So for those who have talked to me since I’ve returned from my Kilimanjaro trip (or have me on Facebook/Twitter) know I made it up to the top successfully. It has been exactly a month since I’ve returned and things have finally settled down enough for me to sit down and reflect on the climb.

First off, the experience was amazing. Absolutely amazing. No photos or words can describe it. Hell, I even almost enjoyed sitting in the arrival terminal of Kilimanjaro Airport for 12 hours. Yeah, twelve hours. You know what’s at the arrivals terminal? NOTHING. Its a 50 x 25 meter room, with 4 benches, a currency exchange place, a KLM office and a PercisionAir office.

Some things I noticed while in on the mountain:
1. If you are Asian, most (locals, ie guides and porters) will assume you are from Japan. That’s just the way it works, sorry.
2. They really like their Asian Kung Fu  movies. Their favorite actors includes the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Jaa etc…

Oh there was alot more rain than I expected. We went up the north side (which was already said to have better weather than the south side) and it rained on a daily basis until we got up to the 4500m mark. You see, the mountain creates it own weather; every morning, the skies will be clear, and by 8am or 9am (depending on how high up you are) clouds will start to roll in. By the afternoon (anywhere between 11am and 3pm) the rain clouds will hit you. I’ve spoken to another climber who went up the more popular, southern approach and he said he was just in the rain constantly; from when he woke up until he went to sleep. So be prepared for that- get good waterproof gear and clothes that dry very quickly if you can.

Three things I wish I brought with me:

1. Canned meat – Around half way through the 4th day on the mountain,we stopped getting meat in our meals. It was so bad that by the 24hour mark, I was pretty much eating non-stop to keep my energy levels high. Our climbing group were resupplied with a little bit of chicken the night we were to summit, so that was … good.
2. Proper sleeping bag – I brought a sleeping bag meant for +7C, and I knew going in, that this was not warm enough. It was, however, a tiny tiny sleeping bag. You see, I made a one day stopover in Amsterdam, and a one night stay in Nairobi, thus I wanted to travel as light as possible. I knew it would be much colder than +7C at night on the mountain, but I thought to myself: “sleeping bag + sleeping mat + wear alot of clothes to sleep = it’ll work out”. It didn’t. I was freezing every night. By the 4th night, it was so bad, I had to ask for hot water in my (plastic) waterbottle right before I went to bed. I would then take this waterbottle, wrap it in a sweater, and put it in my sleeping bag. I’d put on two pairs of wool socks and pretty much all my warm clothes and only then, was I warm.
3. Suncreen - There weren’t many sunny days. The one day it was actually sunny (it wasn’t even that sunny, the sun was out) my face was sunburned to the point where my skin peeled for 4 days and it was painful just being in the sun. And I was already wearing a hat. Crossing the alpine desert at 4500m really does make the UV rays stronger than it looks.

Three things I considered not bringing but was glad I brought in the end:

1. Shoes for wearing in camp - It rained daily. When I reached camp, it felt nice to have a pair of dry shoes to wear. And in the mornings, when I was eating breakfast and packing, I could wear the camp shoes while I put my hiking shoes out to dry~
2. Hot Chocolate – Amazing. I lived off milo and tea for the first four days, but the night before the summit (and right before I headed out to the summit) I had some hot chocolate, and it just felt so good. Don’t underestimate the power of comfort foods on the mountain.
3. DSLR – I really was just going to bring my G10 for the climb. You see, a DSLR is much heavier than my G10. I was confident I’d make it to highcamp alright, but to the summit? Not so sure. However, I was so glad I brought it and I didn’t ahve any trouble lugging it up to the summit after all (then again, I think I could of done a second summit the next day, that’s how ready I was for this mountain).

Three things I brought that I didn’t need:

1. Small towel – Didn’t really use it… washing became a non-necessity and I didn’t really break a sweat.
2. Second hiking pole – I ended up only using my hiking pole on the day we crossed the alpine desert. Even when going for the summit, the one pole I brought along became useless after an hour. Needless to say my second pole didn’t even go up with me. Then again, this is more of a personal choice not to use hiking poles.
3. Second pair of thermal underwear – Didn’t use it. But at least  Adrian, who had lost his luggage coming to Tanzania, made good use of them.
Note: You can tell I’m really scraping the bottom of the barrel for things I shouldn’t of brought.

All in all, I think I packed pretty well for this trip, considering how light I actually packed. I think some asprin might of been good too (I had to borrow some mostly out of caution, I probably could of done without the asprin).

These are just my random thoughts, I’ll have my (much longer) travel log posted … eventually….?