Zach woke me up at 4 am after another pretty sleepless night. Naftaly had a hot cup of tea and biscuits waiting for me as I shook the ice off my tent. I got into my 3 layers of clothing and strapped on my LED headlight and was ready to go at 4:30 to start to the summit. Into the vertical darkness we headed.
It seemed like the climb started from where it had left off the day before – a complete step-by-step trudge with my body crying for oxygen. Zach and I were climbing alone, but I could see further up the mountain about 200 feet the headlights of the French team that had started out 30 minutes before us. Although the moon was out, it was still the best I could do was to focus on the next step my headlight illuminated and make sure I somehow kept up with Zach. He pushed us hard so to make Summit by sunrise.
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| The First Wall (done in the dark) |
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| Base Camp Below (yellow tents) |
But we kept pushing on…the sun was starting to light the horizon line and we really did want to be on the Summit at sunrise. So we kept climbing and closing the gap between us and the light beams ahead of us. The last 300 feet or so involved some hand-over-hand rock climbing – nothing dangerous, but for me it was a welcome change from the steep assault on scree that made up most of our early morning climb in the darkness.
We could hear shouts above us as two teams from other camps had reached the Summit and it provided me an extra shot of adrenaline to really push me past the point of exhaustion. I finally reached the last ladder and Zach gave me a hand up to pull me to the top plateau of Pt. Lenana. He greeted me with a great big hug and I was so thankful that he had been my guide. We had made the Summit!
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| Day Break 1 |
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| Day Break 2 |
And then, no more than 3 minutes after we had reached the Summit, the sun burst over the horizon and lit up the blanket of clouds that lay spread before us covering for as far as the eye could see. We both climbed up to the Pt. Lenana flagpole – at 16,335 you wouldn’t think you would have to wait in in line. But there were teams that had started before us and we waited for a Japanese team to get all their pics.
Finally, as I stood there on the very top of Mt. Kenya with the Point Lenana flagpole in my hand, a few thought raced through my mind:
- Praise to God for the incredible journey He had called me on to Mt. Kenya
- Thanksgiving for all of the supporters of Climb To End Poverty
- Hope for all the people of Kager and Kochia who would benefit from the medical clinic expansion
For just a few minutes, I was overwhelmed by the whole situation -- physically, emotionally and spiritually. It truly was a vision from God that had come true – and then it was quickly someone else’s turn to get their picture taken at the top of Kenya.
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| Teams at the Summit |
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| The Climb Team at Summit - Zach and Ned |
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| Point Lenana, Mt. Kenya - 16,335 Feet |
For just a few minutes, I was overwhelmed by the whole situation -- physically, emotionally and spiritually. It truly was a vision from God that had come true – and then it was quickly someone else’s turn to get their picture taken at the top of Kenya.
And with the suddenness of a high altitude sunrise, we snapped a few more pics and our time on the Summit was over. Certainly, there was no rest for the weary as we still had 9-10 more hours of hiking ahead of us. And down we went…
