What a miserable day! As usual, we woke up and waited for the sun to rise. A little while after we started hearing the porters chat, Alex poked his head into our tent. After taking Margo down to the gate on the morning of day two, he had turned around and headed back up the mountain (using a different route -- the Umbwe route, I believe) to catch up to us. He informed us regretfully that our luggage had not arrived. I still can feel the sinking feeling I had when he uttered those words. Luckily, we had already decided that we should attempt to summit regardless of whether our bags showed up or not, so it wasn't too much of a blow. However, he did tell us that Margo's bag had arrived, and was on its way up the mountain on day two (they intercepted them on the way down) (!). How ironic is that? (We found out when we got back that Margo and Alex had spent half an hour on the mountain separating out everything that could have been useful to Wally and me. They sent it up in a bag with a porter, but we never received it. I can only imagine how happy I would have been to get another pair of socks!! *sigh*)
 
I have developed a horrible pain in my left lung -- it is a sharp, stabbing pain upon inhalation. This does not seem like a good thing. The hike to Barafu hut took about 3.5 hours. At least two hours of it involved sleet, snow, and wind. Even though Wally and I had decided to attempt to summit, it took all of my willpower to keep my spirits up. I was cold, cold, cold, and my boots had really started to fall apart, which made my feet even colder than they had been before. (Un)Fortunately, there's no way they could have been wetter, since they were already completely waterlogged. I didn't get any pictures of the hike, or of Barafu camp because conditions were so bad. On the way, Alex pointed out a grassy area where an American tourist had died from pulmonary edema. We found out later that the tourist had been in his climbing group. Scary.
 
Our campsite was located on a rocky outcropping. When we arrived, we huddled under some rocks that were jutting out of the cliff wall and watched the porters try to put the tents up with heavy snow falling all around us. Some of them weren't wearing gloves -- they must have been freezing! Anyway, eventually the tents went up, and we crawled inside, leaving our wet jackets and backpacks outside to "dry". It took awhile to warm up, but eventually we settled down. Lunch was brought to us (it really was a luxury because I don't think I would have ventured outside the tent to eat), and we tried to get some sleep in anticipation of the evening summitting attempt. Water rendered the one watch the guides and porters had inoperable, so I volunteered mine to use as an alarm clock.
 
Wally and I made a Top-10 Equipment wishlist today. Clearly, he's less of a whiner than I am.
 
Eric's Wishlist:
 
1. Boots that aren't falling apart
2. Shell jacket
3. Shell pants
4. Dry wool socks (had dreams about these!)
5. Synthetic shirts
6. Synthetic pants
7. Better gloves
8. Boxers
9. Soap
10. Nalgene bottles
 
Wally's Wishlist:
 
1. Shell top
2. Boots
3. Wool socks
4. Shell bottom
5. Snack food
6. Petzl headlamp
 
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