Mt. Kenya - Day 3

I looked back at our Lake Ellis camp several times as we trudged across the rather uninteresting landscape to start the day. It was so sad to leave Kiran and Priya behind. I had to re-convince myself that we had made the right decision for Kinaya and me to carry on.

After about two hours of steep and exposed climbing, we reached an ever-elusive ridge. From here we would veer to our right and follow the ridge for another couple of kilometers. It was the first time that my ears popped, and I began to feel the shortness of breath from the altitude. It wasn’t problematic; it just meant that we were stopping more frequently to catch our breath. Lance didn’t need to stop, of course, but Kinaya and I did.

Off to the left of our ridge, there was a steep drop-off into Nithi Valley/Gorge – a beautiful valley that develops steep walls as it ascends the mountain. At the top end of the gorge is Lake Michelson, a stunning body of water surrounded by high walls of volcanic rock.

Lance pointed out the location of some airplane debris near the top of the ridge across the gorge. In fact, this ridge has a bit of a history of crashes. I had to do some reading to fill in some of the gaps of what we learned from Lance.

debris from the 1976 crash

The earliest recorded crash on this ridge was in 1976 when an Emirates Air Transport plane prematurely descended in the clouds, crashing into the ridge and killing the four passengers. Some of the debris is still visible after nearly 50 years.

Then, in 2008, a Bell Longranger helicopter carrying some travel agents was flying low over the lake when it caught a skid, flipped on its back and went into the water. Amazingly, the pilot and two passengers were able to escape the craft and swim across the icy water to safety. The one fatality was unable to escape the helicopter as it sank.

the lake where the helicopter crashed

We would end up seeing a few helicopters buzzing around the mountain during our hike, one of them swooping down very low as it passed through the gorge. It would be fun but apparently, it’s not without risk.

The third crash happened in 2013. This was a small plane (Aeroprakt A-22) containing a renowned Kenyan conservationist and a cameraman for Discovery Channel aviation show "Dangerous Flights” (hmm). Given that it’s the most recent incident, and reportedly didn’t go in the lake, it’s likely the larger of the two debris piles we saw.

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Anyway, back to the hike.

As we continued up the ridge, you could feel the temperature cooling and see the foliage changing. Apparently, there are different labels given to these zones (biomes), but the ones that I’ve heard the most to describe these levels in the East African volcanos are rainforest, moorland and alpine desert. You could very much feel the transition from moorland to alpine desert. Vegetation doesn’t disappear, but it becomes more sparse and very different. One of the more prominent plants that thrives in these conditions is the giant lobelia. These weird looking plants can take many forms as they grow to maturity, which generally lasts about 70 years!

lobelia cleverly storing water

This part of the hike consisted of ups and downs but, unbeknownst to us, we had gained most of the altitude we were going to gain for the day. Given the delayed start, Lance had anticipated that we wouldn’t arrive before about 4pm. That’s actually quite late given the drill of having tea, setting up the tent and getting settled in, then dinner and then getting to bed super early in preparation for the 2am wake-up.

arriving at Mintos Camp

In the end, we arrived at Mintos Camp by around 2:30pm. Either Lance miscalculated or we moved at a quicker pace than expected. Either way, it gave us time to have tea, relax, read, etc. Kinaya and I were both walking on tired legs and resting up would be critical to try to summit the next day.

Mintos, at least for me, is a magical place. You’re by a lake surrounded by about 270 degrees of towering rocky peaks. The temperature fluctuates radically when the clouds move in front of the sun. In my opinion, the camp could be a wonderful destination in and of itself. Even if arriving at Minto’s was all we did, it would still have been an amazing trip. But yes, we had our sights set on Point Lenana.

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Officially, Mt. Kenya is made up of a number of peaks. The highest point, Batian, clocks in at 5,199 m. (17,057 feet). Just next to it is Nelion at 5,188 m (17,021 ft.). To be honest, they’re sort of like the same peak. But officially, they are separate. Point Lenana is officially the third highest at 4,985 m (16,355 ft), though some, including me, see it as the second highest.

our destination - the peak left of center

Anyway, most people who say they’ve climbed Mt. Kenya have climbed Point Lenana. Batian/Nelion require gear and skills that are out of reach for most people, including me at this point in my climbing career.

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At Mintos, we had tea soon after arriving. They prepared some amazing mandazis (like square donuts). They were still hot and, without a doubt, some of the best mandazis I’ve ever had. Kinaya suggested that the setting had something to do with my impressions of our tea snack. Maybe. But it felt pretty fancy for our 4,200 m./14,000 ft. and highest camp.

After tea we did some reading and hydrating. I did some walking to loosen my muscles a bit, but I wasn’t too keen on doing anything strenuous. We had dinner around 6pm and by 7pm we were in the tent. One suggestion prior to the trip was that we bring hot water bottles to be filled each night. I have to admit, it was a brilliant perk. Once the sun went behind the mountain, the temperature plummeted. By the time we were in our tent, it was already below freezing. Clutching a hot water bottle as I slipped into my sleeping bag made the ensuing night a bit less intimidating.

Before dinner, Kinaya didn’t look well. She said she had a headache and it made me a bit nervous as to whether or not this might jeopardize the summit attempt. A light headache is not abnormal at that altitude; I had a slight headache myself. But if her situation were to deteriorate, we would need to call off the summit push and get her to lower altitude. I had her take one of her children’s headache meds and then I would give her a half Tylenol PM just before bedtime. She passed out almost immediately after getting into her sleeping bag and she would sleep peacefully until our 2am wake-up, barely moving at all during the night.

The night was cold but we were both wearing nearly all our layers. We were warned about the frigid nights up there and, as it worked out, the cold didn’t end up bothering us. Lance came by the tent at 2am to tell us that tea/coffee was ready. I, unfortunately, had already been awake for a while and quickly checked with Kinaya to see how she felt. She said she was fine and, after three days of hiking, it appeared that our summit attempt was going to happen.

clutching our warm drinks in anticipation of the climb