Site:
http://katipeachiekeen.blogspot.com
Miles:
2727 total / 45 in 2012
Goal:

- Average one century a month in 2012 (biking) - Complete a double century - Complete a 6,000 yard postal challenge (swimming) - Swim across Glen Lake

Katherine F. did a hiking workout: Ugh. This was by far ...

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great Kili Day 6, continued: Barafu Camp to Mweka Camp 6.3 km

Ugh. This was by far the worst/ hardest day of the trip... but all was forgotten once we got to camp :)

After an hour of sleep (after climbing and descending from Uhuru Peak... 9 hours, total!) we hiked another 6.3km down to Mweka camp, at an elevation of "just" 3000m. The air felt so thick compared to up top!!

The way down was pretty treacherous... the path was quite wet, and rocky, and my knee and ankle were *not* happy with me. At least my appetite seemed to be coming back, and I snacked almost-happily the whole way.

We had a lot more rain than is "typical" for the dry season, thanks to El Niño. I can't imagine what hiking in the wet season is like-- I can say, I would not recommend it, based on what hiking during an unusually wet dry season is like!!

It was nice to get back into vegetation, and amazing how quickly the climatic zones change-- very suddenly, we were in scrubland, and soon after than in rainforest!

On our way down, we ran into some porters carrying a man who was obviously not feeling well. He was German, and part of a group including his wife. His head guide had left him at Barafu camp while the rest of the group summitted, because he was experiencing altitude sickness. What the guide *should* have done was take him down immediately. Instead, the man's symptoms worsened to the point that the porters were afraid that they wouldn't be able to get him down at all. When we met him, he was having a lot of difficulty walking and had yellow eyes and nails (indicating that the edema was starting to affect other organs...).

Luckily (!!!) the girl in our group was a recent MD grad, and had informed and prepared herself very well about altitude sickness. She had a steroid with her that was reportedly effective at reducing cerebral and pulmonary edema, though it is less-commonly prescribed for such (another friend of mine had heard of it, and had used it for AMS, but her current Dr. thought that was crazy... the girl on our trip had research papers to back herself up, though). When we reached camp for the night, the girl on our trip gave the German guy the steroids, with strict instructions. Amazingly, he was almost normal the next morning! In fact, his group passed ours up on the way down!!

almost 2 years ago