Kilimanjaro: Mission Completed

On the 14th August Colin, Rob, Tom and I set off to Tanzania on a very special and emotional mission to pay tribute to Colin’s late wife who sadly lost the battle to cancer in 2013. Colin and his wife had climbed Kilimanjaro in 2006 and for over 18 months Colin had planned to go back to show Thomas her son what his mother had climbed and to say a very special goodbye to Jane. For Rob this trip was about friendship and to repeat the challenge that he had little memories of on his climb of Kilimanjaro in 2006. After much discussion we decided to look at climbing Mt Meru first and then the Western Breach on Kilimanjaro. This is perhaps the most technical route on the mountain with some excellent scrambling on summit day.

Gideon who had supported Simon, Aine , Christopher  and myself on Mt Kenya was Colin’s choice of in country guide.

Our four day ascent of Mt Meru was fantastic with not a drop of rain and a mini safari en route. Despite feeling the altitude we all topped out on both Little Meru and Meru itself ( 4500m)  and saw the sunrise over our next objective Kilimanjaro.

On our way down we were treated to more wild animals and were within touching distance of Giraffe and Buffalo. On returning to Arusha our ascent was celebrated with a local Beer and could only be said to be a “Perfect Moment” . After Pizza at the Impala hotel and a good nights rest we set off  to pay our Park Fees but found out they would not accept our Pre 2006 $. After some money shuffling we finally got on our way and walked into the Forest cave campsite through the magnificent rain forest. Being rather later than expected we were treated to golden light filtering through the canopy as the sun set. The following morning we made it to Baranco camp with little effort and were pleased that we had a rest day to take in the scenery and to explore the Branco wall.
Now we headed up to the Arrow Glacier where we had fantastic views of Mt Meru and the Western Breach. Deciding to climb in the light we set off at 5am the next morning after a very windy night. The climb was perfect as we scrambled to the crater rim and topped out on the roof of Africa at 11.15am. Tears of joy and emotion flooded the summit as we made our tribute to Jane.

What a Fantastic trip and challenge for Rob, Colin and Thomas.

Thank you to Gideon and his superb team of workers who facilitated our climb.