Climbing Mt. Kenya-A personal Experience

Beginning your year on top of the world looking down on creation, now how cool is that!

“It is awesome! A unique experience, an exhilarating feeling. I can’t relate it to anything else; you’d have to be up there to know what I mean.” Mary beams as we pull out our seats at a coffee shop to catch up with our otherwise busy lives.

Well, I don’t know about that, I mean there’s a reason why my dream of climbing at least one mountain remains just that, a dream! True, the higher you go the cooler it becomes but let’s face it, every step you make going up a mountain isn’t exactly ‘cool’ and besides I don’t know that I have stout enough legs and lungs, I laugh.

“Oh, you need them as stout as they can get my friend! It is the hardest thing I have ever done! It took every strength in my bones and all the willpower I could master. It’s the furthest I have ever pushed my mind, my body and my soul!” She sighs.

Let me bring you up to speed. To begin the year in style, Mary embarked on an unforgettable 5 day adventure (to which I was invited but I chickened out, I must add) so she grouped up with some adventurous friends and set off for Point Lenana, one of the three major peaks of the picturesque Mount Kenya.

All packed up, the group arrived at the base of the mountain ready for some fun!

“We were so excited and all pumped up with adrenaline. To help us adjust to the difference in altitude we went up a certain level, not too far in and returned to the base to spend the night in preparation for the real deal the next morning!”

So did your system actually adjust and get acclimatized to its new environs? I ask rather curious.

“Well, let’s just say I found new respect for water! You had a throbbing headache, you had some water, you caught muscle ache, you had some water, you got a nausea attack, you drank some water, water became medicine! It’s true what they say that water is life.” She laughs.

“People reacted in very different ways, some threw up, and others got sick in the stomach and couldn’t stop visiting the bathroom! I had a throbbing headache that wouldn’t go! Besides it rained the whole night, the first night was the coldest. But after being sick in the night we all woke up fine and were ready to go up.” She adds.

If you have ever climbed a mountain before you know this but for the benefit of those of you, like me who are still “planning” on it, there’s a reason you don’t just get to the base and go all the way up, the semi climb up and then return to the base on the first day is so your body can act up all it wants before rewiring itself to the new found environment and having to work with thinner oxygen and all. Such was the case for Mary.

But back to our story, “So the ascend begun”. I state

Point Lenana, one of the three major peaks of the picturesque Mount Kenya.

“Yes, we started off well, the base is all green and beautiful, there are antelopes, buffalos, monkeys but after about 10km climb, the terrain got tricky. After 30km we came to a stop at the Narumoro river to refill our water bottles before later making a stop at the Met Station for the night. Day 2 was the longest and hardest; you go through the bamboo forest, past the burnt forest and on to the rocky forest. You get so frustrated, some people got moody, and by this time you are soo tired talking takes soo much energy so you all move quietly lost in your own thoughts. At this point you are probably above 1000 feet with an altitude of 3048. It is so cold you get numb, your body just moves like a robot. The body actually does what the mind tells it.

From 8 o’clock you get to the next stop over at 6pm (Mackinders camp) (here people’s true character come out. Someone broke into a fit, one of the ladies cried for two hours nonstop. Some got so angry, there is this feeling of frustration, you want to give up but can’t because you are too far gone, you get to learn and tolerate different characters. It teaches you team work on another level for all you have is each other in the middle of nowhere. It’s a happy angry feeling.

The last leg starts at 3am in the morning, so you can reach up before the snow melts

The hardest thing is having to keep going and not knowing where exactly you are going, its somehow like life, you don’t know the future but you have to do your best to advance toward the future.

The biggest lesson I learnt is that the body can do anything the mind tells it. There’s an inner power that pushes our spirit. Now in life when I’m faced with a challenge I look back at my experience and I know that nothing could ever be harder than that and if I went through to the top, I feel like I can go through anything. Nothing can be harder.

I’m not sure where Mary’s shared experience of going up Mt. Kenya left me with my ambition to go mountain climbing but one thing is for sure, watching her hands go up in recollection of the several moments she nearly gave up, noticing the regular shudder of her foam and seeing her face light up at the series of her AHA! moments inspired me in more than one way.

I’m curious though, have you ever gone mountain climbing and if so what was your experience?

#Mtkenya #climbingmtkenya #Lennanapoint #Adventure