Rubinations…

First climb day.

We started at Machame Gate (app 5,300 ft) and hiked to Machame Camp (app. 9,750 ft) but considering we were in Moshi this morning (at 2,400 ft), that’s 7,000 of vertical and our heads are spinning a bit (especially if we stand up quickly).

The first leg was thru the rain forest and was really green and beautiful. They say that Kilimanjaro creates it’s own weather pattern. And we certainly saw that today as sunlight turned to rain with no clouds in the sky moments before. The mountain sucks the moisture out of the air and creates precipitation.

We hiked for 5 hours and made camp around 17:15. About to head to our first mess tent experience to see what kind of meal they have for us and prepare our water for tomorrow.

We got an early start today. Breakfast at 8 at The Keys Hotel in Moshi. Craig, our lead guide, took us thru the hike along with what to expect. We learned how to look for signs of cerebral and pulmonary edema and how to properly use our high altitude meds.

After that we headed to downtown Moshi to meet with the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistant Project and learn how they help protect the porters’ rights. Our 40+ porters will do most of the heavy lifting.

Then it was back to the hotel for our final pack and weigh in. Our duffels have to weigh under 30lbs and the rest goes in our back packs.

Having some trouble with GPS right now so you’ll have to wait for a location update.

We have the rest of the day to ourselves before we meet the team (their are ten of us) for dinner. Then it’s off to sleep early for our 8am departure for Machame gate tomorrow.

We are taking the Machame route from the South West.

It’s midnight but we are here. Will post more tomorrow.

So far so good, we’ve arrived in Amsterdam (an hour before schedule) without much fanfare. The plane was on schedule, the ambien works, and we even got moved forward to an emergency exit row because their was vomit on my assigned seat.

3 hour layover till we leave for kili…

“If there’s two things I can’t stand it’s people who are intollerant of other cultures… And the Dutch.”
-Austin Powers: Goldmember

We decided to start quasi-officially packing last night, just to get a sense of how much space we had in the duffels for the climb.  (We’re then going to mix all of our gear up across 3 bags for the actual flights–we’ve heard way too many stories about bags getting lost on the way to Kili.)   Of course, we realized that our duffels are too small, so we now have our 4th trip to Campmor (in north Jersey) planned for this Saturday.  The day before we leave!  No matter how organized and neurotic I am about packing, I still always wind up scambling at the last minute.   So stressful–I need a vacation from packing for this vacation.

Check out this update we received from the trip today…looks like it’s gonna be freakin cold!!

******************************************

From: “Eric Simonson”
Date: January 27, 2009 9:13:19 AM EST
To: “‘Eric Simonson'”
Subject: Kili update

Team,

I talked to Craig John who is your guide for the February trip. Craig is also leading the IMG January Kili group, and they went to the summit of Kili two days ago. Craig said they had a good climb with 11/12 to the summit, but that it was quite cold (they wore their down parkas all the way to the top from about 16,000). The one person who did not summit had marginal clothing, got too cold, and had to go down. Please do not underestimate the temps — Kili can get very cold up high, bring the parkas and warm gear! Craig is off on safari now, he will see you in Moshi. Good luck with the travel!

Regards,

Eric
Eric Simonson

Because I’m me, I’ve put together a 3 week countdown Kili prep plan.   Last Sunday, James and I pulled out all of our hiking gear to go through our checklist and ensure we had everything we needed, or a plan to get it all.  This past weekend was part 1 of our final shopping ventures.  We hit up EMS (thanks Adam and Jill), Paragon, Duane Reade and Whole Foods–where James and I agreed on a carton of Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch Clif Bars to bring with us.

Today, out of curiosity, I started Googling info about the peanut butter salmonella outbreak.  As I delved deeper, I saw that the recall extended beyond Sysco gallons of corporate cafeteria pb to all sorts of snack foods… including the carton of Clif Bars we had just purchased!!!  Well, at least we ‘caught’ that here, as opposed to on mountain.  I can’t imagine reliving our Goa/Maldives experience (see below).  Plus, the irony of us getting infected from our fancy American food that we brought to avoid the potential of getting a stomach bug from tainted local food is too ridiculous to handle!