As discussed with my HAE doctor, I did a preventive medicine treatment in the morning before setting off because the climb and altitude would be a physical strain on my body.

📍 Londorosi Gate: 2260 meters

We began the journey at Londorosi Gate, with a quick lunch while the porters loaded up the gear. The porters were the true MVPs (most valuable players) of the trip – carrying (maximum) 20 kilograms each and all of the cooking supplies, camp equipment, tents and the rest of the gear we would need on our 7 day trek.

📍Morum Picnic Site: 3407 meters

We began hiking at Morum Picnic Site and hiked across a moorland to Shira Camp 1. While we didn’t have any altitude gain during this hike, the altitude itself was a change! The mantra of the guides was pole pole (pronounced polé polé), Swahili for slowly slowly. This hike was as much a journey to the first camp as it was practice at walking slowly.

📍 Shira 1 Camp: 3500 meters

We arrived at Shira Camp 1 for dinner – the temperatures dropped quickly overnight as this camp was on a plateau. Everything was covered by frost in the morning but the sky was so clear, we could see some of the most beautiful stars I’ve ever seen.

📍 Shira 2 Camp: 3850 meters

On day two, we trekked through moorland from Shira 1 Camp to Shira 2 Camp which has an altitude of 3850 meters. We’re all taking Diamox, an altitude sickness pill, so have been spared severe altitude effects. At about the halfway mark, we have a tea break. The camp is shrouded in a misty fog as we hike in.

📍 Altitude Training Hike: ~4000 meters

After a quick break, we keep climbing up to 4000 meters as an altitude training hike – climb high, sleep low is the mantra – to get our bodies used to being at high altitude. Our expedition guides sing a song about Kilimanjaro in Swahili and we begin to try to learn it.

📍 Lava Tower Camp: 4600 meters

On Day three, we set out from Shira 2 Camp to reach the Lava Tower Camp, our highest elevation point so far at 4600 meters. We’ve moved from Moorland to Alpine Desert and there were more ups and downs on this hike than previous ones. As we set off in the morning, the other tallest mountain nearby, Mount Meru, was rising up behind us, but eventually, we climbed higher than its peak! At Lava Tower, we break for a long lunch, designed to get us even more accustomed to high altitude.

Mount Meru in the Background

📍 Baranco Camp: 3900 meters

After lunch, we begin our descent to Baranco camp, where we’ll spend the night. The peak of Kilimanjaro is now clearly within view and towers over Baranco camp.

View of Kilimanjaro from Baranco

📍 Karanga Camp: 3995 meters

In the morning, we set out from Baranco Camp to scale the Baranco Wall, a massive cliff face. It was amazing to see the porters scramble nimbly up with up to 20kg on their heads! The altitude definitely affects us with every step being extremely slow and needing to catch our breath frequently. After climbing the wall and reaching our highest point of the day, we began a descent into a valley which is very welcome, until we have to climb back up the other side of the valley to reach the camp!

📍 Altitude Hike: 4100 meters

After reaching Karanga Camp, we took a quick altitude hike up to around 4100 meters, so that our bodies would keep getting accustomed to the altitude. Mount Kilimanjaro seems within reach! At our turning back point, a light snow begins to fall!

📍 Barafu Camp: 4673 meters

We reached base camp today! There’s a big push with almost 600 meters elevation gain to reach it. In the tents each night I’m starting to feel the altitude – packing and repacking our duffle bags leaves me out of breath if I move quickly. But we listen to music and dance our way up the final ascent to base camp!

📍 Altitude Hike: 4800 meters

Before we can rest, we do another altitude hike up to around 4800 meters. This is following the path that we’ll climb to the summit in just a few hours! There’s some tricky rock scrambling up for a few hundred meters which serves the purpose of letting us familiarize ourselves with the trail before we do it in the dark. Everyone heads to be around 2pm because we’ll wake up at 10pm for dinner before we set out for the summit, climbing overnight!

📍 Push to Stella Point: 5756 meters

We wake up at 10pm and I can feel that my lip is quite swollen. However, because I’ve already used my medicine, I know it won’t progress further, and it’s contained to my lip and not severely affecting my body in any way, so I push ahead with the climb. It was one of the most physically challenging things I’ve ever done. With the altitude, we were going about one step a minute, in the dark of the night. The sky is crystal clear with stars shining brightly and it was almost a full moon, so I didn’t have to use my headlamp. We climb for 7 hours, some of us starting to feel the effects of the altitude. The expedition guides have kept us going singing the Kilimanjaro song in Swahili, plying us with hot tea with glucose packets, and cookies. The final push up to the crest of the mountain is in negative temperatures, with wind blasting us as we climb vertically through gravel and sand. The beginning of the sunrise gives us more energy for the final push, with us reaching Stella Point, at the top of the crest of Kilimanjaro, just after 6am.

Lip swollen when waking up at 10:00 pm.

📍 Summit: 5895 meters

After another round of tea and cookies, we begin the final leg of the summit, climbing a gentle slope up the ridge of the mountain to reach the highest point of Kilimanjaro. There’s jubilation at the summit with other climbers waiting in line to take photos with the summit sign. It’s freezing at the top, so we begin our descent after the photos. What took us 7 hours on the way up takes only 3 on the way down, with some of us almost skiing through the loose rock, gravel, and sand. We get a couple hours to recover and rest, having lunch before continuing our descent to the next camp. My lip has unswollen a little bit, but I’m constantly reapplying chapstick to try to prevent my lip from splitting.

Lip starting to unswell.

📍 Mweka Camp: 3100 meters

Our final destination for the night is Mweka Camp at 3100 meters, meaning we’ve descended over 2500 meters in altitude after climbing up 1200 meters to reach the summit. On this descent down we go through the various landscapes from the alpine desert filled with barren, sandy gravel, to beginning to see trees and bushes and finally ending the day with the camp located in a lush, tropical-looking moorland.

📍 Mweka Gate: 1640 meters

The morning of the last hike! We have a final breakfast, with all of our porters and expedition guides gathering to sing songs before we begin the final descent to Mweka Gate, descending almost 1500 meters in 3 hours. We catch glimpses of Kilimanjaro through the trees and see monkeys as we approach the gate! My lip is also deflating, so Kilimanjaro has been a success!

I feel very grateful to all of the guides, porters, and people in my group who trekked alongside me to raise awareness for rare diseases as part of Osmosis’ Year of the Zebra campaign. While summiting Kilimanjaro required a lot of introspection and pulling extra strength from deep within, the camaraderie from the group I was climbing with was a large part of why I was able to summit, and not only summit, but enjoy the experience.