No Picnic on Mt Kenya, 30 Jan
by Lianna
You never quite expect to find yourself in equatorial Africa, on glaciers
and snow slopes, and shivering through the night wearing all the clothes you
can find? but then that's Mt Kenya for you. It's no ordinary mountain.
Our
days on Mt Kenya were hard. The N slopes of the mountain are out of condition
at this time of year, so we set our sights on the south side of Nelion, the
lower of Mt Kenya's twin summits. The climbing is supposed to be a bit easier
up there, but the hut at which you base yourself is much much higher, at 4800m,
which is damn high to live and sleep for a few days.
Just getting there was pretty spectacular - walking up through dense forests
inhabited by elephants, buffalo and baboons, and then through the amazing
Mackinder's Valley, with its giant lobelias and groundsels, miniature primordial
trees, birds, rock hyraxes and bogs. All the while, that spectacular peak
with its complex rocky buttresses, icy runnels and snowy gullies loomed ever
closer and became more imposing with every step. A third day of walking up
(and sliding down) steep scree slopes, past ice-blue tarns and over snow fields
took us to the Austrian Hut.
The hut is really small, and we crammed ourselves onto the three bunks available.
It's not the quietest place to sleep, with climbers getting up at 2am every
morning to start climbing, and then trekkers returning from sunrise trips
up Pt Lenana for a rowdy breakfast at 7 each day. But with so many people
packed into the hut, at least it stays pretty warm. The only water supply
was a small glacial tarn 100m downhill of the hut, so we all took turns to
go and fill the jerry can up.Walking back up that hill with 20kg in one hand
was mighty hard work!!!
By
the time we had all assembled at the Austrian Hut, everyone having gotten
there at their own speed, over three or four days, life had really slowed
down and revolved around just four things.
Food - purposely chosen for their lightweight properties, we carried noodles
into the mountain. Noodles for breakfast, noodles for lunch, noodles for dinner.
Noodles noodles man were we sick of noodles. oh for some steak!
Sleeping - lots of it. Many hours of every day spent doing it.
Illness. Lots of ill people. Altitude is not good for you, that thick soup
of wonderful oxygen at sea level is good for you. Lots of people had headaches,
nausea, vomiting, fevers, exhaustion. Not nice. Hard to deal with. But when
the morning comes, and all you can see is a vast blanket of clouds, seemingly
miles beneath you, all turned a fiery red with the rising sun, and the rocky
peaks that strike through the clouds all turned purple in the cold light of
an 
high
altitude dawn, that's when you realise its been worth every ounce of energy
and every drop of sweat. Even the illness is worth it, and you're always tempted
to stay another day. Tempted further by the draw of the summits.
Climbing. Acclimatisation jaunts up Pt Lenana, the third highest point of
Mt Kenya and the only one not requiring technical gear. Reccies of the glacier
approach and then the first few pitches of the south face of Nelion (a baptism
of fire for those few who'd never used axes or crampons, or been on a glacier
before!). A speedy ascent of the S ridge of Pt John by our trainer-clad swiss-aussie
supermen combo. And, eventually, after all the planning, preparation, acclimisation
and hoping, 6 people found themselves on the top of Nelion, and then found
themselves in a very very cold (planned) bivi in the Howell Hut (a 1x2x2m
metal box) on top on Nelion without sleeping bags!
It was no picnic on Mt Kenya, but it was a great time!!
