It was a gorgeous day when I woke up at Miriakamba Hut.
I was served a breakfast of banana, mango, and porridge
Our climbing group reassembled and at about 8:00 we started climbing again. The "standard" itinerary for a 3-day climb of Mt Meru involves climbing to Miriakamba Hut on day 1, climbing to Saddle Hut on day 2, summitting early in the morning on day 3 and descending all the way that same day. But, last night I had overheard another guide asking his climbers if they wanted to summit on day 2 in the afternoon, which sounded WAY better to me, because I am not a fan of waking up at a midnight or 2 am. So, I asked Dennis if it was realistic and he said sure, if I felt fine when we got to Saddle Hut we could summit. Thus, I was VERY motivated to make good time up to Saddle Hut, but, again, we had to stick with other hikers and the park ranger, so although I was impatient we climbed at a steady but fairly slow pace with lots of breaks. Despite my impatience, I was still very much able to enjoy the beauty of the mountain.
Around 10:00 we reached 3000 metres.
Shortly after this altitude I began noticing a change in vegetation.
At just after 12:00 we reached Saddle Hut . . .
. . . which is at 3500 metres. Here we are just a little over 1000 metres to the summit.
I had to wait a bit here (longer than I would have liked) to be assigned a room and eventually eat lunch. I was hungry, but eager to get going, and I did not feel my meal needed to be this elaborate. Nonetheless, it was an impressive spread considering where we were!
Finally, around 13:40 Dennis said we could begin our summit if I still wanted to, and I definitely did. However, the weather had changed quite a bit now and it was pouring rain soon after we set out. But, we kept climbing, and soon there was very little vegetation and it felt like we were truly mountain climbing. In fact, in places, the summit climb is quite technical, with chains and a lot of spots where hands are as necessary as feet.
Mt Meru is a dormant stratovolcano, and during much of the summit climb we could see the volcano crater below us.
The rain came and went, and the clouds moved all over, which made for quite a change in scenery really every few minutes.
At 16:30 I had my first view of the summit.
Still, it took almost another hour of careful climbing to actually reach it!
It had started snowing before we reached the summit, and it was hailing at the top, but it felt great to be here!
We took some photos and then began the trek down. With sunset before 19:00 would certainly be hiking after dark, but I was eager to make as much progress down as possible before the sun set. You can see as we descended how much snow was falling!
About thirty minutes after we left the summit we ran into another group of climbers heading for the summit. I was happy to be the one descending, I must say!
Eventually we descended far enough that we left the snow behind and actually it turned into quite a nice evening.
We reached Saddle Hut around 20:00. I was fed dinner, but only ate some of it. Although I felt quite good overall, I had definitely lost some appetite. It was cold at night up here (around 0 C), so I changed and got into my sleeping bag as quickly as I could. I really did not envy my fellow climbers who would be waking in just a few hours to make their own attempt at the summit, and I was very glad Dennis was willing to do the afternoon climb!
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