The Top Of Africa - Day 7
- philsoderberg
- Feb 5, 2017
- 2 min read
Day 7 Sunday 5th February: Summit day
Distances on summit day
School Hut to Summit via Gillman’s Point: 5.4km, Summit to Barafu: 4.5km, Barafu to Mweka Camp: 6.3km. Total = 16.2km
After breakfast (well at 11:30pm it’s the earliest or latest breakfast I have ever had) in the mess tent we assembled our stuff and headed out in to the freezing cold. Our route took us via Hans Meyer Cave (5243m) and Gilman’s Point (5708m) where we sat and rested. We had joined the larger group just below Gilman`s Point and many of us were starting to struggle with altitude.
In my mind, I had set myself a target to get to Gilman`s and not be sick; as the majority are. I knew if I did that, the rest would take care of itself. And so it was, apart from a mild headache which I quickly dispatched with a couple of Nurofen. The only hitch I had, was at some point, even with a thermal insulator, my Camelbak tube froze up. Fortunately, I had a contingency plan with two water bottles stashed inside my jacket to stop them freezing up.
We continued on, slowly, to Stella Point and we could see the sun starting to rise. It was spectacular and worth all of the effort. This now a bit surreal, inching towards the summit, step by step as the day continued to emerge.
It was an incredible feeling reaching the summit – I had seen so many pictures, heard so many horror stories but the best feeling was all 8 of us started this journey and here we were, all 8 of us finishing it. At 07:30am on the 5th February 2017. It was an emotional moment.
Even up there, it is a small world. A guy was waiting to get his pic with his Liverpool scarf which Matty and I duly borrowed. Little did we know that while we had been up here Liverpool`s season had completely unraveled....
From the summit we descended to Stella Point and switched left onto the loose scree which was like skiing in dust. It was hot and my feet were on fire. The descent was tough on already drained legs but eventually we reached Barafu camp where we rested for an hour and arranged a trolley to take Val, who has fine apart from the impact on her knees.
From Barafu we continued to descend to Millennium Camp (3820m) for a late lunch and then onward to Mweka Camp (3090m) for overnight. We were all exhausted and there wasn`t much chatter as in previous days.