The following is an excerpt from my Kilimanjaro travel journal, written June 8, 2010
Last night’s concerns of mild altitude sickness may have been misdirected. The true culprit for the light headache turned out to be a partially torn contact lens that aggravated my eye. I replaced the lens this morning and handled the day with no problems.
We awoke at the usual 6 a.m. to hot cocoa in our tents, packed up camp, ate breakfast and began a short but steep morning hike to Mawenzi Tarn Hut where camp was set up. We covered 3.75 kilometers but gained 600 meters in elevation to 4,302 meters (14,114 feet).
After lunch, we took an acclimatization hike up another 350 meters to about 4,650 meters (15,224) where we stayed for about an hour before returning to camp.
I have been impressed with the strength of our team so far. Other than a few minor headaches by a few people yesterday, and some stomach cramps for Jonathan today, everyone seems to be doing well. I’ve also managed to surprise myself with how well I’ve held up to this point. I’ve felt strong and healthy, I’ve eaten very well, and I’ve slept far better at altitude than I thought I would.
As long as everyone feels well tonight and sleeps reasonably well, I think we all can move on to tomorrow’s camp — the Horombo Huts (3,721/12,208) — feeling confident that our hike high/sleep low strategy will help us to be ready to make the summit assault on Friday.
Chris Wristen 