Mt. Kilimanjaro Pictures
Pictures from all over Kilimanjaro - hiking up the routes, various views of the mountain, its surrounding, and the climbers.
Picture of the week 48
This photograph has always intrigued me because of the primary colors (red, yellow & blue) with the morning moon and the Rebman Glacier peaking along the horizon.
We are half way down the scree slide as I looked back up the slope to capture this image. Running down the scree enabled us to get from the summit !9,340 ft. to Barafu Camp 15,000 ft. in just under 4 hours, a distance that had taken 3 days to ascend.
Each meter brought increased oxygen and euphoria to our starved brains.
Date: November 28th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 46
One of the fellows at BootsnAll sent me some photographs taken by a friend.
I have included one of his images this week because it was the shot I couldn’t take. My camera stopped working and, at 19,000+ feet, I did not possess the cognitive resources to render the simple fix it until we entered the lower, oxygen rich, altitudes on our way down the mountain.
This photo was taken at the top of the trail from Crater Camp to the summit ridge.
Pictured is Crater Camp (tents in lower center), a …
Date: November 12th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 44
Climatic truths are rendering the glaciers atop Mt. Kilimanjaro smaller by the day. This process has been unfolding for hundreds of years, yes, even before “global warming”. Although I think “man” could be a wiser steward of the planet, I’m of the opinion this ice was going to melt, in time, but also, in time, return and “man” will not affect the process greatly with energy credits or carbon neutral strategies.
As “man” continues to struggle with good stewardship, however, I have, and will always possess, the coveted photograph of, yours truly, standing triumphantly with the sublimating …
Date: October 29th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 42
This view of the Reusch Crater is hidden from Kilimanjaro summiteers by gigantic cinder cones. The only way to see this is to include an over-night stay at Crater Camp, walk up the cinder cones and look in. Less than 5 % of the annual trekkers do this.
The majority attempts the climb during the night and, hopefully, times their summit to coincide with the sunrise.
Date: October 15th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 40
I took this minimalist image as we moved slowly across the raising snow slope from the top of the Breach to the rim of the cinder cones protecting the Reusch Crater.
Date: October 1st, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 47
The stroll from the spot of the week 46 photo to the summit sign was maybe 150 yards. My son and I covered that distance, arm & arm, as I fondly recall and you would have thought we would be feeing triumphant, but the core feeling we experienced was one of over-powering relief.
We knew we didn’t have to climb anymore. Our mission had been accomplished even with the knowledge we had two more days to walk to the Land Rover. We hadn’t slept during our over-night at Crater Camp but we …
Date: November 26th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 45
Pictured here, taken from inside our tent, is our waiter August at Crater Camp announcing that our dinner was ready in the mess tent. Behind him are the beautifully iconic Furtwrangler Glacier and one of the cinder cones protecting the Reusch Crater.
As I’ve shared in other posts this year, the long shadows and stunning topography is easier to contemplate and appreciate now, after the trip, owning to the lack of oxygen for our flatlander brains at 18,400 ft. At this particular campsite, we were quite content and happy to simply be told what to …
Date: November 5th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 43
Pictured here is the Furtwrangler Glacier which we could walk right up to and touch. The breath saving stroll from the crater rim to Crater Camp is all down hill. past the massive 40 to 50 foot walls of ice that have been standing there for thousands of years.
The Furtwrangler Glacier is shrinking from a process called sublimation. This is an evaporative event rather than the ice simply melting and running down the mountain. The other glaciers, especially the hanging glaciers, however, are susceptible to both climatic forces …
Date: October 22nd, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 41
While exploring the surroundings on the crater floor the clouds were rolling past, at our level, like gigantic puffs of cotton. I’d never seen anything quite like it.
Date: October 8th, 2007 |
No Comments
Picture of the week 39
Kilimanjaro is not known for summit plumes but there it was nonetheless.
Unlike the Himalayan giants, this was not warm monsoon air condensing to ice crystals. Kili was sucking the clouds up the Western Breach from behind us and playfully throwing them off the summit ridge with the same nonchalance used when flicking a bug off your sleeve, unbelievable!
Words to describe the feeling as I set foot on the crater with my son are difficult to conjure. A bliss filled re-affirmation of life, though, comes pretty close.
Our 8 awesome days on the mountain, the scrambling preparation, a dose of tragedy, …
Date: September 24th, 2007 |
No Comments
