Mount Kilimanjaro lockdown run and hike

by **Gillzajoker** » 26 Jan 2021 11:07

Fascinating views!

by **Dave** » 26 Jan 2021 12:36

Today was summit day!

I did three very different workouts this morning. First was a brisk walk around the rim of the crater, then there was the final climb to the summit, followed by a long downhill run.

14. Crater Camp / 15. Crater Camp to Uhuru Peak / 16. Uhuru Peak to Mweka Camp Part 1:

The brisk walk around the volcano crater was 1.4 miles with just 387ft of ascent and it served extremely nicely as a warm-up for what was to come next.

The climb to the summit was tough! It began with a fairly level walk across a snow-covered plateau for about half-a-mile, before the very steep ascent to the summit. The elevation gain was more than 1300ft in one mile, with some long 40% inclines.

But it was all downhill from then on. I ran the first of the three descent sessions - 3.5 miles at an easy pace. It was brilliant! We started the descent in falling snow, ice underfoot and poor visibility, and finished in sunshine and no ice anywhere. I probably shouldn't admit this, but I really liked running past hikers...

(One more thing... During the final ascent, I passed 30,000ft total ascent for 2021.

)

by **Gillzajoker** » 27 Jan 2021 12:01

Well done, you. Glad you had a nice day for it - looks wonderful!

by **Dave** » 27 Jan 2021 14:24

Gillzajoker wrote:Well done, you. Glad you had a nice day for it - looks wonderful!

Thanks Gill!

This morning, I finished the Mount Kilimanjaro Summit Series!

17. Uhuru Peak to Mweka Camp Part 2 / 18. Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate:

I did the two workouts back-to-back, running a total of 6.3 miles down the mountain to the 'finishing gate'.

At first, the landscape was scrubby plants and very rocky ground (as in the first photo below). As we descended, the paths got smoother and the vegetation changed to lush forest.

And that's it. It was a fantastic virtual adventure that lasted about 12 hours, and covered nearly 39 miles with 13,400ft of (sometimes very steep) ascent. I don't know what the walk/run balance was, but in terms of distance covered, I reckon it was about 50/50, although in terms of time far longer was spent walking than running.

by **Gillzajoker** » 28 Jan 2021 12:25

Excellent! But I bet you had to be very careful running on that rocky surface.

by **Dave** » 28 Jan 2021 13:37

Gillzajoker wrote:Excellent! But I bet you had to be very careful running on that rocky surface.

I took great care. My mate Zac slipped a couple of times though!