Mountain 1, Shawna 2

Mt. Killimanjaro reminded everyone that this climb is not a walk in the park. There's a reason why it takes a special person to attain the summit. After two successful summits, the mountain bested Shawna this year.

It seems the guides are quite strict with their rule that climbers with unrelenting vomiting spasms must go down. It is the cardinal sign of severe altitude sickness. Despite Shawna's protestations that it was just the result of listening to Sara's snoring all night long, that she was fine and up to the task, she was sent down from the Kibo camp with a guide and three porters before the team made their summit push. Unfortunately, her sister Nicole was forced to join her exit by a worsening respiratory infection. Nicole wanted Josh to know that she was certainly not faking. A course of antibiotics for Nicole and a night not at altitude for Shawna seems to have healed their problems. They are planning to rejoin the team as they come off the hill today.

Initial summit reports were that everyone else made the lower summit and the team was doing well on its way to Uhuru Peak despite some fairly nasty and snowy weather. Full summit report coming soon.

While we are waiting to hear more from Mr. Me Talk Pretty One Day, I'll leave with this note from my friend HDT "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected. "

Third Day's a Charm

Looks like Too Tall beat me to the update punch, but I really don’t have too much to add. I missed a call circa 1 a.m. from Shawniqua who apparently had trouble reaching Eric Abdul-Jabaar on her first attempt, so I got the sloppy seconds in the form of a choppy voicemail. It was short and sweet (well, from Shawna, tall and sweet), and here’s what I gist of what she said:

Day 3 weather was cloudy from 12,000 feet as the group was heading towards Mawenzi Lake near the Mawenzi Peak. Seems like everyone is hanging in there, despite a little case of Montezuma’s Revenge plaguing the otherwise happy campers. Two very tall blonde thumbs up re: the porters, who Shawna says are absolutely awesome and have helped make things easier. Sounds like Shawniqua’s sister, Nicole, the Aveda Vixen, developed a slight respiratory infection (I think she’s faking), but she’s getting better (good thing Naughty Nurse Dwyer is on the pleasure stroll up that hill!). As for Sarah, when she’s not wowing the masses with her tales of what she just said ten steps before, she’s apparently Snoresafrica, keeping Shawna up all night (or day?) by sawing some industrial logs. Isn’t it funny how the lowest of all low talkers can make the tent tremble with her louder than loud respiratory raucous?
More to come later tonight…hopefully either Too Tall or I can make live contact so we can extract some greater detail, but the punch line is that all are well and making great progress!

The Trek Continues

Isn't it just like Shawna to promise regular communication and then mysteriously be unable to answer the phone for days. Her story is that clouds over the mountain have prevented phone communication. I suspect they are too busy enjoying the view to call. The clouds cleared this morning and a short message came through. Everyone is doing great and they are halfway to the summit.

SAFE AND SOUND ON THE GROUND

20 hours of travel and our team is safely in another world.  A quick stop in Amsterdam followed by hours of traveling over the Sahara's endless sand.  As they climbed down the 2 story tall boarding ladder and look back, the KLM 747 looks like it landed on the equivalent of a dirt landing strip.  No boarding tunnel, the runway lights were quickly turned off and there sits the massive plane in the dark in the middle of nowhere.  Our travelers moved across the dusty tarmac into a single story terminal with a few tired fans barely moving the hot desert air. Cash obtained visas, customs made a cursory glance at their forms and their African adventure had begun.   

The trip was long and tiring but without problems.  Well almost without problems.  A bag or two was delayed and Amy Kaplan had a little run-in with a lovely KLM flight attendant.  It seems there was a bit of a dispute over some liquid that ended up in Amy's seat.  Amy was insistent that the flight attendant spilled soup while she was gone, it seems a leaking camelback may have been another possible explanation.  It's good to see our climbers well prepared for all contingencies.  By the time the group arrived, these travel annoyances seemed insignificant.  

In the words of my good friend Thoreau "Our life is frittered away by detail.  Simplify, Simplify." 

It seems like things are getting much simpler for our fearless trekkers.  Today they 

got a chance to meet some  the GAA sponsored orphans.  Food, shelter and someone to care about them is all they have.  There are over 8000 AIDS ophans in the town.  Many have no access to something as simple as clean water.  The worries of life back at home and fear about the mountain quickly disappeared when faced with the daunting impact of their fundraising along with a realization of how lifechanging the GAA programs are.

Tonight our team enjoyed their second night at the luxurious Kigongoni Lodge in Arusha located on a historic coffee farm overlooking Mt. Killimanjaro.  Tomorrow they board trucks for a lengthy ride to the base of the mountain.  If you think Chicago has bad potholes, wait until you get a chance to careen down a dirt road in a Land Rover at 60 mph for 3 hours.  At the gate they will join their support team and hike three hours to their first camp.  There they will find sleeping tents, a mess tent, a bathroom tent and dinner waiting for them.  (We are all waiting to hear how our vegan/rawfoodists will enjoy the menu.)  15 of their porters, including 5 women, are graduates of the GAA orphanage and training program.  We have been told that these 5 women are the first female porters on the mountain.  Its been amazingly empowering for them.  The support crew including guides, porters and cooks totals 48 for the 15 climbers.  

Everyone was happy to hear of our chilly temperatures in Chicago.  80 degrees in Arusha today.

More to follow.

Too Tall.