Mount Kenya

In Kenya, the big holidays are in December: the school year ends with the final exams and at the beginning of the month all who can, travel to the villages where they originally come from to celebrate Christmas with their family. As every year, St. Martin where I work closed its doors on December 7 and halted its activities except for emergency service. Many companies and organizations in Kenya do the same, and so I had the opportunity to do something with some colleagues who also work for COMUNDO in Kenya. And what could be better than climbing Mount Kanya?

So we left for the mountain, three Swiss and two Kenyans (a licensed guide and a passionate mountain hiker who has learned to love hiking in Norway and is always on the lookout for like-minded people). There are different routes to Mount Kenya, we chose one of the shorter ones, the Sirimon route. The ascent begins in Nanyuki, the first camp, Old Moses at 3300 meters, can be reached after 4-5h. We did without porters and carried our tents and food for three days ourselves. The next day we went 6-7h up to the second camp, Shipton at 4200 meters. The path leads through bog-like plains and then through a long valley to the foot of the three peaks of Mount Kenya. It offers spectacular views and an aster forest with plants that only occur on Mount Kenya. This unfamiliar vegetation with a bit of fog seems to be from another world. The climb is long and exhausting because of the altitude. And I thought, after three months at 2700 meters, I'm sufficiently acclimatized ... The terrain is also sometimes quite rough and I could only partially see where I placed my feet. I, therefore, decided not to go to the next stage: getting up at 3 am and climbing with flashlights to the Lenana summit (4985 meters) to see the sunrise. Afterwards, we wanted to leave immediately and hike back to Old Moses Camp. So I admired the sunrise from below and saved my energy for the way back. The sight of my colleagues on their return from the summit has proved me right. Next time I will plan for more resting time. You can find some pictures on Schwarzes-L.