We made it to high camp! The Barafu camp (“snow” in Swahili). 15,150’. Today was our easiest day of the trip… a mere 3 hours on a mostly smooth trail. Now we have 12 hours to rest before we get up at midnight and go for the summit.
Cell service has been really tough up here, but after midnight I was able to use WhatsApp to send some photos and videos… hopefully those are up on the website. [They are! -Alec] As I write this at lunchtime at high camp, I get one bar occasionally, but it’s just a tease. Nothing ever connects.
For the last 5 days, we have been traversing under the SW side of the mountain aiming towards the SE ridge, which is the easiest route to the summit. While the trail was crowded, we rarely if ever passed people going the opposite direction… everybody is aiming for this same camp as us. Here we have finally joined this easiest route, which also doubles as the descent route. Tomorrow we will go up and then back down the same trail to this camp, and then continue down the SE ridge towards civilization.
I remain amazed as to the size of these camps. There must be 300 tents in each camp – more than in many Himalayan base camps – and every single tent is taken down at 8 AM and carried to the next camp. The manpower is incredible. To add to the hardship endured by the porters, at the last camp the water supply was 300 feet down and a quarter mile distant. At this high camp, the water supply is an astounding 1500’ down and a mile and a half away. Damn. More tea please.
Our first camp down in the trees was pretty clean. Yes it was a muddy mess, but there was hardly any garbage and you don’t smell pit toilets (more on that below). With each subsequent camp, there has been more and more garbage, and we finally crossed the line at this high camp: this place is disgusting. No poop, but trash everywhere. I’m glad we’re only spending one night here.
There hasn’t been any poop on the trail… like none. There’s far more poop on the trails in Grand Teton National Park. There is, however, a fair amount of toilet paper… and more when you get higher… oh well (my Vassar education is telling me to shut up and move on…).
And speaking of poop, I’m not sure where the porters do their business. I’ve been looking but I haven’t seen a single one do anything. We privileged clients get to use a porta potty tent reserved just for us, which is clean and comfortable. Every group on the mountain seems to have such a tent. There are pit toilets scattered about, and I assume that the porters are using those, but why don’t they smell? Have you ever been to the top of the tram? In America pit toilets smell. Here they don’t. It’s a mystery.
Well, it’s cold and windy outside so I think I’m going to nap the afternoon away. We are of course socked in clouds…. again. It rained a little this morning when we woke up, but otherwise it’s just been another misty day. At times we could see down into the flatlands, but no views of the upper mountain and of course the dampness from the mists remains omnipresent.
Just as I finished writing this at 1:30 PM, the afternoon rains started. Perfect timing. It’s nap time. Tomorrow is the big day!
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