Off the wall Kilimanjaro questions

[Wentzl]

Nice work guys, congratulations.

Looking forward to the trip report!

[JChitwood]

Huge congratulations to Jay and John.

Kinda unbelievable but by my calculation their combined age is…150!!!???

[boudreaux]

Congrats to you Jay and your buddy John! You'll be flying up your next peak like Superman with those finely tuned lungs!

[HikesInGeologicTime]

Way to go, both of you! Yet another duo I clearly can’t keep up with!

[Tornadoman]

Congrats Jay and John!

[greenonion]

Fantastic guys!! A lot of hard work paid off I bet!

[Jay521]

Thanks, all. This was a bucket list item of mine that has roots in reading Hemmingway's "Snows of Kilimanjaro" back in high school. The name "Kilimanjaro" seemed so exotic to a kid out on the eastern plains of Colorado. When I took a more serious interest in mountains, I thought that maybe someday I could hike to the top. I figured I'd better do it now while I still had enough stamina to do it. In some ways, it was easier than I expected but I managed to catch a cold literally on the flight to Tanzania and the coughing haunted me the entire trip. I'm not fully over it yet but doing better. I was afraid that bug would keep me from the summit but I have always maintained that hiking is 90% mental and I just tried really hard to keep my head in the game. Fortunately, I suffered no altitude issues of any kind and had a great partner in Wine Guy and an outstanding tour operator (Gladys). And it all came together nicely.

Thanks again for all your positive comments.

Jay

[seannunn]

I guess at 56 I am WAY too young to delete Kili from my life list.
Congratulations guys, and thanks for giving us youngsters inspiration!!!

Sean Nunn
Peculiar, MO

[jrbren_vt]

Congratulations Jay & Wine Guy !

[boudreaux]

The Bros of Kilimanjaro!

[wineguy]

An amazing and memorable experience, highly recommended. I think my favorite part was getting acclimated while hiking toward the mountain. Excellent weather, probably high 50's temperature, awesome scenery, and a relaxed hiking pace on trails between 13,000 and 15,200'. Summit day was much more demanding, started around midnight, and climbed a steep exhausting trail to Stella Point at about 18,900' on the crater rim. The remaining trail to the summit along the crater rim was much easier. The beauty of the sunrise and the Swahili chants of our crew brought tears to my eyes as we approached the summit.

Jay was an awesome partner.

The main negative was spending 7 nights in a tent. The sleeping pads provided were OK, but not as comfortable as the air mattresses I carry when backpacking.

Photo is from the top of Barranca Wall, a fun scramble on the route.

[sunny1]

Great pic, John! Congratulations to both of you!!
Sounds like an incredible experience.