Tri-ing Life and More

We were all so exhausted from the summit day that we all slept well (including me since I stopped taking my altitude meds). Getting up and going the next day was a little anticlimactic. Corinne and I had been taking notes every night to remember the details of the trip, but the notes ended on summit night. So everything from here on out is totally from memory. I appreciated the chocolate message I got the night we finished the climb (and yes I did bring Dove chocolates on the climb and my fingernails have elephants on them). The guides rallied us in the morning to hurry up so we could meet all of the porters and get a group picture. No surprise, we were running late, but we paused so they could come say hi and get going themselves since they needed to sign out of camp and get going. They did quick intros and then sang for us. We had been trying to learn the Kilimanjaro song all week and I think Amanda is the only one who actu...

Summit Day! An incredible day that lasted a very long time. It was an amazing experience that I honestly only have vague memories from and I blame that on altitude and pure exhaustion. After a few hours of napping, the guides woke us up at 11pm. We had an hour to get ready, eat, and get started. This is the first time all trip that we almost hit the leave time and it was a good thing. It is freezing outside and the wind was still howling. We all huddled in the tent for breakfast and to stay warm. Our breakfast consisted of cookies, popcorn, and tea. I knew that wouldn't be enough for me so I had a Clif bar too. Luckily waking up wasn't too bad since we wore many of our layers to bed and had everything else laid out. It was really hard to leave the semi warmth of the tent to start the climb. The full moon was out and lit our way very well. It is a very cool sight to see headlamps working their way up the mountain. It is also depressing to see how far you have to go. I knew ...