at 19,000 341 feet above the clouds the crater of Mount Kilimanjaro well you
might as well be on Mars why do humans see a mountain and for the adventurous
few were so captivated so enchanted with the idea of standing on top of the world
that we push ourselves past our physical and mental breaking points for just a
few moments of freedom that's what it was it was freedom in this film I make
the final push to the summit of Otto who peak on Mount Kilimanjaro Erik Conover
here from 15,000 and 200 feet above the plains of Tanzania on the slopes of
Mount Kilimanjaro just about 4,000 feet from the summit right behind me the last
time you saw me I was hurting pretty bad because my breath for a second I have
never felt the altitude this hard as I feel it right now now Kilimanjaro has
its own weather weather systems formed when the air hits the mountain and
uplifts and these thunderstorms pop up out of nowhere real yeah we go down no
option we go down just because of the way though I'm not gonna lie man that
was that was a setback that was mentally pretty tough to go back down but the
following day the weather cleared up we left Canada
we trekked our way through the moorland and we finally made it to the barren
alpine desert
at this altitude nothing lives it is as barren as can be but you know what we
had a sense of hope because it was the first time that we actually felt like we
arrived at the foot of this mountain the summit is felt it felt close enough to
touch even though it was still some 5,000 feet away you get the idea we're
gonna make it are we gonna make it this is our first actual glimpse of the full
summit we just got into the Alpine desert feeling strong no altitude
sickness Patrik this whole trip he would do
anything to contact his girlfriend he would climb a two thousand foot cliff to
send one text message I tried I sent it and then it said not delivered that's a
good boy we finally made our way to the next spot and we set up camp at location
kalafat hour we've been here at lava tower for the past two days to acclimate
our bodies to the altitude 15,000 feet they called the danger zone that's when
that you really really get the symptoms of high-altitude sickness it's the worst
headache you've ever had and your body is just wrenching at this high of an
elevation our food is very simple lots of soup porridge for breakfast at port
this is Lois this is our chef for the past four or five days best cook in
Tanzania mama so hot new this is a very very quick tour of our campsite this is
the chef's 10 Porter's ten Porter's tent and you walk over this way mess-hall
tent then those are tents these little guys here buy three or four them and
there's Kelly the thing that you can't really prepare for when you're this high
up is the cold last night it got down to probably around ten degrees
this is the third night third I can't even think this is the third night we've
been camped out and it's gotten down below zero as you can see we sleep in
every single piece of clothing we ona hats
winter jackets gloves all our layers so a hot coffee in the morning is very much
appreciated how old do you think it's getting in the tent in the tent it has
to be I'd say mid-30s easily Patrick drank is
water this morning and it was almost a slush and once that Sun comes out oh boy
that Sun has life or death here as you can see the ground starts to thaw
instantly and it's very wet in here also because the ground freezes except on the
tent so everything in here is pretty wet that's Patrick's mattress and that's all
water that's soaking wet keep the warm soon today we're making our way to
Arrowhead glacier camp which is about 16,000 feet in elevation you can
actually see it like right back there behind me just right right there that's
it right there that's our head glacier camp from there we have two more nights
and then we're making our attempt on the summit feeling good how are you feeling
Patrick I'm feeling alright we said goodbye to lava tower and we began our
sense to arrow glacier camp and now this is the part in the climb where
Kilimanjaro starts to look a lot more like the Himalayas than a mountain on
the equator in Tanzania
Wow mom well I just have to shoot differently though so as you can see we
have reached the snows of Africa it only took another thousand feet and
we are pretty much in full-on snow path to think that we started this journey in
the jungle when we was sweating like we were sweating that first day how are you
feeling as far as out to do it definitely feel a little bit when you're
going in the inclines think about if you had two straws in your mouth and you
have to go up the Stairmaster that's what it starts to feel like when you're
at this altitude you spend time in the mountains your body will adapt to the
mountain your lungs get stronger you become a man out here kidding the real
men are the porters the porters are the real men they carry all the gear up here
we just have our day packs
I'm just hoping tomorrow for this summit we have a clear day to actually see you
know the glaciers and all that because this you came and see camp is right over
that way camps right here gonna head into the
mess hall get some tea warm up nice high time thing along so tomorrow is the big
day tomorrow is the day where we go over the western breach the western breach is
a rock face scramble that goes straight up going from 16,000 to 18 5 I believe
we just had a gear check where we went over our helmets the lights and all that
