Scales the world's highest mountains. Refuses to let MS hold her back.
KILIMANJARO
Read Wendy's diary from the Kilimanjaro climb
June 21, 2005
Hello from Moshi, Tanzania!
There is a lot of excitement around here! Last night, Alex proposed to Shoshanna on the summit. CONGRATULATIONS to both of them! The entire team was celebrating the summit and the engagement simultaneously!!
Another funny tidbit--Steve and Dave have been making us strain our brains by playing "Name that School or Team Mascot." For hours they would yell either a mascot or a school and someone would answer. So, we would be climbing a steep pitch (couldn't breathe because of altitude) and Steve would say something like "Bulldogs" and someone on the team would answer "Georgia." Hours would pass with nobody talking and everyone working very hard and you would hear Steve yell out another team and Dave would always have the right answer. It was pretty funny and really took your mind off of the pain and lack of air.
Take care! "Jambo" (Swahili generic greeting)
Wendy
June 19 & 20, 2005
WE DID IT! We reached the top of Africa today, and it was awesome. The team reached the summit at sunrise (around 7 a.m.), and it was wonderful. The day was very tough and long, but worth it.
Summit day started at 11 p.m. We woke up and were on the trail by midnight. We climbed with headlamps on almost the entire way up to the top. We got some great team pictures that I can't wait to show everyone. We crossed the Stella rim of the crater — that was really cool.
Overall, summit day took about 13 hours, and it was well worth it. Now, we have descended to camp at 10,300 ft. We took a different route down and are camping back in the jungle tonight. It will be a bit of a softer sleep tonight since the last few nights we were camping on rock. We are all pretty exhausted and are looking forward to dinner then going to bed. Tomorrow, we'll hike the rest of the way down to the gate. It should take about four hours or so. This is a fun climb, not easy, but really a great time. Our whole team has done great, and everyone is in good shape. Once we get down, we'll have one night at the hotel, then onto a three day safari. It has been a great experience so far, and I'm sure the safari will be very neat, as well. More tomorrow, the dinner bell is calling!
June 19, 2005
First off, Happy Father's Day to all our dads and husbands! We especially want to wish our guide, Craig John, a happy day as he celebrates his first with baby Sarah.
Short update today as we are getting ready for bed. We made the journey up to high camp and are preparing for our summit attempt tonight. Everyone is very excited and a little nervous, too. The plan is to go to bed now (approx. 6 p.m.). We are scheduled to wake up at 11 p.m. We'll eat, pack, and be on the trail by midnight. This will be our longest day by far, about 12-16 hours total. We hope to reach the summit around sunrise. It will be awesome!
I'm also still amazed by the porters on our team. They carry everything on their heads and it arrives in perfect, I mean perfect, condition. They carry all the fruit (mangos, papaya, limes, oranges, watermelon, bananas) and there isn't a bruise on it. I can't even keep my package of goldfish from getting pulverized but they have no problem!
Time to repack and get to sleep. It's hard to believe we only have a few short hours before we'll head out for the top.
June 18, 2005
Today was a short day for us, about four hours. We hiked up to 14,500 ft. and then descended back to camp at 12,500. This is part of our acclimatization process. We climbed the Baranco Wall today which was a pretty heavy duty climb! One of the best things was lunch when we arrived the porters had fried chicken, French fries, and fried bananas ready for us. It was good.
Tomorrow we'll move up to high camp at about 15,000 ft. The following day will be our summit attempt. It will be a very long day, somewhere between 12-16 hours. This mountain is very cool. It requires lots of rock climbing and rock scrambling. It's so beautiful too. The mountain just came out of the clouds tonight so we hope it will stay clear for the summit day.
During the course of the day today, we figured out a number of "Life Lessons Learned While Climbing":
1. Pole, Pole (go slow) going up
2. Don't drink water from nature
3. Pressure breathe
4. Drink water frequently - 4 liters or so a day
5. When resting put on an extra layer
6. Shorten your poles on the uphill climbs, lengthen them on the downhill
7. Always have three points of contact when scrambling
8. Lean forward when going downhill
9. Walk flat footed like a duck
10. Watch out for unstable rocks
11. Do not litter - remember trash doesn't disappear
12. Cherry lifesavers really save
a. for a queasy stomach (ask the astronauts)
b. for your sweet tooth
13. Apply sunscreen frequently (30+) and reapply, reapply, reapply
14. The Southern Cross is visible here
15. Always wear your headlamp to dinner
These are just a few things our team has learned along the way. Off to bed now, we'll move up tomorrow.
June 17, 2005
Right now, all the girly girls are gathered in my tent and we're figuring out all the things we should have brought with us. It's a great list so far:
Snickers Marathon Bars
Cherry Life Savers — we hear these can settle an upset stomach, too.
Pringles — luckily, I brought one can for summit day!
Gum — unfortunately, Lauren's 15 packs were taken from her pack prior to our departure on the mountain.
