What's up everybody? I'm Alex aka Alexthevagabond,
and you are watching Vagabrothers.
And in this video we will be climbing Uhuru Peak
at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro
19,341 feet or 5,850 odd meters.
This is going to be a super hard climb.
We're going up the Western Breach route, which is essentially a landslide
that we will be scurrying up entering right into the heart of the volcano
into the crater and then onwards to Uhuru Peak and the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Right now we're breaking down camp at Lava Tower.
We're at around 15,000 feet,
and the first thing we have to do is hike another thousand feet up to Arrow Glacier Camp
at around 16,000 feet.
We'll have a short overnight, wake up real early before the sun comes up, and take on the Western Breach.
It's going to be an awesome video...fingers crossed .
We're doing everything we can to make it to the top and to take you all with us. Let's go
16,000 feet
Arrow Glacier Camp
4,903 meters.
We stay here overnight.
Wake up tomorrow morning at 4 a.m.,
and then we climb that.
Thank you.
We should take a moment
to just thank the porters at Kiliwarriors.
They're such rock stars. They went all the way up
maybe three times as fast as we did.
You get to camp at 16,000 feet
Your tent set up, your bed is laid out.
Your bags are here, superhuman feats.
Look at this bag. That goes on somebody's head.
And they carry their own backpacks.
So, I mean the porters are superhuman,
and they're always in good spirits,
and that's just so inspiring.
It's about three in the morning right now.
We've had intermittent sleep between the Diamox
wreaking havoc on our bladders
every hour.
And the cold, but it's time to get packed up
We got breakfast in about 20 minutes,
and then we're going to make our way up the Western Breach
headlamps, helmets and
pretty much all the articles of clothing that I packed.
So the big day is upon us.
It's time to summit Mount Kilimanjaro.
You gotta blow the water back down into the tube or else your nipple will freeze,
quite literally.
And then you have to take your bag off every time you want a sip of water.
Not good
Also had to stop and throw some toe warmers in my boots because I just straight-up could not feel my feet.
But right now we're...
we're making headway.
"Pole pole." Slowly, slowly,
but we're in the Rockfall Corridor.
This is the most dangerous part of the climb because as you can see,
there's just giant boulders all around,
and they're holding together quite precariously.
Hence, the reason we're leaving so early in the morning
because the cold temperatures kind of
freeze the rocks together and make for a better climbing surface.
So you can't really linger here.
But we're making.. we're making progress.
We're kind of getting up to the snow line.
There're headlamps very far up the mountain in front of us and some behind us as well,
but we're feeling good,
and we're well on our way.
Time to keep climbing.
I've never seen anything like that.
Well, this has been one of the most beautiful,
harsh, and savage sunrises of my life.
We're not even halfway up the Western Breach.
We've been going for a solid two hours.
But it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful sunrise starting to get color in the sky.
Mount Meru over there in the distance.
What a way to start the day.
Rocks stairs. Pretty rockin'
All right, well we have made it off the Rock Train
and now starting to climb the Rock Stairs
We have climbed. We are not done climbing.
Not done.
We have more, more to go.
We're going to do it.
We're not going to fall.
That's the plan.
Look at these rock formations, dude.
They're crazy. It's insanity
Well, we just conquered the Western Breach,
and I'm not going to lie.
That was the most difficult climb of my life.
I've tried hard to climb my way up stuff before.
I've never tried that hard only hiking with my legs.
Pretty crazy and rewarding to be up here.
It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful.
We're above the clouds; we're on the roof of Africa.
We're not quite at the summit yet, though.
We're going to head over to that giant glacier over there part of the Northern Ice Field.
Well, we have made it to the crater,
and we've walked across an extremely alien landscape.
It really just... I don't know.
It feels like you're walking across the Moon or Mars or something.
And then there are these huge glaciers.
This is the Northern Glacier Ice Field
This ice has been here for hundreds of thousands of years.
