Baraza

Category: National Parks and protected areas | Date: May 28 2008 | By: baraza

Well, I’m back and it was a MEGA adventure. First let me tell you how it all ended – 65 km later, up and down an elevation of over 2,500m and from temperatures of 35 degrees C to minus 15 degrees! I returned with one big blue toe and a wonderful sense of achievement!

Hard to think that this mountain straddles the equator. The peak, Batian is named after Mbatian, the Maasai paramount chief. Its sister peak, Nelion is named after Nelieng his brother. Two other peaks Lenana and Tereri were his sons, while Sendeyo was a headman. All other peaks, valleys, lakes and points of interest carry the names of the British explorers and armers in the area (not a single Kenyan explorer or climber is recognized on the plaques at the peak! It’s rather sad. I apologise for this venting but not a single peak is named after the Kikuyu, the tribe that lives around the mountain, to whom the mountain symbolizes God. Strange! You can read the colourful history of the ‘discovery of Mt Kenya on Wikipedia‘

Climbing Mt Kenya is not a cultural norm in Kenya. Only 10,000 visitors enter the park and attempt the climb each year – that is compared to 22,000 visitors going to Tsavo East National Park per month! I don’t understand why it is such an under appreciated park? It’s stunning as you’ll see from these photos.

Alpine moorlands dotted with giant groundsels, silvery cabbage gruondsel, and amazing sunbirds and other rare yet tame creatures everywhere. My decision to go was rather impulsive and I expected huge regrets. I let myself down on that one, it was simply amazing and for several reasons. First there was nobody else on the mountain but Peter and me plus our team of porters and a guide. Yes, we did it the easy way – first we didn’t even know the way up, and secondly there was no way in hell I was going to lug 15 kg of kit up a 15degree slope for 5 days…. And survive. So we splashed out and contacted a firm called Go to Mt Kenya who sorted us out with some very grateful local guides and porters to do the work. Since tourism has all but collapsed they were really happy for the income so while Peter felt horribly guilty - I accepted that were it not for them I’d not be trekking.

The hike up Mt Kenya started at the Sirimon Gate on the north western side of the mountain in the forest Zone about 2,800m. Setting off almost went belly up – I’d forgotten my identification and the rangers at the gate argued with me for 45 minutes – was I really a Kenyan or not (Kenyans pay daily park fee of only 20$ vs 40$ for tourists so they didn’t want to lose any money). I had to make many phone calls, answer too many funny questions, and even my Swahili was not convincing. Eventually someone high up told them off, apologies were accepted and we set off on something of a walk and a scramble…..

Bamboo zone - incredibly dark and mysterious full of elephants!

Alpine meadows

Everything is wierd on Mt Kenya - and beautiful. Our first day, Saturday, was easy – only 3 hours of uphill on a road – we stopped frequenly, observed insects, hugged trees and enjoyed the sunshine. The forest zone thins out to Bamboo and then giant heather before it’s suddenly moorland – open tussocky grasslands …

Giant groundsel at higher altitudes form forests! This one is over 100 years old

Everything there was tame, even these Mountain Chats wantd to hang out with us. as we walked the blue sky turned white as clouds and mist crept up and overtook us… then it started raining.

My first thought was ‘rats, what were we thinking climbing in the rainy season’. Luckily we were near Old Moses hut which was very dry, offered good beds with mattresses and that was when we first realized just how spoiled we were. Within minutes of changing into dry clothes we had mugs of hot chocolate, cookies, and local donuts. We were told to eat up- we needed the energy for the next day, an 8 hour hike to the next camp. At 3,200 m it was cold at Old Moses but not freezing.

Old Moses hut is managed by this guy who was absolutely amazing. It was clean, warm and perfect in that rainy weather

At 7 am on Sunday we set off for Shipmans camp 4,300 m – the walk continued up hill, until there was no more heather, everything shrank … until it was just grass, and then all of a sudden everything was giant again – giant cabbage plants and other rosette plants, giant lobelias, huge hyraxes, mosquitoes!

I’m glad I didn’t touch this but - it’s a blister bug, one touch and you end up covered in disgusting warty blisters according to Dino. We were collecting bugs for Dino in streams – it wasn’t easy, the water was freezing and every time we stopped the cold would chill us to the bone.

I even looked for bugs in hyrax poop. We had such enthusiastic support from the guide Nicholas Njuguna that I’d filled almost all the jars by the end of the day.

Nothing we did could shock our seasoned guide Nicholas Njuguna who had a great sense of adventure. Shipmans camp at 4,200m altitude sits at the base of the main peaks of Mt Kenya which tower over the beautifully sculpted Mackinders Valley.

We arrived after the 14 km uphill hike in the afternoon, tired, cold and hungry. As the afternoon wore on it got colder and colder but at least it was dry. We chatted to the guide Njuguna at length, about his love for the mountain and the kinds of people he has guided up as we ate donuts.

It’s almost impossible to imagine how the chef (Yes had a chef!) produced such delights in these conditions!

The hyraxes on Mt Kenya are also giants - seriously!

Njuguna revealed to us that many Kenyans climb, but they are only porters and guides. Not the likes of myself basically. What a shame!

The next day was an acclimatization day – necessary if we really want to make it to Pt Lenana. We planned to use the day going for walks around the peaks. We set off at 7 am to climb up only 370 m scree slopes – sounds easy? Well I promise you, it was much tougher than anything we had done. I knew it wasn’t nearly as bad as the last days climb, and so my doubts began to plague me….when we got to Oblong and Hausberg tarns, only about 3 km from Shiptons, it began to rain, then hail! and we had to abandon any plans to go up and down the next 3 around the peaks (thank you God!).