Sour Patch Kids
Hot Chocolate with marshmallows — man, that would be good right now!
Beef Jerky
Ginger Snaps
Goldfish crackers
Games — we've got a little downtime at night and we're all craving a good game of Yahtzee!
We also figured out today that all the characters in the "Lion King" have Swahili names. We haven't learned what each of them means yet but we're working on it.
Today we climbed to 14,500 feet and then have descended back to camp at 12,500. Round-trip, we hiked six miles. It took us about six hours. The vegetation is incredible. The trees look like cactus crossed with pineapples. Strange but beautiful. The terrain has turned almost to a moonscape and will be this way for the rest of the climb. We were engulfed by a large cloud tonight at the camp so we cannot see Africa below. Hopefully, it will clear soon.
It is cold tonight but we are all feeling good. Our homework tonight is to drink 4 liters of water, so we're working on it!
I also want to say thanks to the Manchester Athletic Club and, specifically, my trainer, Kathy. All the lunges and squats on uneven surfaces paid off today!
More tomorrow...
June 16, 2005
We reached 12,500 ft. This mountain is AMAZING! We are on the Shira Plateau tonight, and it is just gorgeous. The vegetation looks like it's from Dr. Seuss. Very unique and different, but cool. Our climb today was very good. We climbed through ecosystem two and are now in the third. We learned the "rest step" from Dave today. He's quite an accomplished climber.
For lunch, we arrived to find the tents set up and hot water waiting for us. It was wonderful to get cleaned up. Not sure if they'll do this all the way up the mountain, but I definitely smell better than I did during my time on Denali! Lunch consisted of avocado, eggs (the yolks are white, very different), oranges, and a fish sandwich. The eggs, like everything else, are carried on the porters' heads. The eggs all arrived safely, not one broken. We also make this special drink — it consists of Milo, Nido, and sugar. We mix it up and drink it hot each day.
My new nickname is "Jambo Cuckoo Mama" which means, "Hello Chicken Mother." Not sure how it got started (maybe from me), but it has stuck. Everyone greets me as Jambo Cuckoo Mama! Our team is incredibly fun. Lauren is the trivia master — she knows everything. Steve has just completed a book called Into the Paranormal, so he led our ghost story discussion around the campfire tonight! Dr. Shoshana moonwalked on the Shira Plateau! This is such a great group, and we are having a terrific time together.
Dinner tonight was rice and veggies with chicken. We were greeted by Koria, the camp steward, with tea, peanuts, and chicken. The food is endless. The other incredible thing is that they set up a table, complete with tablecloth and chairs, for our meals. Unbelievably amazing. Each team on the mountain is treated to this incredible service.
It's a cold night, and we are headed to bed. Have to be up early for day three tomorrow morning!
June 15, 2005 Update
Greetings from Tanzania! We successfully reached our destination and have already recorded one day of the climb. It's amazing! The terrain is very different than anything I've climbed before. We'll go through five ecosystems on our climb to the top. It is hot during the day but very cold at night. As we are sitting around the camp tonight, we've all layered up to stay warm. That's something I'm used to from Denali. Climbing in shorts and a t-shirt during the day is very different.
Today, was rain forest and jungle. It was hot during the day but fortunately we're shaded for most of the climb. We had hoped to see capuchin monkeys as we climbed today but, unfortunately, none of them came out to see us. We kept calling, "Marcel" but no luck. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll get lucky.
Our team consists of 12 climbers and 41 porters. It's totally different from Denali in that regard. The porters are mandated by the African Park Service. All climbing teams are required to use their services. It's a vital part of the local economy. The porters are amazing. They climb with all of the rations and camping necessities balanced on their heads. They climb amazingly fast and had camp set when we arrived. We were given tea and popcorn as soon as we got to camp — what a great treat.
Our food consists of local dishes. So far, we've had lots of bananas and mangos. We all felt a little of the altitude today but are adapting now and drinking plenty of water.
In addition to the porters, we have two doctors who recently graduated from Penn; a brother and sister team, Kevin and Lauren. Kevin just graduated from Wisconsin and this is a graduation present (how fun); Kim, who is from a neighboring town near mine in Mass.; my tent mate, Janet, from Cape Cod; Dave from Syracuse; Steve from St. Louis; Dave and Andy, two brothers from Milwaukee; and Craig. They are a very fun group.
We've learned six words in Swahili: jambo — hi, hello; pauli pauli — go slow (they say that to us a lot); ashanti — thank you; caribou — you're welcome; and hakuna matata — no worries. We also learned that we must ask permission to take pictures of any of the people or our porters. It is a custom we are following closely.
Tomorrow, we will be up at 7 a.m. and climbing by 8 a.m. It should be about a 5.5 hour day. We'll be into ecosystem number two and will camp at approx. 12,000 feet. We hope to summit in six days, wish us luck.
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