Unfortunately, scientists believe that all the glaciers on Kilimanjaro
will be completely melted and disappear by 2025.
I feel honored and privileged to be able to come here and to touch this ice.
Kilimanjaro was made famous by the snow-capped peak in equatorial Africa.
By all accounts, it just should not be there and
by all accounts in a few years, it won't be.
But what is really fascinating about this glacial field is that there's no
real water on the ground.
Yes, it is melting but it's doing so in an interesting way,
a process called "sublimation."
Essentially, the hot intense tropical sun
at this altitude is so strong that when it hits the ice,
it instantly vaporizes it.
It goes from a solid to a gas and it skips the liquid phase.
I feel really honored to be able to explore it a little bit more than just going straight to the peak,
touching the sign, and bouncing out because this place is really unique.
There are very few environments like this on our planet.
And to be honest, it feels like we're on a different one.
All right, after a three hour trek from the edge of the Western Breach to the glaciers
we have made it to the top of Roush Crater.
It is named after pastor Richard Roush.
He set the record essentially for the most summits for a foreigner.. sixty-five summits.
But on the inside of this crater is the ash pit,
and that is essentially the heart of Kibo.
It's the heart of the volcano.
It's a 120 meters deep.
It's 360 meters wide,
and it's one of the most perfect examples of an ash pit in the world.
So we have made it to the heart of the volcano.
You can smell the sulfur.
There's actually sulfur just kind of littered around on the ground here.
To be up here alone,
to see the crater, to see the heart of the volcano,
definitely worth it.
The only thing we have left to do is to make it to the top of Uhuru Point. Let's go
I'm hurting real bad.
I ran out of water at the top of the Western Breach,
and then it took us about three hours
to get to the glacier
and then up to the rim of the volcano,
and that whole time..
we were just out there in that strong sun with not enough water.
My stomach's acting up.
I've got a headache.
I am just like..breaking down.
But we still have one more big push
to the summit which is just over there.
I'm going to drink another one of these,
and I'm making it to the top.
Last little bit..really got to push.
I can barely even hold the camera up.
We've got to touch that sign.
Got to finish the climb.
Well
exactly 12 hours later,
we have made it to Uhuru Point.
Boom.
5,895 meters
19, 341 feet the roof of Africa
the highest point in the continent
and one of the Seven Summits.
I also want to give a huge shout-out to my mom
whose currently in the battle of her life fighting breast cancer, but she's going hard and
it's all up here..
determination, positivity will always win the day.
Just know that you can do anything that you put your mind to,
and if you have to climb the mountain to prove it, then so be it.
Make it this one.
Even if you think you can't do it,
come here, climb with Kiliwarriors,
push yourself ,and touch this sign.
All right?
Because you can do it.
Couldn't have done it without these guys
Kiliwarriors.
Thank you for having us. Thank you for getting us up here.
It's our pleasure.
What did I learn from climbing Kilimanjaro?
The lessons of the mountain are mysterious.
Some are instantly apparent.. reaching the summit,
challenging myself physically, creatively, etc
while others take passage of time to reveal themselves.
As you climb, the oxygen gets thinner,
and you become way more aware of
each individual breath.
You focus your actions in this flow,
this kind of innate walking meditation.
Maybe it's just being surrounded by the primal beauty
of the elements that encourages you to tune back into the rhythm of the wild.
To watch the sun rise and set to walk through this primeval land of lava and ice
past plants and animals seen nowhere else on earth.
To sleep under the shadow of the moon in the icy embrace of the mountain.
Kilimanjaro taught me a profound appreciation for the value of breath our life-force.
A fuel for our body that clears our thoughts but most profoundly breath brings us unconditionally
back into the present and propels us into the future.
Kilimanjaro makes you feel alive.
Being up there the noise just falls away,
and things get simple again: move, breathe, live,
here, now in the present.
That's why I came.
I guess that's why we all come.
It's really that simple.