Mt. Kilimanjaro
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Haven't gotten all the details, but have been following them on his In-Reach with maps and texts. It's been about 5 days total, and they have been able to stay in several camps to acclimate. It is doubly satisfying, for he has asthma, and has been plagued by shitty lungs since he was a kid! He and my youngest son are both beast elk hunters and packers, and take care of Dad pretty good!!
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CAelknuts
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2lumpy, virtually all Kilimanjaro climbs are guided. My daughter and her fiancé climbed Kili in late February. They summited on their 6th day. It was a private climb, as in no other tourist climbers in their group, but the support staff which consisted of guide, cook, porters, etc. consisted of about 20 people. Typically, people climb in groups and most plan on 7-9 days to get to the Uhuru Peak summit.
Acclimating is extremely important. Both my daughter and her fiancé are very fit distance runners, my daughter runs marathons and he runs ultras up to 100 mile races, and they were fine with no AMS symptoms up till around 18,000 feet. He was fine at the summit but my daughter got fairly sick the last 1,000 feet of altitude gain. The watched the sun come up, then she ran down to lower elevation, puking twice on her way back down to 16,000 where they’d camped.
Acclimating is extremely important. Both my daughter and her fiancé are very fit distance runners, my daughter runs marathons and he runs ultras up to 100 mile races, and they were fine with no AMS symptoms up till around 18,000 feet. He was fine at the summit but my daughter got fairly sick the last 1,000 feet of altitude gain. The watched the sun come up, then she ran down to lower elevation, puking twice on her way back down to 16,000 where they’d camped.
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CAelknuts
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Joel, congratulations to your gang! It’s a heck of an accomplishment. Do you know which route they climbed? Most go up along the Marangu Route. Mine did it via Rongai.
CAelknuts
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Have you climbed Kilimanjaro?Mountain climbing with a chef and porters? Really roughing it
JPickett
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I have not. I just thought it sounded hilarious
“ whoa what a troublesome journey it twas, for the chef only brought white wine thowst he had cooked meals that required red. And the porters very much scratched our matching luggage in the way up! Yet we endeavor’d to persevere and conquered the mighty mountain!!”
Maybe just my imagination
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Yes, this is oldest boy child and a bucket list item for them. They did enjoy the break from Sun Valley snow. He's also professional photographer, so I'm sure he's taken thousands of photos. My other g-daughter is flying over to meet them and they are gonna do all the elephant parks too!
CAelknuts
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They both took Diamox, and it is highly recommended for anyone climbing Kilimanjaro. They did the climb in 6 days, which is on the shorter timeline as most do it in 7-10 days to acclimate. They’re both distance runners (daughter runs marathons, fiancé runs ultras up to 100 miles) so getting to top was fairly easy for them, but…. My daughter got altitude sickness ascending summit as they went up quick from 15,500 to the summit. She had a bad headache and puked a couple times before getting back down below 16,000 feet.
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CAelknuts
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Nearly 20,000 feet altitude up there so very stark. She said wind chill was right at 0 Fahrenheit when they summited.
2lumpy
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Certainly one of the great places in the world to hike. If “hike” is the proper term for the experience.
