I have read any number of accounts of the final summit attempt starting at midnight (ish), but I cant find any accounts of daytime ascents. We are going next month with Tusker and would be interested in any comments re the daytime ascent temperatures etc compared with night?
Posts: 5 | Location: Wigan, UK | Registered: 16 July 2008
Hey jef.lea, my husband, 16 yr old daughter and i were just on kili at end of june, a successful summit on 6-28. we did a daytime summit, starting at 6 am. for us, it was the way to go. up early to have breakfast and tea with the sunrise, in camp, then on to the summit, almost 8 hrs. as we ascended i kept thinking, there is no way i would have done this in the dark! it was very hard day, as it was, and spectacular in any light. i know the sunrise thing is very tempting, but we were to the point of...we just want to make it up there, sun or no sun.the weather was beautiful all day. we had on wind pants with long underwear on bottom and long underwr, fleece, down vest and wind/gotex jacket, hat and hood and just fleec mits on. were lucky not to much wind that day, that can get much chillier. i was actually quite warm once we got going but was to tired to remove anything!! we stayed in barafu again that nite, which was super. typically, if you ascend at midnite, you come down from summit, rest a bit , then continue on down another 3 hrs to mweka camp. we had already done a 12 hr day, it was enough. take your time getting to the top, even if you have to add another day or 2. it is a long way to go to come back disappointed. any more ? i would be happy to give my 2 cents. kh
Posts: 41 | Location: san francisco bay area | Registered: 10 December 2007
I went with Tusker one year ago. Summitted around Sept 20th or so. We took the Lemosho/Lava Tower Route, 7 days up, 2 days down, daytime summit. It was fantastic. Like KH, we got up just before dawn at Barafu camp to see the tiny headlamps of the midnight trekkers bobbing up the mountain 1000s of feet above us. We were very glad not to be among them. It seemed pretty cold in camp that morning. I don't know what the actual temp was, or how much colder it was high up. We had on much the same gear that KH describes. I had a midweight smartwool top on rather than a fleece, and no down vest. My dad had fleece bottoms on under his rain shell pants, and a down jacket under his shell jacket, and quickly became too hot. It was clear in the morning, but by noon a cold mist surrounded us. That was one miserable lunch break! We finally made the rim at Stella Point around 2:30pm. The guides posed the question: hike down 1 hour into the crater and our camp, with a summit in the morning? Or summit now, then hike down 20-30 min to the camp. We chose the latter. It was still quite cloudy when we summitted; not much of a view at the summit, but the all-important pictures in front of the sign turned out great. Then it was straight down to crater camp. After dinner and a few hours of inactivity, we turned in. That was the only point I was very cold on the whole trip. I had a down jacket, fleece pants, and a 15F degree bag inside a 40F degree bag, and it seemed like I was getting colder rather than warmer. But within 30 minutes or so, I suddenly warmed up rapidly and was shedding my fleece and down clothing. In the morning, the sun was out and it was absolutely beautiful. We explored the crater in warm, sunny, windless conditions. I was even walking around with just trekking pants and the smartwool midweight over my baselayers. After a while we hiked on down to Millenium camp for our final night on the mountain and our first celebratory beers.
As you can tell, I was very glad we had a daytime start and even happier about the morning in the crater.
If your guides include Kombe or Nemis, please tell them "Hi" from Steve and Duane.
Posts: 22 | Location: Minneapolis | Registered: 09 July 2007
Tusker is top notch. One of the more expensive outfitters (but not the most expensive). There are probably other services that provide nearly the same quality for less money. But we were very happy with Tusker and did not regret paying the premium. Thier experience shows - every detail is optimized. The Keys Hotel in Moshi is great, the logistics guy (forget his name) is great, the vehicle used to get to the trailhead is even great -- a six-wheeler that got us all the way to the trailhead, past giant mud bogs that stopped standard SUVs short. They inspected our kit and retrieved anything we were missing from thier apparently substantial cache (in our case, chemical hand warmers, trekking poles, and a pair of rain pants). On the mountain, they were very friendly and professional. Kept the pace just right, looked after our health, and cooked amazing food.
Some of the guys on the trek and I are already talking about doing Aconcagua with Tusker.
So, when do you go?
Posts: 22 | Location: Minneapolis | Registered: 09 July 2007
Hi Jeff, I too did a daytime ascent (with Kiliwarriors, Lemosho route, Feb 2007)... it was nice to hike in the daytime, we were the only ones at the summit when we arrived, and staying at crater camp after summiting meant we had time to hike to the edge of the crater too.
I didn't find it cold going up, but sleeping at crater camp was tough because of the altitude. I had on a light down jacket and several layers of fleece inside my sleeping bag (a rental from the outfitter), and I never really felt warm that night. Actually I never really slept that night either... more just fitful resting with a few brief naps.
Anyway, I think the daytime ascent was worth it. Have fun!