Call this acclimatization? To what? Hell?

We returned to more hot chocolate and cookies at Shitpons, hiked around the streams, photographed hyraxes, and enjoyed a night of photographing the peaks in the dark. We tried to get off to sleep early but the guides, chef, and porters seemed to be in a terrible argument, on top of it all they were playing really loud Kikuyu music (which I hate). I asked them to keep the noise down - it softened for a few minutes before the pitch rose again. Later I asked what was the cause for such animated discussions - they said politics, but truth is it was nothing, loud is just how these guys communicate! Everyone shouting at the same time!

Until this point we felt like we were the only people on the mountain, and then the doors flew open and an icy gust blew in, with three more tourists. Ug! Two of them were unlikely to be going anywhere but one, a loud over confident athlete was bragging about the final assault, and asking for aspirin (I have to forgive her because she was obviously already suffering from altitude having ascended much to fast).

We began strategizing how to avoid being with her for the last and most spiritual part of the climb. We woke up at 3 am to leave before her, but she was already up, greeted us loudly and bragging about herself. We let her and her guide go first. Half an hour later we left in pitch black, the hike from Shiptons to Pt Lenana is serious, I’m not joking. They say it’s a 3 am start so that you reach the summit at dawn… but I suspect it’s to prevent you from realizing the full stupidity of the final ascent – it is so steep and apparently dangerous that I appreciated the darkness and the amazing starry sky.

The peaks at night

We had a full moon night that revealed the harshness of the peaks against the night sky. It was also absolutely freezing - juice in our drinking bottles froze! I could see her torch on the higher slopes – were it not for her annoying bragging I might have sat down and refused to continue climbing. My muscles were tortured but I had to do it!

At 6.30 we watched the sunrise and light up the icy scree slopes and peaks. Whatever bad thoughts I had until then vanished, the beauty of Gods mountain just overturned all thoughts. The hiking up hill was bad but the scrambling was terrifying one wrong footing and I could have gone hurtling down hundreds of meters into a glacier – or rocks. I know I sound like a terrible wimp but the truth is that Mt Kenya is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world (so experienced climbers say).

Anyway, I don’t feel at all embarrassed that I had to be assisted with a pull at the very final point to climb a rock that seemed impossible at that altitude. It was icy and slippery but once up I had my balance. The weather was perfect, the sunrise stunning and the peaks of Batian and Nelion were absolutely spectacular.

At the top of Point Lenana is a flag placed by Kiseo Munyao - the only Kenyan mountaineer I’ve ever seen recognized(!) who planted this flag on Kenya’s independence.

It was very very cold!

After half an hour bathing in the sense of achievement, we had to start the descent – it was actually much harder than you can imagine.

For Peter and I this was a lifetime achievement, we’d been talking about doing it for years.

Once the sun was up, the ice had started to melt, stones were slippery and legs were wobbly.

The truth is - I was in pain. But breakfast beckoned…our itinerary said

‘Descend to Minto’s hut for full breakfast. After a short rest descend further to Mt Kenya bandas lodge through the gorges valley for dinner & overnight. You can enjoy log fires, hot showers and bed at the lodge.’

It left out the part about the descent being 12 hours of really tough hiking! Hence the painful blue toe

The worst part is that you can’t give up on that track - there’s nothing out there… just total wilderness

Still, it was worth it for the views - these are the Vivian falls (yes named after some guys girlfriend or something)

We actually detoured to view the beautiful lake Michaelson (named after a colonial farmer I think).

Day 4 was certainly the most difficult, I had changed shoes as my hiking boots were destroyed by the scree, and ended up in a pair of hiking shoes that were far from ideal – hence the blue toe.

Though it was 12 hours – it was a glorious 12 hours through some of the most spectacular country I’ve ever hiked. Ever!

The so called Mt Kenya bandas lodge was a bit of a joke – we expected to have a noisy smoky bar full of Yahoos, and all that goes with ‘lodge’ but in fact it was just a rather poorly maintained set of cottages – but there were clean beds, hot water and a wonderful fire.

The next day we slept in, and had to be roused for the final 10 km hike to the car and then drive to Chogoria – and matatu (public minibus transport) back to Nanyuki. This part was an adventure in itself – suffice it to say that we made it (high speed, lots of shouting and banging,Bob Marley music blaring, watching the driver bribe police, crazy overtaking….). Getting back into my car was tough, my muscles had all seized into theat cramped position in the matatu – all other customers must have found it rather amusing to watch me.

The dashboard of one of the cars we ended up in! We drove all the way back to Nairobi and our house on the edge of the rift Valley getting home at 9 pm feeling really smug as we settled into our beds. We did it. What a great feeling!

Having done the mountain once, we’ve decided to do it again early next year. And, we’re planning to do something about the poor access to information about how to get there, and how amazing the local porters and guides are. We will do an online and printed guide book for the visitors like us to the Mountains of East Africa, for peopel who want to know about the people, local climbers, the flowers, the animals, the routes, geology and the mountain itself for ordinary people like us, to inspire everyone to go hiking. That means I have to do more hiking… got to replace those darned boots!

PS. the noisy athlete made it to the peak but appeared to be in considerable trouble on going back down (and I thought I was scared of heights!)

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Tags: Climate change, climbing, glaciers, Kenya, Mount kenya, mountains

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