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DAY FOUR -
The
simple things, the true things,
the silent men who do things.
Jack London from The Call of the Wild.
It is Thursday,
Jan. 17, our fourth day of marching up Kilimanjaro. On this
day, I had to ask someone the day and date. Everything seemed
to be running together in my mind.
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Victory,
5,896 meters, left to right, guide melchiory, Harry Wallfisch,
Brent Masel, Eligius Mark Minja, Jim Galbraith, Tom Kimbrough,
Richard Henderson and Dolph Tillotson.
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I dont
know whether the confusion is due to fatigue or altitude sickness.
Confusion is one of several symptoms of HACE (high altitude
cerebral edema). I decided Im tired and 52, and a bit
of confusion about the date is nothing to worry about.
Just walk.
Dont think.
Our destination
today is Arrow Glacier Camp, only 250 meters or about 800 feet
higher than the Lava Tower. Well camp here briefly and
then at midnight of the next day, begin our last push to the
top of the mountain.
It was very
cold, well below freezing, when we set out that morning. Our
feet crunched over icy ground. Its a short walk, only
about 90 minutes, but a hard one in the rarified air and over
increasingly steep and rocky mountainside.
Arrow Glacier
is the staging point for our last push to the summit. When we
arrive, the campsite is sunny, and we enjoy a few minutes relaxing
in the sun. Then the low clouds move back in, and it becomes
cold again.
As we lounged
on the mountainside that afternoon, Tom spotted a single climber
far up the mountain, between our camp and the peak. Then we
think we see two more people. The first person waves, We can
hear a distant shout but cant make out the message.
Apparently,
these people were in some distress. I approached Eligius.
Theres
someone on the mountain, and I think theyre trying to
call us, I said.
Eligius
stopped what he was doing and looked up the slope, but neither
of us could see the people now.
Theyre
probably coming down. Maybe one of them is sick, he said.
Well,
they appeared to me to be in some distress
I let the
comment hang in the air a moment, awaiting his response. He
looks sharply at me.
Do
you want to go up and check on them? he asks.
The truth
is, I dont, and I get Eligius message. Its
easier for them to come down from where they are than for us
to go up. There is nothing blocking the way, and all seem ambulatory.
Going up now, this late, surely would alter or interrupt our
attempt to reach the summit after midnight tonight.
So we dont
go up. The people pass out of our sight behind a ridge. We never
knew what became of them.
The plan
for the rest of the day is to rest, have tea, rest some more,
then be up at 11 p.m. with our final push to the summit beginning
at midnight, sharp.
So, we got
our gear ready for the final climb, and we lay in our tents
for hours, listening to the ominous rumble of rock slides above
us. The slides stopped, as Eligius predicted, sometime after
9 p.m. as the temperature plummeted.
The minutes
and hours seemed to creep past. Sleep eluded us all. And then
it was 11 p.m. Time to be up. Time to be off.
Arrow Glacier
camp is at 15,600 feet. We have nearly 3,800 feet to go to summit.
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