A Muddy Start (with video)
Today was the first official climb day. Melissa Arnot, our guide, gave us a 9 pm curfew last night with lights out by 930. I think most of us were well rested this morning at our 6 am breakfast. We then headed out for the long drive to where we would begin the climb. The route we took led us through jungle on a very narrow path. It was supposed to rain today, but thankfully it passed through before we started and the skies were fairly clear. However, the earlier rain had turned most of our trail to a muddy mess. I was very glad that we all had leg gaiters to wear to keep most of the mud of our pants. The trail was very slippery and had many steep up and down hill sections. There were several falls, thankfully there were only a few bruised egos. 4 hrs later we all made it to our first base camp at 9200 ft. The air cools down very quickly up here as the sun goes down and everyone had a bit of the shivers during our amazing dinner and hot drinks session. Tonight will be my first night in a tent on the mountain! I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m looking forward to getting started tomorrow at 8 am and hiking for about 5-6 more hrs. We are on our way!!!