Here is some of the stuff everyone brought for the Jewish community. They asked for Art Scroll Chumashim, ritual scheta knives, and grape juice for kiddish

A banana market on the way to the mountain

Starting the trek in the rain forest - rained the whole time!

First night camp site - Simba Camp

Day 2 - Thursday, November 4 - Beautiful sunrise and sun reflecting on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro (will be on top in four days)

Rained (poured) most the night. Not so fun on our first night in tents thinking rain is going to collapse your tent!

Packing up camp getting ready to leave on 7-9 hour hike, just over 10 miles, second longest day after the summit ascent night/day

On the trail

Lunch break at Second Cave, kitchen (green) and dining (blue) tents set up

Arriving at second night camp - Kikelelwa Camp, 12,000 feet

Amazing dinner in camp with our great chef Felix (all food was vegetarian)

Day 3 - Friday, November 5

Great morning send off from all the crew

Day 4 - Shabbas, November 6

Day 5 - Sunday, November 7

Hiked 4 hours up to Kibu Hut camp where we stayed until we began the summit ascent 12:00am Sunday night/Monday morning. First picture is where we came from (Mawenzi Peak behind us, second picture is where we are going (summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro) and third picture is at Kibu Hut where we rested and ate before we ascended to the peak.

Day 6 - Sunday night/Monday morning, November 8 - Summit Ascent (hike to the peak)

Had a quick “breakfast” at 11:30pm and began ascent at 12am. We climbed almost straight up 3,000 feet, 2.7 miles from Kibu Hut to Gillman’s Point from 12am-5:30am. Took a break - they had hot tea and biscuits for us. From Gillman’s Point to Urhuru Peak (the top of the summit) was approx 1.4 miles and another almost 2 hours. Amazing sunrise over Africa.

Arrived at the peak at 7:50am. Was approx 0 to -10 degrees at the peak and very windy. Just beautiful seeing the glaciers up there. Very emotional. We all cried. Very surreal being at the top of Africa and the tallest free standing mountain in the world. But the crying was mostly from achieving an incredibly difficult physical and mental achievement. Just an amazing experience. Climbing to the summit Sunday evening/Monday morning was the hardest thing I have ever done. I would not have made it but for the help of the Tanzanian guides. I literally didn’t have the strength to take off my backpack and put it back on. They gave me water to drink that I couldn’t have taken on my own. Everyone made it to the top, however, out of 8 only 3 made it to the peak with their backpacks on (myself, a 47 and 40-year-old).

Spectacular watching the sun rise over Africa from the highest peak in Africa. Stayed about 15-20 minutes at the peak and started back down. Getting back down was harder than climbing up. We were thoroughly exhausted and depleted. Already had been climbing for over 8 hours (on only a couple hours sleep the evening before). Here are some pictures from the climb up and down (bear in mind it was very hard to take pictures being so exhausted and so cold).

Still had to hike another 3 hours Monday after we descended to get to the next camp. After sleeping only 2 hours and the hiking up 8 hours and down another 3 1/2 hours it was not easy!

Day 7 - Tuesday, November 9

Camped at Horombo Camp. Nice singing and dancing presentation from the staff. Beautiful views looking down over Tanzania and views looking up to the summit and Mawenzi Peak (where we stayed over shabbas). Picture with the expedition leader Perry Sugarman.

Was supposed to hike approximately 11 miles down to the bottom on Tuesday to complete the expedition but ended up having the park rangers drive us all down. Most didn’t mind as we were all sore and exhausted from the summit ascent.

Got back to the lodge in Moshi Tuesday afternoon for Covid tests, first beer (was off alcohol for 6 weeks to train for the trek) and relaxation at the pool.

Conclusion & Lessons Learned

The three months of training and preparation and the week long expedition was truly an experience of a lifetime. This past week was quite challenging and difficult. Camping in the cold and such high altitude was the second hardest part next to the actual summit ascent and descent which was the hardest thing I have ever done.

There are many lessons to learn from this experience. Some are:

Success is the only option (failure is a reality but the positive mental attitude of this keeps you going up the mountain (8 hours up - started at 12am and 3 1/2 hours down (which was actually harder than going up))

Need to embrace discomfort (sleeping at night and having to get up to pee in a pee bottle in a cold tent was quite the discomfort)

Slow and steady really does win the race (you have to go very slowly otherwise the altitude will stop you from going at all)

When you achieve and accomplish something significant emotion may overcome you (we all cried at the peak)

I feel very fortunate to have been able to have this opportunity and encourage everyone to push themselves to get out of your comfort zones in any way (doesn’t have to be something crazy like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro!).