IPPG News 02/02/2004

Machermo porter shelter and rescue post: Jim's Kilimanjaro fund raiser report

Hello everyone,
I am writing from Canada, having traveled here direct from Tanzania. Here is my report on this great climb.

I was leading a group of 11 trekkers up the Rongai route on the northern (Kenyan) side of this beautiful mountain. We were camping and allowed 7 days up and down. This is short by Himalayan standards of acclimatization, but generous by Kili standards where groups can take as little as 3 days for an attempt!

The group was fit and got on well together as we made our way up through the five ecological/climatic zones on the mountain, supported by 44 porters, 5 guides and 4 kitchen staff.

First came tropical rainforest with Colobus monkeys and tracks of bigger, wilder animals (elephant, buffalo). Next came a transitional region of giant heather, up to five meters high, laced with delightful streams sculpting deep into a granite layer beneath the volcanic rocks. The flowers became a bewildering profusion of delight as we moved into moorland around the third day and the first of the giant Senecios appeared, weird cactus trees, heavily frost insulated and primitive looking.

We had a day acclimatizing at the tiny tarn below rugged Mawenzi peak. It rained all that day and rain turned to sleet the following day as we climbed onto the amazing lunar landscape of the saddle between Mawenzi and the summit of Kilimanjaro.

Our porters were well equipped (they would have to be, wouldn't they!) but two groups travelling the same route had around half their porters without wind-shell or adequate footwear as they carried loads up and across the saddle at 4200m. A sure recipe for hypothermia had there been any wind at all.

Snow set in as we reached high camp at 4700 m. While the group rested before our midnight start, I was called to another group where three trekkers were in a bad way. Having climbed to the crater/summit the previous night, one had HAPE, another had HACE, and the last one severe AMS with dehydration. After resuscitating them and arranging stretcher rescues and carries, I was pretty tired myself.

By 6 PM the weather had deteriorated further and we lay in our tents till 11PM when we got up and prepared for the final 1200 m ascent to the summit of Kilimanjaro (5895 m). The entire group set off at midnight with little or no symptoms of AMS setting a steady pace up the steep ash slopes now covered with 6 inches of fresh snow, with more swirling down every minute. After three hours we had made it to the halfway cave and one of our group turned back feeling sure they could not make the next three hours slog to the crater rim.

The rest of us plodded on and about an hour before dawn, surrounded by cloud, we made it to Gilman's point (5681m) to be exposed to a furious wind blowing across the summit crater. So far we had been sheltered in the lee of the mountain but now faced the full force of the storm. Out of the group of ten, nine wanted to turn back, some were disorientated by the savage weather and others who were feeling the cold. So the only professional decision was to take them down. We were just a couple of hundred meters short of the highest point, an hours easy walk along the crater rim.

As we set off down, the park rangers were busy turning people back due to "…conditions not seen on the mountain since 1987". Back at high camp, our mess tent had been blown down and we descended to Horumbu in torrential rain (and January is the 'dry' season!!).

That next night, apparently no one even attempted to leave high camp for the climb due to unprecedented snow build up on the slopes and whiteout on the summit.

So did I reach the highest point of the mountain? The answer has to be no, however we reached the crater rim in severe conditions and descended safely. It was a most enjoyable yet taxing ascent to Gilman's point.

I hope the attached photos will give you a taste of our adventure. All the best to you all and thank you for your support of our efforts to improve the lot of the mountain porter.

Jim
Quebec, 28 Jan 2004

THE MATHS
Height reached: Gilman's point (5681 meters)
Total money raised (if everyone pays!):
AUD$2775.22
US$227.24
£535.00
CND$646.50
This represents a total of: US$3815

PS. Some of you might ask why not help the Kilimanjaro porters with money raised on their mountain. Here are my thoughts: never having been to Africa before this adventure I had little idea of the porter situation on the mountain. The porters on Kilimanjaro number around 6 to 8,000. They work in a fairly straight forward though dangerous environment (straight up and down) where the provision of wind-shell, food and shelter plus the education of the guides will prevent most of the physical problems to which they are exposed (mainly hypothermia and AMS).

In Nepal there are around 100,000 porters employed by the trekking industry, and the terrain is much more severe and weather less predictable. Porters die in both countries.

I spent two days before this ascent training local guides and intend to return to Kilimanjaro to expand that training in the future. I met Peter Ling, the manager of the Kilimanjaro Porter Assistance Project, a well-funded initiative of IMEC. I also met Joseph Nyabari, a young Tanzanian who has started a Porters and Guides' union and cooperative, which, it is hoped, will go a long way to improving the usual porters' problems of poor wages, late payment, non payment of tip money given to guides, and overloading. The union will also offer health insurance and act as a travel agent selling their members services (www.kilimanjaro-union.com).

Having now seen the Kilimanjaro porters situation first hand, I propose sending $250 US raised by your sponsorship to the Kilimanjaro Guides and Porters Union. The rest will go toward the solar electrical system for the Machermo Porter Shelter and rescue Post.

All the best to you all and thank you once again for your support,
Jim