye and then were back to our hotel. 

That night we had the intention of getting dinner but after a hot shower which involved lots of scrubbing in my case our 18 hour 17.5 mile day took its toll and everyone ended up going straight to bed.