Page 52 - The Gazette Autumn 2024

52 The Gazette QARANC Association
to join in. Mine and Stu’s collective thinking was how are they not out of breath, when our smallest of movements leave us with no air. After dinner and briefing it was time for an early bed.
Day 3 – Kibo Huts, 4,720m
My chest was tight, catching my breath became harder, and my legs felt heavy. It was on this day that one member of our group became unable to continue and so we skulked on as a group of four. The pace was significantly slower, and my lungs no longer felt like they were filling up when I took a deep breath, I started to lose my appetite and was unable to stomach much of lunch so what little energy I had left was precious. It took seven hours to cover 9km to our next camp, Kibo huts sitting at 4,720 metres above sea level. Here our guide Godlisten pointed out the dark blue circles under my eyes due to lack of oxygen.
Once we were in our hut it was time to change and nap immediately because unbeknownst to us, we would be setting off 11pm that evening, climbing overnight to reach the summit for sunrise. A few hours into our nap time another member of our group started to feel the effects of the altitude and vomited in the cabin, we were swiftly brought ginger tea to calm hers and all our stomachs. Whilst we were awake, we had dinner and the final briefing before snoozing until 11pm.
(Almost) Day 4 – The Summit
at Uhuru Peak, 5,895m
11 pm came far too quickly Stu and I were still exhausted from the days walking. Some last-minute hot tea and dry biscuits to combat the nausea, before layering up our warmest clothes and stepping off. With what felt like thousands of layers Stu reminded me of Michelin Man. It is only 6km to the top but what a struggle it would be to get there, so off we went into the frozen darkness ‘pole-pole’ to reach the top.
Two of our group were now vomiting due to altitude sickness but with the well-preparedness of Stu and I taking Diamox we thankfully managed to dodge this symptom at its worst only experiencing minor feelings of nausea. Our bellies were empty and running on little sleep, feeling exhausted was an understatement.
Unfortunately, we were unlucky to have blizzarding weather the entire way making our ascent much more strenuous adding the additional danger of freezing if
I can only describe the lack of oxygen as the feeling of both your lungs being squeezed and unable to fully inflate and the chest pain of someone stomping on your ribs
we were to sit down for too long. Every so often we stopped for a small sugary bite of Snickers bars, but it was hard to eat and quickly froze feeling like every bite was going to break our teeth. We had reached a point where all our water had frozen, thus we added dehydration to the list of struggles. Stu and I slogged on, every step a struggle and every breath getting harder. I can only describe the lack of oxygen as the feeling of both your lungs being squeezed and unable to fully inflate and the chest pain of someone stomping on your ribs.
There was a small scramble to reach the rim of the crater and every exhaustion of energy to step up resulted in needing a break as I thought I was going to pass out, little white spots are now in the corners of both mine and Stuarts’ eyes. I recalled Adolf’s words at the final briefing ‘Satan will be in the rocks telling you, you cannot do it,’ and he was not wrong. There was no cover from the elements as it continued to blizzard and my only relief was leaning heavily on my hiking poles in an attempt not to faint and try to fill my lungs. Every rock we passed revealed more rocks we had to scale, it left us feeling hopeless looking at the steep never-ending hill.
Godlisten was setting us small milestones to avoid us losing hope and gave us small wins, as we trundled higher and higher. Stu and I climbed in complete silence as walking and talking felt near impossible using up vital energy which was already scarce. One pivotal memory before reaching the rim of the crater