katikaa Second week was more trekking again up and down. We reached the highest altitude to everyone and also went almost 2000 meters down to get off the mountain. This last week was physically very demanding due to the altitude sickness symptoms, but also going downhill was in a way hard because we were going faster and it was completely different kind of movement again.
The last day was ridiculously long trek as we were told it would be 18 kilometers but it ended up being 22,63 kilometers downhill partly in rain, but we all got down, no injuries or bad aches/bruises/blisters.
To fourth camp (Kibo base camp) 6th day
- Distance 9,57 kilometers
- Average bpm 87 so getting higher all the time
- From 3962 meters to 4711 meters, altitude gain 668
- Speed 1,3km/h
Acclimatization walk
Not done at all. Everyone was getting ready for the summit.
Summit day (Kibo base camp) 7th day
I did not attempt to go to the summit. More about the reasons on my Kilimanjaro daily recap blog posts under section Kilimanjaro/Trekking in the coming days.
I did go for a walk in the morning when everyone else had left for the summit and walked 42 m higher up to 4785 which was my top. So approximately Mont Blanc “top of Europe” so to speak 😉
To fifth camp, downhill (Horombo) 8th day
- Distance 9,57 kilometers
- Average HR 84 so a bit lower but still high
- From 4697 meters to 3733 meters down hill, descent 925 meters
- Speed 3,3 km/h
To Marangu gate, downhill, last day 9th day
- Distance 22,63 kilometers
- Average HR 80 which is probably still high due to the massive trek down
- From 3733 meters to 2750 meters, descent 983 meters
- Speed 3,7 km/h, max speed was 7,2 km/h
- 6 hours and 8 minutes downhill! Harder than you would think!
For obvious reasons there was no other exercise that week since I was back home on Friday afternoon. I was eager to get back to normal training routines and go for a basic run as soon as possible though.
