An easy 3 mile day traversing the flanks of the mountain. There were a fair amount of ups and downs, but our new camp – Katanga camp (13,300’) – is only 200 feet higher than last night.
For the second night in a row, it cleared early in the morning and the moonlit views of the mountain were spectacular.
And – surprise surprise – it stayed clear for breakfast.
We even had a some direct sunshine on our faces for at least 20 minutes. If you haven’t yet surmised: everything we own is damp. Not wet, just damp. Tent is damp and has the faint aroma of mildew. Cloths are damp. There hasn’t been a single opportunity to air out the sleeping bags. It’s just one of those trips.
Today’s hike started by going up a steep, west facing slope which at that hour of the morning – 8:30 am – was still in the shade. By the time we topped out and were theoretically back in the sun, the mists had returned and that was that.
If I had to guestimate the number of people on the trail, I would say – and I’m not joking – an even thousand. Our guide said it was more like 800… big difference. Everybody is starting at the same time, and everybody is going the same direction. If we had started an hour later, we would have been hiking alone, but nobody wants to finish in the rain… and the porters love to be social with each other. As a westerner, we don’t have a choice.
When the trail is easy, it’s pretty comfortable. But the first section was steep uphill scrambling. The etiquette seems to be that westerners don’t pass westerners (unless they allow it) but porters have the right of way. So everybody lets the porters pass. It only takes one slow westerner 500 feet ahead to slow the whole mule train down, and with a porter passing every 30 seconds, it took an hour and a half to climb up 800’. At least it was interesting climbing. Welcome to the 7 summits.
Again, when it’s just a trail, while you’re never alone, the crowds aren’t a big deal. And letting the porters pass means that camp will be set up when we arrive, which is something the porters take pride in. Today the rain is holding off, but the last couple of days it has rained hard starting around noon. Being able to walk into a tent is really nice.
I hope that I’m able to send Alec (my brother who is managing this blog… thank you Alec) some pictures. This cell connection is so weak that it’s not a sure thing. As I write this I’ve been trying and it’s not working, but at 4 AM sometimes the connection is stronger so maybe tonight…). Last night we were under the very impressive 6000’ Breach face, which for climbers is famous. There is a 1970s (?) book called the Breach which I read in middle school before I ever started climbing, and it was really fun to finally see it. I haven’t read the book in 50 years, but my memory is that the first half of the book is a story about an attempted first ascent, and the second half of the book details a fall and a breach of trust between partners, which is notoriously painful to read. It left quite an impression on me. And no, the face was not named after the book.
One last observation before I nap through the afternoon rain: there is hardly any wildlife on the trail. We’ve seen some mice, a few ravens and some small unremarkable birds, and a single dikdik (?)(like a deer) in the distance. Without access to the internet up here, we can’t really read about it. Our speculation is that African wildlife have had millennia to learn that humans are to be avoided, and are thus doing so. And since we’re free to speculate, we’ve also noticed that there are no eagles or predatory birds. We can thus conclude that African swallows wouldn’t need to develop strong wings to evade said predators. After all these years, we now have the final and conclusive answer to one of the great questions of our time: European or African swallow…
Thank you Dan.
Tomorrow is another short hike up to high camp at 15k. The next day is summit day, followed by – gasp – a 13,000’ descent broken up into two days.
Cheers
Crowd scenes on day 4:
Step aside, porting coming through.
Camp
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