The sherpas of Mt. Kilimanjaro

The Sherpas of Mt. Kilimanjaro are known as wagumu, Swahili for tough ones.

There is little dispute that they are engaged in strenuous work, carrying heavy loads of food, tents, and equipment for the mountain climbing expeditions. It takes only a pass through some of the tough sections of the climb, for example, the Breakfast Climb from Barranco to Karanga camp, for any novice trekker carrying a much lighter day pack, to realize that the wagumu are indeed of a different breed.

They soon leave behind the groups of trekkers led on a slower pace by the mountain guides as they rush with the heavy loads to the next destination to set up the tents and meals for the trekkers.

Kibo peak is seen behind a group of Kilimanjaro porters, posing with two trekkers, on the last day of an expedition at Mweka Camp. Photo courtesy: Dmitry.

The tough work invariably engenders a lavish spending spree after each successive expedition. On receiving their pay, the majority of the Kilimanjaro porters are said to spend their money excessively on drinking binges. A barmaid in Moshi told me recently that he has seen many who drink their entire earnings in a matter of hours and then inflict wounds on themselves and stagger back to their homes to lie to their wives they were mugged.

Posts related to this one:
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2009/11/on-mt-kilimanjaro-again-post-5-of-10.html
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2011/01/the-mwalimu-nyereremt-kilimanjaro_2.html

Jaffar Amin is now a member of the Kilimanjaro Club

The Kilimanjaro Club lists people I know who have scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, including those who join me every year on the annual Mwalimu Nyerere/Mt. Kilimanjaro Charity Climb and those who join me for my non-charity climbs. 

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When Jaffar Amin visited Butiama in April 2009 I mentioned to him my annual charity climb: The Mwalimu Nyerere/Mt. Kilimanjaro Charity Climb and he said he would join me for my next climb.

Eventually we set off on the Lemosho route on 7th December 2010 and reached the summit on the morning of 13th December.

On the first day of our trek at Londrossi Gate, with me (left), Jaffar Amin (center), and our guide, Yahoo.

He becomes the seventh member of the Kilimanjaro Club. The updated list is:

No.	Name	Nationality	Age	Point Reached*	Summit Date
1.	Madaraka Nyerere	Tanzanian	48	Uhuru Peak	24th August 2008
2.	Le Huyhn	Vietnamese	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	25th August 2008
3.	Markus Geiger	Swiss	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	2009
4.	Gerald Hando	Tanzanian	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	6 October 2009
5.	Notburga Maskini	Tanzanian	49	Stella Point	6 October 2009
6.	Dmitry	Russian(?)	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	13 December 2010
7.	Jaffar Amin	Ugandan	44	Uhuru Peak	13 December 2010

*A climber is awarded a certificate for reaching one of three elevations: Uhuru Peak (5,895 AMSL), Stella Point (5,745 AMSL), or Gillman's Point (5,685 AMSL).

Post related to this one:
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2013/05/dmitry-is-latest-member-of-kilimanjaro.html

Dmitry is the latest member of the Kilimanjaro Club

The Kilimanjaro Club lists people I know who have scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, including those who join me every year on the annual Mwalimu Nyerere/Mt. Kilimanjaro Charity Climb and those who join me for my non-charity climbs. 

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On 13th December 2010, during my third ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, I reached Stella Point at an altitude of 5,756m just before sunrise with Solomon, my mountain guide, and met Dmitry with his two guides, one of whom was Freddy. Both of our teams reached Uhuru Peak at around the same time just after 7:00 that morning.

At Stella Point, Dmitry (right) and Freddy, his guide (left) with another guide.

At the summit, I handed my camera to Dmitry and asked him to take a photo of the event of the day as I shook hands with my guide Solomon (right). 

  The updated list of the Kilimanjaro Club is:

No.	Name	Nationality	Age	Point Reached*	Summit Date
1.	Madaraka Nyerere	Tanzanian	48	Uhuru Peak	24th August 2008
2.	Le Huyhn	Vietnamese	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	25th August 2008
3.	Markus Geiger	Swiss	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	2009
4.	Gerald Hando	Tanzanian	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	6 October 2009
5.	Notburga Maskini	Tanzanian	49	Stella Point	6 October 2009
6.	Dmitry	Russian(?)	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	13 December 2010

*A climber is awarded a certificate for reaching one of three elevations: Uhuru Peak (5,895 AMSL), Stella Point (5,745 AMSL), or Gillman's Point (5,685 AMSL).

