Follow Paul, Rich and Lois as they embark on an incredible journey, 15 years in the making, and hike to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa while raising money for Multiple Sclerosis research.
"He covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, and makes the grass grow in mountain pastures."Psalm 147:8
Day four was an interesting day in that it was actually easier than we thought it was going to be. So much of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, or any mountain for that matter, is mental. Day 4 was truly the mental psych-out of our trek simply due to the fact that the day begins with a highly intimidating ascent up Barranco Wall. The wall looms over you as you make your way to the base of it and all you can see looking up are jagged rocks and steep inclines. Fortunately for us, the wall wasn't as bad as it looked. In fact, we all found the endless line of hikers and porters, occasional scrambling in single file, and overall slow pace refreshing as they allowed us to carry on a conversation and stop to pose for several pictures.
A traffic jam on Barranco wall.
With that said, Barranco wall is not to be taken lightly--in fact, just a week prior to our trek up the wall, a porter was trying to hurry to camp to ensure his duties were fulfilled prior to his party arriving when he lost his footing on the wall. He fell over 100 feet and was killed. While this is a brutal reminder, it is also a reality on the mountain. One momentary lack of focus or one misstep by an inexperienced guide can be lethal. Thankfully, we invested in some of the most well-known and experienced guides on the mountain to lead our journey and did not have a single incident the entire time. I'll elaborate on just how crucial choosing the right guide is in my next post, as I had the opportunity to interview our head guide, Lyimo, for this blog.
But for now, back to day four. After Barranco wall the hike for the rest of the day was quite easy really. What's interesting is that I assumed the higher we went, the steeper the hikes would get. That simply wasn't the case. After cresting the wall in the morning, our journey was more a meander through rolling hills than a steep incline. Perhaps the reason for this was that we had reached the base of the summit climb and now had to walk laterally around the mountain to get to base camp. Whatever the reason, it was a beautiful hike and offered us some of the most spectacular views of the mountain yet. We took full advantage of these as we realized we probably wouldn't get too many more opportunities to capture the mountain from below on our trip, as the next time we saw her face would be from the summit!
Rich and I with Kili in the background on Day 4
As we came into camp that afternoon, we were met with a warm meal and some down time. Rich, Dad and I took advantage of the down time and decided to place a little wager on who was carrying the most weight up the mountain between the three of us. Now granted, my Dad is 63, so I'll give him a 10 lb advantage for age, but other than that, I figured we should all be hauling about the same weight. And, of course always being the competitive one, I really wanted to show Rich that I was carrying just as much weight as him. Anyway, I'll let you be the judge of who won the contest!
Proud husband to Beth and Father of Mark, Claire and Lois. Paul has a Masters degree in Geology from the University of Toronto and spent the majority of his life working as an oil executive before retiring in 2004. Since then, he's started three successful small public oil companies, and enjoys traveling the world with his wife. When he is in Canada, he can be found at the family home in Calgary or at the cabin in British Columbia. Paul started the dream of climbing to the summit of Kilimanjaro when he took his 10-year-old daughter Lois (me!) to an Imax in 1994.
Rich "The Husband"
Rich hails from Stittville, NY and has been happily married to Lois for nearly five years. He has a degree in Biology from St. John Fisher University in Rochester, NY and is a USMC Ch-53E helicopter pilot in his spare time (haha). Rich first began dreaming about climbing Kili when he heard Lois talk so passionately about making the journey herself during their dating days. Since then, he's deployed twice to Iraq and Afghanistan and once to Japan in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami. Rich is excited to have the chance to return to the Eastern Hemisphere as a tourist.
Lois "The Wife and Daughter"
That's me! I'm the author of this blog and the dreamer that has carried this crazy idea with me for the last 15 years. I'm equally proud to be happily married to Rich and also to be the daughter of Paul and Beth. I have a degree in Journalism from St.Bonaventure University in NY and an MBA from San Diego State University. I love living each precious day like the gift from God that it is, and can not wait to embark on the journey of a lifetime with my Husband and Dad!
