As I mentioned before, part of moving back to the States has meant my attempting to reduce some of the junk that I have been gathering for many years. (Visit my August 6th post for some reasons why I'm doing this.)So these graphics appeared on a t-shirt that I gave to the Goodwill. Yes I did climb the mountain - during our first tenure in Kenya (1991-1994). The experience lives on in my head, but not the souvenir. 5,896 meters translates to 19,343 feet. The day of the summit climb was indeed the hardest day of my life, physically speaking.
In 2006, I climbed Mt. Kenya (Point Lenana: 4,985 meters, or 16,355 feet) with Heather and Jay, who was 12 at the time. If you go back to my old blog about early 2006, you can see some of that experience.
Both experiences are worth doing - if: a) you like hiking high mountains; b) you are ready for a rustic rugged experience; and c) you are already in that part of the world. Neither is cheap, if you're not a local. Even at the locals' rates, I'm not sure I could afford to climb Kili today. (It went up quite a bit since I lived there in the 90s.)
3 comments:
You gave the shirt away!!!! I wouldn't consider that junk to discard so lightly. It's a medal, a tunic of honor. Yes, the memory is with you but now when you walk down 16th st. mall, or wander the aisles of King Soopers, ordinary humans will gaze in admiration. But not now. Tsk, tsk, Paul.
Of course, now the world can see and remember the great moment, through this blog...
I've climbed some pretty high peaks up in the Caribou, but not quite as high as Kilimanjaro. Those were also some of the most difficult days of my life, physically speaking. I lived at the time at sea level and most of the guys I was climbing with were from - you guessed it - Colorado.
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