Mt. Kenya

Climbing Mt. Kenya last week was, without a doubt, one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It's hard to even know where to begin in describing it, but I'll try to give a short play-by-play to start...

On Wednesday morning, Joe, Phil, Adrian, and I drove into Nairobi to meet up with Clayton. We loaded up all of our bags into his sweet Land Rover Defender, jumped in the back, and drove about 3 hours to the start of the Sirimon route in Mt. Kenya National Park. Five porters were waiting on us at the gate - I've never hiked with porters before, but it was AWESOME! We only had to carry a day pack and water during our hikes, and the porters carried all of our extra clothes, food, and supplies in front of us. In this way, we set off for about a four-hour hike through an incredible forest and out above the treeline to our first night at the Old Moses hut. We spent each of the next four nights in various "huts," which are wooden buildings with bunkrooms inside, along with a separate building for the porters to cook and sleep in. The huts were pretty comfortable, and it was so nice to have a place to hang out after each long day of hiking.

The value of the huts and the porters increased exponentially because of the weather during our trip. February is "supposed" to be a dry month in Kenya, and Clayton told us before the trip that there was very little chance of rain...he was wrong. It ended up raining for at least a couple hours of our hikes each day, which meant that most of the trip we were all in some stage of wetness. We were SO thankful that each day's hike ended at a hut, and not at a tent, as it provided a much-needed place to get dry and warm.

Getting back to the play-by-play: After reaching Old Moses on Wednesday, we relaxed around the camp, ate dinner, and then enjoyed the beautiful views out over the plains surrounding the mountain before hitting the beds. We woke up early the next morning to an unbelievable sunrise, and then set off for a full day of hiking. Most of the morning was spent walking up the mountain in glorious sunshine, stopping at streams and cliffs to rest, explore, and take pictures. After a great lunch on a huge stone outcropping, though, the clouds rolled in with a vengeance and we started hearing thunder all around. The next few hours held an intense hike in the cold rain, and we were all absolutely overjoyed when we made it to Shipton's hut in the middle of the afternoon and crawled into our sleeping bags to warm up! Just a few minutes later, though, the rain stopped and we were treated to some of the most unbelievable scenery of anywhere I have ever slept - the sun came out over the green valley that we had just hiked up on one side, and over the intimidating peaks of Mt. Kenya on the other side. This was the first good look we had of the peaks, and we all stood in awe of the snow-covered, jagged rocks that rose up in front of us into the blue sky. After soaking up the sun as long as we could, doing our best to dry out our boots and clothes, and eating a great dinner of beef pasta, we hit the bed at about 7:30pm to get some rest before our summit attempt the following day.

Our alarms went off at 2:15am on Friday, and we rolled out of bed to a freezing, but clear night sky. We all bundled up in our somewhat-dry boots and our warmest clothes, grabbed our headlamps, and started up the mountain. As soon as we walked outside, we all stopped to pray together and take in the awe-inspiring scene - the silhouette of the mountain in front of a sky bursting with stars, with the Southern Cross hovering just over the peak, made all of us feel small and humbled. It was too cold to stay still for long, though, and we started off on the three and a half hour climb to Point Lenana, at 16,355 ft. First we walked through rocks and mud, and then an hour or so into the climb we started finding patches of snow. Before too long we were kick-stepping our way through six or eight inches of snow, and the snow began falling harder and harder. It was intense - we couldn't see very far in the darkness, but our headlamps illuminated the giant drop-offs just feet away from the slippery path and we all took each step with caution. Eventually we started to see the sky grow lighter to the East, and we made the final climb up onto the summit just before the sun rose. Amazingly, the snow stopped and the sky cleared just enough for the sun to pop out on the horizon, and we were treated to an unbelievable view as the scene before us was revealed.

The vista from the top of Mt. Kenya was truly one of the most unbelievable scenes I have ever laid eyes on. The snowy slopes stretched out before us, with the other peaks of the mountain climbing dramatically into the fog. Further out, we could see valleys and lakes on all sides - absolutely breathtaking! We all took pictures and celebrated together before starting our descent, pausing to thank God for an unbelievable morning. As we made our way back down the mountain, we were blessed with blue skies and warm sun, which prompted us to deviate from the path a bit to a beautiful, oval-shaped, glacial pool that goes by the name of Simba Tarn. Without thinking too long about it, we all stripped down and dove into the icy water, quickly screaming and climbing out on the snow-covered boulders, laughing histerically as a big group of Russian climbers looked on in utter confusion! It was probably the coldest thing I have ever experienced - but also one of the most amazing feelings...talk about really feeling alive!

We took our time over the next couple of days to climb back down the mountain, enjoying both sunny skies and pouring rain. Thankfully, through all of the difficult conditions and challenging hikes, everyone on the trip had an unbelievable attitude and found ways to make it all fun. At one point we were running through water that was about 6 inches deep in the driving rain, splashing around and singing "American Pie" as loud as we could - that was the kind of situation that could be utterly miserable, but I enjoyed every second of it! Another time we all worked together to lure in a Rock Hyrax (kind of an overgrown guinea pig) close enough to touch it...hilarious! It was such a blessing to share the whole experience with this group of guys - I feel like we all really got to know each other on a deeper level, and none of us were sick of each other by the end. It was also a blessing to have a few days away from all of our work, which can get draining after a while, and we all came back refreshed and rejuvenated.

There are so many stories that came from this trip - I can't even begin to recount them all now! Praise God for encouraging friendships, for his beautiful creation, for the gift of adventure, and for safety and health. Thank you all for your prayers during the past week - I really appreciate them and I wish I could share everything that they accomplished in all of the detail that it deserves!

ps - there will be many more pictures up on facebook soon if you want to check them out!