Under a starlit sky, sub freezing temps and high winds, our final ascent began around midnight. We climbed 3500ft. over 2.5 miles maintaining a slow pace to aid in acclimatization. In the darkness, we saw lines of headlamps from other hikers ahead and behind us and the city lights of Moshi in the valley. Time passed slowly and breathing became more challenging with each step with some of us fighting off varying degrees of ams symptoms and trying to endure the freezing temps. Eventually, the sun rose in the east revealing the snow covered summit, massive glaciers in the distance and breathtaking views all around us.
At 6:50am on Feb. 26, we finally reached the summit at 19,341ft. We made it to Uhuru Peak, the highest point on Mt Kilimanjaro!!! It was exhilarating yet surreal to be standing on the “Roof of Africa”. We were thrilled to have reached our goal, but in reality were exhausted, freezing cold and ready to return to base camp.
We kept our celebration brief to avoid ams symptoms from kicking in worse and descended back down the trail. Took a brief stop at Stella Pt along the crater rim to take one final look back on Uhuru Peak before the challenging steep descent down to base camp.
