“Slowly, Slowly”
I am hearing mixed reports from the other climbers about the sleep they had last night. I am in the camp that did not sleep very well. I am climbing day 2 on 4-5 hours of so-so sleep. After a fabulous breakfast and coffee hour, we began our trip from 9,000 ft to our destination of 11,200. Today we would actually climb to 11,500 and then go back down to our camp at 11,200 to rest, have dinner and sleep. The terrain today was much steeper and rockier as we made our way out of the jungle, through the moorland (transition zone) and into more traditional mountain conditions. Even though the trail was much more difficult, we did not have the wet, muddy conditions we dealt with all of yesterday. We climbed for about 6 hours today and everyone made it with relatively few issues or problems. The altitude is definitely noticeable as it is easy to go too fast and get out of breath quickly. “Pole, Pole” is constantly preached by the guides and porters. It means “slowly, slowly” and is an appreciated reminder. I am now getting ready to go eat a big dinner and then I’m sure we will hit the tents early. We can see the top from here and it looks like we have a long journey still ahead of us.