Kili Me
It's 2am and below zero. The wind is ripping into my face. My hands are frozen. My legs are numb. I'm exhausted. I'm scared. Each step is a struggle. I have no balance. I can't breathe. And as the oxygen continues to deplete from my brain, my thoughts are slowly turning to mush.
"One more step. I can't. Just one more step. I can't. Sunrise is only four hours away."
The obvious question becomes, why would any sane person decide to hike Kilimanjaro? Why pass on the Diamox that makes it easier to breathe? Why the hell was this on my bucket list???
I've hiked the Appalachian Trail. Hiked Machu Picchu. Hiked Patagonia. And now hiked Kilimanjaro. They were some of the greatest moments in my life. I've never felt more free or happy or alive. But those hikes were never about feeling good. That's not the point. It was about losing myself. Distancing myself from the noise. From the warm bed and TV. It was about testing myself. Struggling. Pushing myself to depths I never knew existed.
And as humans, that's why I believe we are all here. To expand. Expand our knowledge. Our happiness. Our hearts. Our consciousness. We are here to test the limits of our humanity. Dissolve the boundaries. Kill the outdated models of ourselves. Expand until we become bigger than before. Expand and expand and expand until we become big enough that everything is the same.
That's why I hike. I've played sports and practiced yoga and meditated for years. But nothing has ever done the trick quite like hiking. When I'm up there, away from home, cold, tired and alone, there is nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. I'm forced to confront. Forced to find my strength and kill off the weaker parts of myself. Forced to expand. And as I hike down the mountain, victorious over the untamable forces of life, I'm a bigger person than I was before.
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The pictures below tell a simple story. A story of two happy people hiking up a mountain to 19,341 feet. But there is much more to the story. Two people struggling through the physical and mental depths of our being. Pushing each other. Encouraging each other. And ultimately, expanding.
-Stephen
The beginning of the journey...at Machame Gate.
Day 2 - Pointing to the Kili summit
End of Day 2 - Toilet above the clouds
End of Day 2 - View of Mount Meru
Day 3 - Kili porters carrying 80+ pounds
Day 3 - Only a few more days to the summit
Day 3 - Stephen and James talking a little philosophy
Day 3 - Tent...where...we...ate...every...meal...
Day 3 - Camp and view of summit
Day 4 Morning - Our physical and spiritual guide Deo (on right)
Day 4 - Michelle expanding (and wearing a Mets hat)
Day 4 - Our crazy leader James
Day 4 - The terrain changed constantly. At times it felt like we were hiking on Mars.
Day 4 Camp - Fewer tents than Day 1
Morning of Day 5 - We will hike to camp, then only get a few hours of sleep and start hiking to the summit at midnight.
Morning of Day 6 - Sunrise from Stella Point (45 minutes from actual summit Uhuru Peak)
One minute after getting to Stella Point and taking the previous photo, I threw up all over the place. James told me that was "normal."
No energy left. Walking the last 45 minutes to Uhuru Peak like two zombies.
Glaciers on summit
Finally...we made it! After shoving a German guy out of the way, I took a few birthday photos before the oxygen ran out! The big 3-0.
The group that made it to the top!
Glaciers on the Summit