Snow at Mawenzi Tarn
We had our guide wake us early so we could watch the sunrise. It was breath taking and inspired me to continue on, toady would be a short day of only 4 hours as we rose to an elevation of 14,210 feet. The views alone could carry you to the top and the air was crisp and clean. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
We were the first ones up in our camp and would begin hiking before many even saw first light. We then saw something amazing that appeared overnight, a portable outhouse that had an actual seat and thus the cannonball method was not needed. However it was only for the group who paid extra for it, wussies.
Our friend waiting for the morning soap, however we successfully limited him to only two bars while in this camp.
As we climbed the clouds rolled in.
Romlie telling us about the trees that grow slowly, these are full size ones of the earlier picture.
Our porters were again fast to catch us.
A rock pile marks our route as more clouds roll in.
Our porters are up that way so I guess we should follow them. Surprisingly I don’t yet feel overly tired or worn out, and have not noticed the air getting thinner.
We arrive at Mawenzi.
A somewhat fresh water supply, only a few water purification tablets and 4 hours of waiting and it is drinkable.
At this point we would start doing daily accumulation hikes, where at the end of a day’s hike you would then hike up a few hundred more feet and hang out for a while, then climb back down, sleeping at a lower altitude. It seemed to help. A lot of people spell their names in rocks at the higher altitude to pass the time. I wanted to give a shout out to two people from the 4th of July crew so I…. OK, so the truth was that I was wandering around looking for a rock to pee behind and found this.
As we were up near the top of Mawenzi things started to get real. Someone was beginning to show signs of HAPE, or High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, which requires immediate decent. At this point in the climb that involves 8 porters (a few from each group on the mountain) who take turns carrying you piggyback style down to Horombo camp around 12,000 feet. About 6 hours down the path in this picture. From there you have a few options, hang out and hope things improve, continue down for another 6 hours off the mountain, or shell out $3000 US for a helicopter ride. Fortunately we would not have to evaluate those options ourselves. 
To ensure good karma and a successful summit, a few rock piles.
Our camp below where we started and would be sleeping tonight.
The clouds came in.
The sun set, the temperature dropped, and snow would soon fall.
Believe it or not but there were some people smoking up here. Myself, I just went to bed after cramming more food down for dinner.