because this is the most technical part of this comenzar summit is the western
breach this is for avalanche rockslide whelks light morrow morning we are
waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning hitting it very early so we can be up
there at sunrise it's gotta be at least - 2010 is frozen over and today we're
doing it we're going for it surprisingly I'm not as tired as I seem either that
or I'm delusional
I remember thinking that I've never felt such a sense of pure isolation all you
hear are your footsteps on the mountain and the sound of your heart pumping
there was a snowstorm earlier in the night and it was much warmer and now is
the cold air it was all frozen then you look ahead you see only with your head
lamp illuminates but at the same time we were all just so damn alive like we were
doing war cries in the middle of night on this night once you get that incline
though your heart starts racing you're searching for air that doesn't exist at
this height you're sucking wind making your push up the western breach up here
snowpack we got set Arak we got Joseph patrich let's do this the western breach
is known as one of the hardest routes to get to the top of Kilimanjaro and this
morning we found out why we are going to traverse to the right from there almost
will be 70% out of danger okay the breach was a rockslide and it's
only held together at night during the deep freeze it's always hard to tell on
camera but turning around was like a shot of vertigo the cloud never seemed
to end until it did it after six hours of trekking we finally breached the wall
into the crater of Mount Jarra
we found ourselves on what looked like another planet snow as far as the eye
can see a blinding white with glaciers off in the distance massive glaciers in
the middle there's a mount rising up and in the center a pit of sulphur the heart
of Kibo I can't breathe the Western breach hands down the hardest thing I've
ever done in my whole life you couldn't really tell from the video
but it was basically a 2,000 foot vertical air where we are right now is
half of what you're breathing right now if you're at sea level we have made it
to the crater camp of Mount Kilimanjaro who I off in the distance best way s
Mount Meru that's the other volcano in the chain spirits are high stomachs
uneasy spirits are I need to get up here it's like we're on another planet it's
so barren surprisingly I actually feel very very good and the thing that I
trained for this I trained for about two months before I came on this trip so I'm
dealing with the oxygen pretty well but I can't even describe this place man
they can walk around this place we're right by the glaciers and we
finally came over to the sulphur and it's very fine beach sand it's
incredible to see this huge block of ice right next to this dry sand we're gonna
go head over and set up camp crater camp for the night and that either this
afternoon we're tomorrow we're gonna be over here
at the actual summit of Mount Kilimanjaro
altitude I said we were gonna summit this afternoon but we're gonna push that
too first thing tomorrow morning I can like absolutely shit but something like
this tea makes it feel a lot better Cheers badger to being back at sea-level
I keep mentioning the cold the coldest the cold that it was so cold it's 10
hours later the same day that we made the summit push I am in a lush
rainforest about 10,000 feet for the past two days I couldn't really feel my
feet and it was so cold I didn't take my socks off I just got to the tent here
and I took off my socks if you are squeamish in any way look away right now
but this is the first stage of frostbite on my big toe this is some serious stuff
and this is for anyone who wants to climb Kilimanjaro and takes the western
breach route which is a longer route more time in the cold this morning when
we woke up it was minus 15 and it was minus 5 in the tent
Kilimanjaro you know it's a steep mountain and it's tough don't get me
wrong even if you are incredibly fit 70 70 percent of the people who climb
Kilimanjaro experience a MS acute mountain sickness 77 % it's almost
unavoidable unless you're from an area that is already at a high elevation but
anyway back to back to the story this is me looking like an old man fighting the
worst stomach pains I've ever felt making the final push to the summit at
sunrise over the crater in the bitter
all right I'm not gonna lie if her this morning I woke up and I was
wrenching in the stomach had a massive headache I was the last one in a group
to make it up here I couldn't have made it up here without the help of the Kitty
Warrior crew these guys right here got us up this mountain
why Mount Kilimanjaro why Tanzania why go out here and sleep in a cold tent for
night after night with pat McDevitt about four months ago I had a dream that
I was standing above the clouds kind of like I am right now
I had a vivid vivid dream it was up on top of the world I woke up I checked my
DMS and I had a message from kilee warriors and four months later Here I am
first goal of 2018 has come to reality there's something you want to do in life
don't wait do it now on that goddamn mountain and I will see you in the next
video yeah it's the possibility of having a dream come true which makes
life so interesting if you dig this video leave a like and subscribe and
this is just the beginning of the 2018 journey and I will see you in the next
video