Posts related to this one:
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2010/12/notburga-maskini-and-gerald-hando.html
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2013/05/jaffar-amin-is-now-member-of.html

Happy Vietnamese New Year from Kilimanjaro Club member

Here's a late post from a New Year message I received from Le Huynh, member of the Kilimanjaro Club:

Dear friends,

      Many of you are probably familiar with the word "Tết" which means the Vietnamese New Year. We use the lunar calendar and the first day of the lunar new year starts from the 10th February of this year. This year will be the year of the Snake!

      May the snake bring you force, prosperity, plenty of "bites" in all of your endeavors, and most important of all, good health to enjoy all the good bounties this year will bring you.

Chúc mừng Xuân Quý Tỵ (happy new year water snake),

Lễ

I feel quite at home with the year of the snake, having had a few close encounters with snakes:

http://madarakanyerere.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-remove-poisonous-snake-from-house.html

http://madarakanyerere.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-version-of-year-in-review-january2.html

http://madarakanyerere.blogspot.com/2012/04/world-story-telling-day.html

http://madarakanyerere.blogspot.com/2009/01/up-to-my-neck-in-snakes.html

http://madarakanyerere.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-version-of-year-2010-in-review-march.html

Markus Geiger, the third member of the Kilimanjaro Club

The Kilimanjaro Club lists people I know who have scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, including those who join me every year on the annual Mwalimu Nyerere/Mt. Kilimanjaro Charity Climb and those who join me for my non-charity climbs.

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It is official: Markus Geiger (top, right), a Swiss national who works at Musoma is also a member of the Kilimanjaro Club. He climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro last year with his son who visited from Switzerland and is seen on the photo above, left.

Markus told me they were the last to leave Barafu Camp on the final trek to Uhuru peak but were the first to reach the summit having left other climbers behind.
Despite that evidently rapid ascent, Markus still had the energy to blow his Swiss horn after they reached the top.

The updated Kilimanjaro Club list is:

No.	Name	Nationality	Summit Date
	Madaraka Nyerere	Tanzanian	24th August 2008
	Le Huyhn	Vietnamese	25th August 2008
	Markus Geiger	Swiss	2009

Other posts related to this one:

http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2013/02/le-huynh-is-second-member-of.html
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2010/12/notburga-maskini-and-gerald-hando.html

Le Huynh is the second member of the Kilimanjaro Club

The Kilimanjaro Club lists people I know who have scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, including those who join me every year on the annual Mwalimu Nyerere/Mt. Kilimanjaro Charity Climb and those who join me for my non-charity climbs.

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When I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro for the first time, I was accompanied by Le Huynh from Vietnam. I reached Uhuru summit on the afternoon of 24th August 2008. Le skipped the summit and camped at Crater Camp
which is now closed. He reached the summit on the morning of 25th August 2008 in time to catch a spectacular sunrise behind Mawenzi peak.

When not climbing mountains, Le poses for photos with alligators.

Le becomes the second member of the Kilimanjaro Club.

The updated list of the Kilimanjaro Club:

No.	Name	Nationality	Summit Date
	Madaraka Nyerere	Tanzanian	24th August 2008
	Le Huynh	Vietnam	25th August 2008

Other posts related to this one:
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-am-first-member-of-kilimanjaro-club.html
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2010/03/markus-geiger-third-member-of.html

The effects of exposure to ultraviolet light

It is extremely important to protect the skin against the ultraviolet sunlight that climbers are exposed to while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Both too little and too much exposure to ultraviolet light is detrimental to the human being. On Mt. Kilimanjaro there is normally constant exposure to the sun and the higher you go up the mountain and above cloud cover, the more intense the exposure.

Exposure induces production of Vitamin D, which is associated with many health benefits including the maintenance of healthy bones, and regulation of the immune system. Too little exposure will cause Vitamin D deficiencies while too much exposure will produce sunburn, and even skin cancer.

Before I began climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro I assumed that sunburn does not affect dark skinned individuals. You learn fast on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Having not covered myself adequately during my first climb, I exposed both my face and ears for prolonged periods and a few days after the descent part of my skin on my face and ears (which are not that big and could have been easily covered by my balaclava) turned dark and became wrinkled and appeared to have encountered the temperatures of a barbecue fire.

The positive side when you forget to adequately cover yourself is that after several more days the affected skin dries and peels off and the new look makes one younger than his/her age, in my case ten years younger than I actually am. In addition to protecting the skin by clothing it is also important to apply sunscreen on the parts of the body that are exposed to sunlight, including the hands, arms, and back of the neck.