On January 5th, 2001, two friends and I departed the San Francisco Bay Area for Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. When asked why I climbed the mountain, my usual answer is, "Uh... I don't know...", because my discovery Kilimanjaro was pure serendipity (my friend Munira had made the initial suggestion, but was later unable to go). I roped Wally into the trip by buying him an airplane ticket, and Margo became interested after the trip came up randomly at work one day.
 
I've heard Mt. Kilimanjaro called the "most underestimated mountain in the world." It's nicknamed "the mountain that glitters" and "the place where God lives". Most people think it's easy because it's not a technical climb; after all, it's simply a hike straight up and down (more or less) the mountain. However, as we discovered, the effects of fatigue and altitude were very real. Luckily, my friends were very supportive prior to my trip: "You're insane." "You're going to die." "Can I have your car if you don't come back?" I love having supportive friends. Here's a good page detailing high altitude discomfort. One sickness it fails to detail is HAFE (High Altitude Flatus Expulsion). We discovered that it is, in fact, a legitimate sickness.
 
After doing a little research on the web, we almost randomly booked a climb on the Machame route. It's commonly called the "Whiskey" route, while the easier Marangu route is known as the "Coca-Cola" route. This turned out to be a great decision; the Marangu route seemed to be a commercialized conveyor belt up to the top of the mountain -- crowded, with drinks for sale almost all the way up (!). On the Machame route, nights are spent in tents with no electricity or bathroom facilities, and we never saw more than two or three other groups camped after the first night.
 
This was my first digital-only photo trip. I lugged a Canon D30 Digital SLR, an assortment of "L" lenses, polarizer filters, and a Gitzo monopod/walking stick, packed into a Lowepro Street & Field Rover AW. It's rather ironic that for my first digital photo trip, I climbed a mountain so high that hard disks (for backup) don't spin up properly. I just had to pray that I had enough memory to last me until I descended. All of the photos on this site were taken with the above mentioned setup.
 
 
Author: Eric H Cheng
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