Trip Report: Tanzania Day 4 – Kilimanjaro Trek – Simba Campsite to Second Cave

Monday September 22, 2003

Chad and I just finished a conversation with our lead guide, Stephen, about Scott Fischer, the mountaineer who died climbing Mount Everest in 1996.

Chad is currently reading Jon Krakauer’s “Into Thin Air” which was written about the disaster, and Stephen and several of the porters knew Scott from when he spent time here.

We pointed out the passage about Scott’s time climbing Kilimanjaro to Stephen, who seemed to enjoy reading it.

We then got into a conversation about fatalities on Kilimanjaro. Every year there are 4 or 5 porters who die on the mountain, mostly from hypothermia during the wet season, on account of not having proper rainwear. There are also on average 3 or 4 tourists who die, usually those with asthma or other preexisting breathing problems.

Right now we are camped at Second Cave, at an elevation of 11,400 feet.

We only walked for about 3 hours this morning, but because the trail leads straight up the mountain here, you gain altitude very quickly. Today we gained almost 3000 feet. We woke up in time to see the sunrise this morning, and had our first crystal clear views of Mawenzi and Kibo peaks. Very little snow is visible on this, the dry side of Kibo, except for the Eastern Ice Fields.

We were fed way too much at breakfast – toast with cheese, papaya and oranges, oatmeal, tomatoes, sausages aka hot dogs, cucumbers and eggs. We camped again and had a hot lunch of friend chicken, french fries, and more cucumbers and tomatoes. We are the only ones at this camp; the other groups doing 6 day treks are spending 2 nights at Third Cave instead, so we will catch up to them later.

We are in a high alpine setting here, with lots of small shrubs and rock flowers. We keep seeing what Stephen calls mice, but they look exactly like chipmunks to us, with the stripe down their back. There are also small lizards, but we have seen no other wildlife.

The walk today was not too tough, but I can tell that the air is thinner and I was breathing harder. Tomorrow we are only walking for an hour to our next camp, and the following day I expect will also only be a few hours to Kibo Hut, from which we will make our summit push.