The latest member of the Kilimanjaro Club is Wilhelm Gidabuday

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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In 2011 I was asked by the Tanzania Tourist Board to lead the Mt. Kilimanjaro Uhuru Climb to mark Tanzania Mainland's 50th independence anniversary in December. Wilhelm Gidabuday was one of several climbers who joined the climb, reaching the summit on the morning of 9th December, the day of the anniversary.

Wilhelm Gidabuday at the summit on 9th December 2011.

He was the first from our group to reach the summit. It wasn't a surprise; he is a marathon coach and a former distance runner.

He becomes the 17th member of the Kilimanjaro Club. Here's the updated list:

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
8.	William Rutta	Tanzanian	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	10 December 2010
9.	Mary Kalikawe	Tanzanian	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	10 December 2010
	Steve Kamau	Kenyan	25	Uhuru Peak	26 September 2011
	Jim Becket	American	74	Uhuru Peak	26 September 2011
	Andrea Wobmann	Swiss	39	Uhuru Peak	26 September 2011
	Zulfa Fadhili	Tanzanian	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	26 September 2011
	Jim Whitney	American	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	26 September 2011
	August Whitney	American	Unknown	Uhuru Peak	26 September 2011
	Lusajo Mwaisaka	Tanzanian	31	Uhuru Peak	9 December 2011
	Wilhelm Gidabuday	Tanzanian	38	Uhuru Peak	9 December 2011

*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).

rerererere

Vitali Maembe joins the CDEA Kilimanjaro climb 2014 (post 8 of 10)

On my latest Mt. Kilimanjaro climb I trekked on the Machame route for the first time. I was accompanied by musician/activist Vitali Maembe.

Here’s the eighth post of my blog log of the climb

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Vitali was humming some song in his tent in the morning. That's a good sign. He was in good spirits.

I woke up feeling relatively fit, except for the lower back pain triggered yesterday that does not want to go away. Yesterday, in reaction, Yahoo said, "Just take some Panadol [a pain killer], it will go away." I wasn't convinced.

The more I climb Kilimanjaro the easier is the challenge of getting to the top of the Barranco Wall, the steep valley wall that climbers have to tackle almost immediately after leaving Barranco camp for Karanga camp.

At the top of Barranco Vitali asked to take some photos of himself. I chose Kibo as the background. When I handed the camera to Yahoo and asked him to continue with the photo shoot, Yahoo chose the cliff drop below with the clouds in the background. It was such a stunning scene that other hikers took out their cameras to photograph Vitali.

We take a break on the way to the top of the Barranco wall. The camp we left behind is seen in the upper right side of the photo, about 300metres below.

"I chose Kibo as the background."

"Yahoo chose the cliff drop below..."

As we continued our slow progress throughout most of the day I was thinking whether it was possible to go from Barranco, with a lunch stop at Karanga camp, on to Barafu camp and then attempt to summit after a rest of only a few hours. I did not have a response and although I felt I had enough leg strength, my rapid breathing betrayed the fact that I did not train enough to build my cardiovascular endurance. To relieve the strain, I kept maintaining my super slow pace when I walked uphill.

Vitali was carrying his guitar along in its soft case on which he has attached shoulder straps for carrying on his back. It makes for an interesting scene but is not ideal for endurance trekking because I notice that the weight is not evenly balanced and he frequently is forced to seek relief by slightly lowering the straps to the sides of his shoulders.

At Karanga we had chicken and chips for lunch - always a coveted menu on a Kilimanjaro hike. For dinner, which we had early in the evening at Karanga camp, I asked for ugali [stiff porridge], recalling how much energy it packed when I asked for the same during my climb with Eugese Gassana last year.

I had difficulty catching some sleep for the few hours we had of resting before we set off for the summit. When I finally managed to fall asleep Vitali woke me up and asked for cold water. He said he had a headache and wanted to pour cold water over his head, believing it would relieve the headache. I was horrified; I had a feeling that contact with cold water in the near-freezing temparatures of Barafu camp was dangerous. And yet I could not find a way to dissuade him but gave him the water and stayed alert for several minutes for a hint from his tent that his condition had worsened.

I did not hear anything unusual and resumed to try sleeping which I falied to do. After the climb, when I shared my horror with one of the assistant guides, he said that the fact that Vitali believed that pouring cold water over his head would cure him was important. I was reminded again that the mind has a force of its own on Kilimanjaro.

As I dressed up for the departure I noticed that Barafu was not as cold as during past climbs so I decided I would not put on my down jacket. Later, Yahoo said he would carry my down jacket, in case I needed it later. I did.

Next: On the roof of Africa

Related post:
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2014/11/vitali-maembe-joins-cdea-kilimanjaro_27.html
http://blogkili.blogspot.com/2015/07/vitali-maembe-joins-cdea-kilimanjaro.html