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.