Climb Every Mountain

If you ever find yourself wondering if you ever accomplish anything, I recommend either doing the dishes by hand or climbing a mountain. There’s just something about both of those things that make you feel like a more productive person. Doing the dishes offers the quick fix of accomplishment whereas climbing a mountain leaves a more lasting impact (as in, two days later and I am still wondering if I will ever again be able to walk up and down stairs normally).

This past weekend I climbed Socialist Peak, which weighs in at 4562 meters (or about 15,000 feet for you Americans who stubbornly have resisted the metric system). Not going to lie, it was kind of hard and at a few points the thought crossed my mind that I was glad I had checked ‘yes’ to the extra “extreme activities” clause in my international health insurance. The tricky thing about Meru is that the first two days are really quite easy. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you are definitely not just going on a stroll, but your bags are being carried up by porters and you are bunking in huts that have giraffe near by! (look closely)




Then, the third day comes…or, perhaps the second day never ends. You get woken up at midnight, have some tea and biscuits and start off on your final ascent. Usually I am not too keen on hiking in the dark, but there were many a times in those 6 hours that I was grateful that I could only see one step ahead of me. Because one, there are about 5 false peaks (always a bit discouraging) and two, I was pretty sure there was nothing but a sheer cliff straight down just to the right as we scampered over the rock face on the left (which was, in fact, confirmed in the daylight). We stopped for a few moments to watch the sunrise over Kilimanjaro and then after another hour or so finally made it to the top. And it is then that you feel like you have just done something great.




Then you realize that you have yet to go all the way back down.

And go all the way back down we did. First we stopped at the second hut where we had “slept” the night before. We had a quick meal, packed up and were told we had to get going because of “the rains.” The descent was quite steep at this point and there is a stretch where there are about 1000 stairs (I am not even exaggerating…they put Mt. Baldy to shame). We made it to the first hut, sat for a few moments and then had to haul ass down to the gate before it got dark. Mt. Meru is in Arusha National Park and you have to be out by dark and is also why your guide is an armed ranger because you can encounter wild game like the herd of buffalo that was in our path just before we got back to the base.

When I sat down at the base, then I truly felt like I accomplished something. And my body is still reminding me what I have done every time I have sat down since.