A City in the Clouds

Day 7 - True Date 6/12/13

OK! Not actually "in" the clouds and certainly not a "city" but some of the scenery of the day still makes the name feel applicable.

Today was the first of our shorter hiking days. The morning followed our usual schedule up to this point. We were awake by 7, with hot beverages and water to wash, and were given some time to dress

and pack as we shook off that groggy morning feeling. Most of us slept well, with the exception of 5:00 am when Liesje and Kelly started rambling to each other about various things that all the neighboring tents could hear. After being told to quiet down everyone returned to another hour or so of blissful sleep. Breakfast was served at 7:45 and consisted of fried eggs, toast, pancakes, and bacon. By 8:30 we were done eating, finished packing and on our way.

The hike began from Moir Hut (13,580 ft) with an immediate and steep incline. Summiting this first ridge took us nearly an hour and merited a break. From here we could view the trail we travel nearly all the way to Lava Tower, the campsite where we would be spending the night. We could also look

behind us down the slope. Unobstructed by any vegetation or major rocks we could see all the way down the slope we'd ascended and see our camp being packed up behind us. It was a great place for photos. We had views of the Kibo summit, the trail both forwards and back, and we could look off the mountain over seemingly endless fields of cloud. To the west we could also see the very summit of Mount Meru sticking up out of the clouds.

We continued our hike down part of the ridge, crossed a wide and shallow canyon, and scaled another ridge on the far side. This set of ups and downs repeated itself 3 or 4 times through the morning. During this duration we gained very little elevation overall, despite constantly feeling like we were climbing up and down. Wildlife and vegetation were extremely sparse, limited to only the white-necked ravens and some very durable lichen. On our initial ascent of the day we crossed out of the remnants of the "health zone" and were now officially in an alpine desert.

At noon we crossed a small brook to reach
the day's final destination, Lava Tower. The name Lava Tower refers to a 300 ft tall rock spire that sits at an elevation of 14,950 ft. To reach here from our morning camp we had hiked approximately 2.3 miles and 1,400 ft of elevation in about 3 hours. This brought

our total hiking time to 16 hours and 7 minutes. Lava Tower serves as a major hot spot for many other climbing groups. We ate lunch in the presence of 4-6 other hiking parties, making it quite a lively place and a led to large gatherings of white-necked ravens. By now the Kibo summit had clouded over, sandwhiching us nicely between a layer of clouds above and below us - hence - "in the clouds"...

Lunch was served a little later than usual at about 1:45. First, we had some form of lemon-chicken. It was very good, though I lack a more intricate way to describe it.

Then there were grilled cheese stuffed with vegetables and a ... meaty-veggie-non-cheese-filled hot pocket-quesadilla-calzone-like thing. Truthfully I have no idea what it was but I liked it. After lunch we got some time to rest until 4 when we would go out on a short acclimatization hike (which I do not include in the total mileage, elevation or hiking time).

Come 4:00 I, along with many other members of our

party, woke up from a nap to get ready for another bit of hiking. For this we did not need our full packs, but we were encouraged to bring water and our trekking poles so Harrison and I each took a pack. We were on the trail again by 4:15 and headed along the identical route that we would hike the next morning. It was quite steep and the ascent was nearly entirely along a trail of loose rocks, dust and pebbles. This made the climb slow and required many switch-backs and zig-zags. We received some great views of Lava Tower and the

canyon the traveled down the mountain on this side of the spire into the clouds below us. At about 5 we reached the end of our climb, about 300 ft above the campsite and after a short water break, returned down. The way down was equally as steep (shocking!) and required careful footing to keep balance. We were back in camp at about 5:30.

After returning Archer and I took a quick detour around to the back side  of

Lava Tower. Here we had the best-yet view or the canyon that was adjacent to our camp. We also found a large collection of ravens and discovered that the lichen/moss growing on the rocks could be really quite prickly. Not long after we returned to the camp for dinner. We were served a cucumber soup followed by a salad and spiced rice with beans.

As usual, we were told the plan for the day tomorrow. The hike would be a bit

shorter with another acclimatization hike so we would be allowed to sleep in a bit if we were so inclined (inclined like a mountain!). After dinner there was some party music played in the mess tent to get everyone's energy up and there was a mini (5 minutes?) rave. This was quick and fun and before long we all headed to bed.