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Monday, August 27, 2001 Arrow Glacier, Tanzania (“The Point Of No Return”) Elevation: 15,700 feet Number of grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches I ate at lunch: 3 Number I would have eaten if there were more: 5 Bags of potato chips eaten: 2 Peanut butter cookies eaten: 2 Chocolate chip cookies eaten: 3 At daybreak, five of us lined up, arms distance apart, faced the Western Breach and did five sets of yoga salutations to the sun.
Salutations to the Sun (photo courtesy of Fred Yorra) Deirdre and I kept wondering when the appetite suppression side effect of high altitude was going to kick in. The two of us ate like horses. Helene said that I should probably cancel the portrait sitting that I had scheduled for after the trip because I was looking a bit chubby.
Larry and I traded MP3 players for the day and my favorite song of his was Smashmouth's “All-Star:” Someone once told me the world is gonna roll me / I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed / She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb / In the shape of an “L” on her forehead / Hey now, you’re an all-star...
Arrow Glacier (photo courtesy of Peter Rosendorff) Some of us went on the optional afternoon hike. We ascended a whopping 250 feet in about an hour and a half. The air was getting thin. Roy pointed out the trail that we would take should we not be able to make it up the Western Breach. It was a trail that traversed the mountain at about 14,000 feet that would meet up in two days with the summit group’s descent trail to Mweka Gate.
Deirdre and Morgan 250 feet above Arrow Glacier camp Roy told me that on Tuesday, the first of our two longest hiking days, the sun would be on the other side of Kili and we would be cold all morning. Our feet would probably be numb. He recommended that we sleep with our boot liners inside our sleeping bag to keep them warm. He said that there would be some areas on the trail that we would be climbing using hand over hand techniques on rocks (class three bouldering.) He reminded us that we would have a big elevation gain at a high altitude. I got a little nervous hearing all of this. Deirdre was having second thoughts about taking the “dex.” Helene and I didn’t want to push her. We took our first 4 mg. dose. We decided to donate to a local clinic whatever medicines we had left over at the end of the trip.
Post-Script: The campsite shown in the picture above is where the avalanche deaths occurred which shut down this climbing route. Here is an article which describes the situation:
January 5, 2006
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On our way to Arrow Glacier
