Now that I've been back at work for 5 months, I'm reminiscing on my 3-week trip to Tanzania last December/January. My second solo backpacking trip, first one in Africa, was a complete success! The greatest achievement of all was reaching the Kilimanjaro summit, fourth of the top seven summits in the world. It was tough but I accomplished it. It was a once in a lifetime experience I will never forget, but ha ...

Unlike the other days, Day 6 or Dec 26th 2010 began at midnight. At midnight, our guides came to see us and we had to get moving quickly. With nothing but headlamps and the moon shining, we began a 6-7 hours ascent to Uhuru peak. It was steep, dark and cold. All we saw were the rocks in front of us and the reflection of other headlamps on the trail. It was nice, I have to admit. The toughest part was to rea ...

Day 5, or Dec 25th 2010 was the big day! While most of you were eating abundantly, I was about to lose every ounce of body fat. By day 5, I had suffered from altitude sickness, loss of appetite and the regular unwanted bathroom calls, which all led to some weight loss. I tried to eat as much as I could, a mix of cooked food and energy bars. I had to make sure to have enough energy for summit night. The nigh ...

When I woke up on Day 4, at Barranco camp (3,900m), I was feeling much better than the previous day but not 100%. I had to however suck it in because this morning's hike was going to be challenging, as we were practically rock climbing a wall. This was also the day where the group was splitting. Those who were completing the hike in 6 days had a 7 hour hike to base camp today, whereas we were hiking 4 hours ...

Day 3 was no fun! This was the acclimatization day, where we were hiking to the Lava Tower at 4, 590m to then sleep at Barranco camp at 3,900m. The purpose of this day was to acclimatize to the altitude, considering that you can begin to feel altitude sickness at 4,000m. What began as a good hike quickly shifted to a very demanding one. That morning, we woke up as any other morning. It was a beautiful morni ...

I woke up on Dec 22nd freezing! It was only once I woke up that I realized that I only closed the screen of my tent when I woke up to go to the bathroom that night. Since we were encouraged to drink between 3-4L of water per day, frequent bathroom calls were inevitable, at any given time of the day. We woke up at 7:30am that morning, packed our sleeping bag, mattress and duffel bags before heading to the ma ...

When Dec 21st arrived, I was definitely nervous. I will never forget this date because it was the day the hike started. By that morning, I met a few people who had hiked Kilimanjaro and made it up. But I was nevertheless nervous to begin my 7-day Kilimanjaro hike. The mini-bus arrived around 8:30-9am to pick us up at the hotel. We loaded the bus, hopped on and we were ready to go. On the bus, it just so hap ...

Jambo everyone! I can't believe two weeks have passed. I'm having an awesome time in East Africa, specifically Tanzania. The Mount Kilimanjaro hike was really difficult (especially summit night) but the experience on the mountain was fantastic, regardless of the altitude sickness on day 3 and frostbite incident on summit night. I'll go into more details about my adventure on the mountain when I get more tim ...

Today is my third day in Moshi. I spent the morning with the Maasai tribe. When I got there, they took me by the hand, brought me into their very small home and dressed me up like them. Then I met various members of the family and danced with them. It was the funniest thing ever! And lots of fun! The family was extremely nice and smiling. I don't know how they can live the way they do but they probably don' ...

With less than 5 weeks from departure, I hope that my current training plan will help me reach the summit of Kilimanjaro. So what have I been up to anyway? Training, training, and yes, more training!! While the hike itself is not the most extraneous, hiking in high altitude is difficult. Although I'm always fairly in shape because I workout regularly, hiking to Kilimanjaro motivated me to take my workout to ...