Author Archives: nickimonson

Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 4 – Saturday June 18, 2016 – Barranco Hut (13,061 ft) to Karanga Valley (13,852 ft) Each morning the guides would greet us with lots of enthusiasm!  “How’d you sleep? ” To which we’d reply – Good!  (Which truthfully was more like – sleep an hour at a time then wake, reposition,Continue reading “Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 4”

Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 3 – Friday June 17, 2016 – Shira Hut (12,602 ft) to Lava Tower (15,236 ft) to Barranco Hut (13,061 ft) Windy!! There were high winds across the plateau in the night and temps were cold. So far we are happy with our gear and apart from Nicki’s cold toes we are warm,Continue reading “Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 3”

Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 2 – Thursday June 16, 2016 – Machame Camp (9,301 ft) to Shira Hut (12,602 ft) Leaving camp we came out of the forest into the Moorlands and now had steep rocky terrain most of the day. We set off at 8:15 with Frank while Amos stayed back with theContinue reading “Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 2”

Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 1 – June 15, 2016 – Machame Gate (5,380 ft) to Machame Camp (9,301 ft) Welcome to the Jungle! Today we started our trek. We met our guide Amos (Ah-mos), and boarded a large van with 6 porters in addition to Amos and the driver.  We set off on a 2Continue reading “Trip Journal – Kilimanjaro Day 1”

Day 6 -Monday,  June 20, 2016 – Barafu Hut Base camp (15,091 ft) to Summit (19,341 ft) We made it to the SUMMIT!   Sunday night we had an early dinner, prepared our summit gear, and went to bed early – around 7:15.  We slept in 80% of our summit clothes, and woke up at 10:30Continue reading “We made it to the SUMMIT!”

Nairobi Wow, what a journey!  I’ll start with the ending – we made it safe and sound with all of our bags and are settled into The African Tulip, our hotel in Arusha.  We arrived at 2 AM local time after our 27 hour journey from Chicago.  We travelled on BA from Chicago, to LondonContinue reading “Nairobi”

Today we said our goodbyes to the kids and dog, and we’re on our way.  Behind these smiles we are nervous and a little scared, Not gonna lie!   Yesterday we had the best day celebrating  Tim’s birthday and I was so happy that we were prepared and packed enough that we could spend theContinue reading “This is really happening!”

    The reactions I have gotten when I tell people we are climbing Kilimanjaro, have been everything from “Wow!”  to “Why would you do that?”. Although I grew up close to the beach in Southern California, I have always been someone who is more mountains than beach.  As a kid I enjoyed the lifeContinue reading “Why do people climb mountains?”

Packing On a good day, packing for any trip is a stressful task for this serial over-packer-always-plan-for-the-what-if’s-I-like-to-have-choices, traveler.  Now, our trip to Tanzania brings some added twists including a strict 33 lb weight limit for our trekking bag.  This is it, folks.  This includes sleeping bag, snack food, toiletries, clothing for a 5 climate zones, firstContinue reading “Packing and Preparation”

So many have asked how I am training for the climb.  The best way to train for Kilimanjaro is to hike.  Up mountains.  In high altitude. Unfortunately, the suburbs of Chicago offer no such mountains, so one has to resort to other means. Tim and I did do a ‘training’ hike in September,  up Mt. HumphreysContinue reading “Training”