Waking up at Horombo hut we were sore and although feeling much better than the day before, still physically exhausted. After summiting at 6:30 a.m. We hiked for another 7 hours back down to Kibo hut and finally to Horombo to spend the night. We ate breakfast and headed out ready to get off the mountain and down to lower altitude. Jubilant that we had all made it to the top, we headed down with whatever spring was left in our step covering the distance to Mandara huts in less than 3 hours. Leaving our friends to their lunch at the huts, we continued down the path for another hour to a little lunch spot along …

As we left Kibo hut I turned to our new guide and asked what time it was. He checked his cell phone, which still had service at 4700m, and informed me that it was midnight on the dot. We were off, George setting the pace, and that was that.

At first the pace was rather quick, leaving us out of breath, but soon we caught up to the group in front of us and George slowed us down, he just wanted to make sure we not begin our walk alone. Up we went, a combination of heaving breathing and slow walking. The pace was so slow it was nerve-wrecking but anytime we sped up in the slightest …

After three easy days on the trail, day four was a killer. We took our time heading up to Kibo huts, knowing that if we made it to 4750m sick or feeling ill there was no way to make it to the summit the following morning. So we took our time and meandered our way up to Kibo. The trail itself was easy and although we gained nearly 1000m in altitude, and found ourselves at the end of the day in a relatively low oxygen environment, the hike itself wasn’t so hard. Unlike the hike to Horombo, the landscape to Kibo was basically desert. Very few plants live at that altitude near Kilimanjaro and within …

We woke up in the morning at the Horombo camp, 3700 meters in the air, without much to do that day. We were feeling pretty good so long as we ignored the fact that everyone in our room woke up at least three times in the night to go pee. The best part of the night time escapes were the stars. Above the clouds and the lights of the cities below we could see everything in the sky including plenty of shooting stars. I hoped we’d see plenty on our walk up to the summit.
After breakfast we began our walk to zebra rock…a rock that looks like it has the stripes of a zebra. If that …