Ten and a half hours of sleep would have been nicer if the wind hadn’t started blowing, and if my body hadn’t decided to punish me for the hubris of thinking I could eat again last night. I had to get up twice, and let me tell you that leaving a cozy tent for a … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Days 7 & 8: Coming Down
I spent the night dreaming about getting up too late. It didn’t matter that I went to sleep at 8pm and would get seven hours of sleep by 3am; my brain said “3am is so early! you will be so tired!” When Mandela knocked at 3am, I came awake with a sense of dread. It … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Day 6: SUMMIT DAY
With less caffeine in my system and a pair of Benadryl in my belly, I slept like a baby and woke up feeling practically perky when Mandela came knocking at 5am. Nyla, too, looked much restored after a good night’s sleep. It’s amazing what a little distance from the suffering of trail rain can do. … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Day 5: Baranco Wall to Basecamp
“How did you sleep?” Gideon asked, a ritual morning check-in. “Not very much,” I grumbled as I bumbled around making my second cup of morning tea. “How many hours, do you think?” he asked. “Five?” I hazarded, then confirmed my guess with my watch’s sleep tracker. “Five hours and seventeen minutes.” “That’s okay,” Gideon said, … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Day 4: When the Hike is Mean
“Be careful as you get out,” I mumbled at Dustin as he left the tent at 5:30am to use the toilet. “The tent is wet.” I’d learned this the hard way at 3am when I’d done the same. I’d backed out of the tent and wound up with water all down the back of my … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Day 3: The Beauty of Being the Slowest
Today’s morning wake-up call came at 6:30. I’d managed to stay asleep until almost 5am, thank you jet lag. I spent my bonus free time drafting the first blog post and dreaming about breakfast. Mandela arrived at 6:30 with a pot of hot water and morning drink fixings. “What would you like?” he asked as … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Day 2: Pole, Pole
Gone are the days of tough, solo climbers tackling Kilimanjaro with nothing but a pair of crampons and a local kid to carry extra gear. Now, anyone with enough spare cash who has seen the right TikTok video can and will take a stab at Africa’s tallest mountain. It is known to be the easiest … More Quest for Kilimanjaro, Day 1: Hakuna Matata
“Whose idea was this?” Gideon, our guide, asked during our first small day of hiking through the rainforest at the base off Kilimanjaro. “Who is the crazy one?” I was stumped. Everest had clearly been my idea, but we have long discussed Kilimanjaro as one of the many amazing adventures we hope to have in … More So I want to climb Kilimanjaro?
(I’ve titled blog posts like this before. You have to know by now that I’m being a dork. And just in case any actual researchers are reading this, there are no drug spoilers in this post.) “Wanna go take drugs and sleep at 14,000 feet?” Dustin asked one afternoon about a month ago. Because this … More Doing drugs and sleeping high (for science!)
Finishing an adventure is so much less fun than starting one. All the things that motivated you through the hard parts are behind you, you’re tired from all those hard parts, and you still have three days of hiking to finish. I knew that with a three-day hike-out, I’d be likely to get a little … More Expedition Poked-Everest, Days 15-17: Coming down (with the Khumbu Cough)
Thither & Yon 