All posts by abbyleighp

Happy Birthday ‘Merica

Day 1 Climb, , , ,

Today marks the start of our climb.  We are getting picked up here early to head to the Machame Gate ( altitude about 5,400′ or 1 mile high).  We will begin our trek following an easy track for the first hour through dense forest.  Our path will continue to follow the ridge, rising steadily with several steep sections.  The gradient eases slightly as the forest merges in the heather covered ground.  We will reach the Machame Hut in 6.2  miles after a 1,200 meter ascent ( 3,937 ft ascent).  I hope you all enjoy your day off, lol.

Total hike time: 7.5 hours  Elevation change +3,937 feet  Estimated distance 6.2 miles  Camp Elevation 10,170 ft

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Map of the route we are about to take…..yeah we are taking the long way!!!

Mount-Kilimanjaro-Machame-R

This contains graphic info

African Arrival, , ,

Today we will rest and try to let our bodies acclimatize to Africa. Recommended by Jeff I won’t be posting the scripted version of our itinerary. Instead shit is about to get real. Seriously. This morning after a breakfast of baked beans and eggs we started a walk through talk with Jeff about the climb. I won’t bore you with all the details instead just give you the two things that stuck in my mind the most.
The bathroom conversation came up in regards to the mountain. He said if at all possible pee before you take a dump. Pee outside the toilet tent. We all kind of looked at each other like why. Well our porters will have to carry our shit from camp to camp an all the way down the mountain. What?!?!? Yes. Fact. I am beginning to have a new respect for theses guys.

Also Jeff ran by us a new option for the route to summit. He wants to attempt the western breach. This route is harder but more rewarding as we can say we did it the hard way. It’s higher and steeper but we will get to fully traverse the mountain, meaning we will come up one side and go down the other. A few years ago some climbers died due to rock fall in the area but Jeff assured us it is open again and safe if we climb smart.

So for now I am looking forward to the shopping and making my way around town.  Should be getting some good gifts for all you followers today!  I will post pictures of my treasures if I can!  Not looking forward to the gear check tonight… Jeff will be going through all of our bags and pulling out all our over packing items.  Down to the bear necessities for the climb.

Here is half the group waiting for the bus in our lobby:

20140703-122140-44500931.jpg

Factory Reset

Travel Day 1, , ,

These would be two words any traveler would hate to hear about an hour and a half before take off to a third world country. Well that’s exactly what happened to this girl today. It was going so well too.

I was enjoying a cup of tea and some pancakes when I decided “hey, I’ll get the new apple software”. Bad idea. Next thing I knew I was factory restarting my phone. Contacts gone. iMessage gone. Apps gone. And guess who didn’t back their iPhone up the the cloud. That’s right, me. I was able to get contacts back via my main iCloud and my photo stream photos. Had to rush to put my music back on and a few necessary apps like this one. So much for being prepared. Let’s just hope that was my cluster f@ck for this trip.

I am actually typing this as my plane takes off in Philly. They let you use airport mode now during take off. Heading to JFK about a 20min flight. This is all starting to become real. In about 8 hours I will meet up with Katy, Ryan and Steve in Amsterdam. Then the fun trek to Tanzania begins.

Not to mention I was able to put all of this in one duffle.

20140701-143531-52531650.jpg

20140701-143651-52611055.jpg

Coffee with cream

Pre-trip

3 days to go and I want to eat like a 12 year old on summer break. This morning I thought ice cream was an appropriate breakfast, until my trainer came in for a visit. Cheryl from Xcelerate Fitness came by to drop off a shirt for me to take. Now that she is following me she will realize she stopped me from actually eating the ice cream, I hurried to put it away as she pulled in. Back to just dreaming about the wonderful chocolate chip cookie dough I was about to devour.  (for now) I wish I was able to hold off on the Chinese food last night and the Chimichanga I had on Wednesday but we all have weaknesses.  What is it about stress that makes us crave bad foods?  I guess thats where the term comfort food came from.  I just hope with the stress of final packing and worrying about this 19,000 foot monster for 3 more days that Ice Cream is the worst decision I make.IMG_0002

One week and counting

Pre-trip, ,

Hey friends and family!  Thanks for taking the time and following me on my new blog for Africa!  It will be a great way for you to keep track of me on this journey.  Just click on the red “follow me click here”  button to the right or just check in time to time for new updates.

Well 7 days to go until take off.  I’ve spent the last week downloading all the wonderful songs for my playlist that all of my “facebookies” posted to my wall.  I have about 27 hours of music loaded onto 3 devices, because I realized I won’t have access to power after they die.  I should be trucking up that mountain, with a few laughs on the way with some of these song recommendations.  Planning to do my last gear check and pack up tonight… but fist I am at Joseph Anthony’s retreat spa and salon getting a wax and a solo hair treatment (anti-frizz).  If I am ever going to need anti-frizz nows the time, and forget about being able to shower let alone shave…i am realizing now that I am typing this maybe i am getting to glam for this mountain.

Ten Interesting Facts about Mount Kilimanjaro

Uncategorized

Wrapping up my gear list shopping and found this little tid-bit. “If you can’t climb it- Drink it”…

privatetourskilimanjaro's avatarPrivate Tours Kilimanjaro

If you are thinking about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, you will probably already know that it is the highest free-standing mountain in the world, and that it reaches 5,895 metres above sea level.

What you might not know, is that there are loads of interesting fact and figures surrounding this magnificent peak, and here we share our favourite ten to give you a little inspiration!

  1. Mount Kilimanjaro was first (successfully) climbed by a German geology professor, Hans Meyer, and an Austrian mountaineer, Ludwig Purtscheller, on 6th October 1889.
  2. While classed as a mountain, Kilimanjaro is actually made up of three volcanic cones, namely Mawenzi, Shira and Kibo.  While dormant, some believe Kibo could erupt again one day in the future, but don’t let that put you off –  the last major eruption was around 360,000 years ago!
  3. According to the Guinness World Records, the oldest man to climb Mount…

View original post 287 more words

Check. Double Check. Triple Check…

Pre-trip, ,

It’s usually about 3 weeks out from a expedition like this that my OCD begins to kick into high gear.  The nightmares about arriving to the airport without my gear, or missing my flight all together start to play on repeat.  These are the times when I wish I was a master at meditation.  But i’m not… so to ease my mind I will sit up for hours on end, packing and unpacking, trying on, rolling and unrolling, folding and counting.  My usual theory of, “If I forget it i’ll just buy it there” isn’t really going to cut it on this trip.  Any suggestions outside of being committed would be welcome!

IMG_5739