Jeff is Where?: A Doozy

A couple months ago I had the chance to climb Mount Kenya with a friend working in Sudan. It's an incredible mountain that's located right at the equator (0 degrees, 09 minutes south latitude... that's like 10 miles from the equator). The sun feels about as intense as can be, and I got the worst sunburn on my face from the hike over the last 3 years in Liberia and Sudan. I didn't think about it until after the first day when my nose was fried to put sunscreen on. It's about as close to the center of the earth as you can get and find snow. And that's because the elevation of the mountain is 5,199 meters (17,058 ft) at the highest. The point to which we climbed (to reach the highest point, you need more time, climbing gear, and a certain time of year) is called Point Lenana and it is 4,985 meters (16,355 ft).

Phil's schedule didn't allow us too much time, so we rushed our trip into 3 days instead of the typical 4 or 5, covering 30 miles and going up and back down from the starting point at 11,000 feet (3,300 meters). It was something I'd wanted to do back in 2000 when I was studying for a semester at Daystar University in Kenya, but didn't get around to then or during the last two years in Sudan. Thankfully we never suffered from altitude sickness that keeps some from reaching the top. But, we did also have porters carrying and cooking our food while we just carried our personal belongings. That made it easier for sure, and helped us to be able to do it in the three days.

The last day, we hiked a few miles to the top and back down to the camp we'd stayed the night before and then continued all the way down to our origin. We were up at 3am in order to be able to get that all in, and by the time we reached the bottom, we were completely wiped out. It was worth it, though, to get to be at the top for the sunrise (if we'd had another day, I'd have been ok with starting at a normal time and only coming back down to the same camp for the night and then hiking the rest of the way back down the following day).