Summit Night: BARAFU to UHURU PEAK

Tonight is the night!  After a few hours sleep and some hot chocolate, we set of at midnight to conquer the highest point in Africa. This section of the route is considered one of the steepest of the non-technical climbs up Kilimanjaro and we are to attempt it by moonlight.

We head in a north-westerly direction and ascend through heavy scree towards Stella Point on the crater rim. This is the most mentally and physically challenging portion of the trek, is pitch black and at the coldest hours of the night the temperature reaches somewhere between -15 and -20 degrees. I don’t remember much about the first few hours as we all plugged our iPods in and put our heads down to the effort of the steep climbing and bracing ourselves against the cold. This path is a relentless switch back path. It seems endless and bleak. Tonight we have to climb the equivalent of Ben Nevis (Scotland’s highest peak).

Stars and Sunrise

I didn’t have a watch on as I didn’t want to count the hours we had ahead but at some point I remember looking up and registering the snaking of tiny bobbing headlamps, all the way up ahead, higher and higher. These tiny moving lights are all you can see of the people who left the camp ahead of you, and are the only other contrast to the dark night sky, except the actual stars themselves. 

Stars bright, endless and beautiful and of such a startling multitude it hardly seemed possible that we were still on earth. The almost full moon cast a pale light on the tops of the fluffy clouds which are now so far below us it’s hard to believe the rest of the planet exists below them. 

It is at this point that Sera turns back to camp to collect the last member of our group. I have a lump in my throat as he hugs each of us and disappears into the darkness, knowing that he won’t be there to share our 
triumph when we do make it, a triumph he 
made possible for us all. 

Sun rising through clouds

My misery in the dark is short lived. Just as Sera disappears, the first inklings of sunlight start to appear on the horizon. The curvature of the entire earth becomes visible and with a starry sky above us, and a striking sunset appearing below us, our resolve to continue is renewed. Did Sera know the minute he disappeared the sun would appear to spur us on? At this altitude and this exhausted I begin to wonder if he isn’t some kind of magical force.  

There is no way to capture on a camera the beauty of that sunrise,; the shift in light, the change in colour. The sky all at once full of stars and sunlight, with the clouds so far, far below. That moment at once made all of the effort so far worth it and will stay imprinted in my mind always.

Watching the sunrise

With the sun fully up we still haven’t yet reached the crater rim and we are all beginning to wonder if we will ever reach it, over the ridge ahead we see a group already beginning to descend. As we near them we realise its Tom and Ed who we’d met way back at Moir Huts days earlier and who had ascended up the other side of the mountain. They promise us we really have no distance left to go till we reach Stella Point meaning we’ve reached the volcanic crater. 

A few more steps up and I look up to see the Stella Point sign appear over the ridge only meters away .. I stop .. This is the first time I cry. Big wet triumphant tears …. We had made it through the hardest part of the climb and we are now on the crater rim of the volcano. I made it to the roof of Africa! 

Some people turn back at Stella Point deeming the fact they have made it to the crater a worthy enough achievement. Not us .. we came here to make it to the highest point on the continent! This wasn’t the moment for us to turn back,

 Uhuru Peak wasn’t going to wait for another day! 

Volcano Crater

With a final hour-long push we continue our way to the summit between the Rebmann and Ratzel glaciers. This was breath taking and what had looked to me like dustings of snow on the peak from down in camp are now visible as 2-3 storey glaciers rising to each side of us under clear blue skies. 

This I hadn’t prepared for, I had no concept of how stunning these slow flowing ice forms look, especially against the stark and dusty volcanic landscape surrounding them. 

Glaciers at the summit

We have reached Uhuru Peak .. 5895m/ 19,341ft, Africa’s Highest Point, the Worlds Highest Freestanding Mountain, One of the world’s largest volcanoes and the roof of Africa!

And we were elated, ecstatic, emotional … Exhausted! And so very, very proud of ourselves!