Must Come Down......

Miriakamba Hut – 19^th February

The descent from the summit of Mt Meru begins in the dawn light and suddenly all the features that had been obscured by the darkness on the way up spring to life.

 Dawn rising from just below the summit.

 Not quite the In The Shadow of Kilimanjaro (dodgy 80's horror movie)

but it is the shadow of Mt Meru

Pausing to look back at the final climb to the summit I turned to Wilfred, “No wonder you go up in the dark, hardly anyone would get up there if they could see it”! 

 Well, would you continue if you saw what was left to climb?

 

Feeling slightly nauseous from the altitude I was keen to make as quick as progress as possible on the descent whilst ensuring I got all the photos that would help me describe what it had been like.

 Descending down the long sand & scree slope that took so much effort on the way up

Wilfred took my camera for the final part of the descent to the Saddle hut, ensuring that I returned with plenty of pictures of me in full mountaineer mode.

 Me, in full mountaineer mode (apparently)!

It also allowed me to have both hands free for the traverse back to Rhino Point, if this had been tricky in the dark it was even more so now on tired legs and the full benefit of being able to see what lay below in the event of a slip!

 Negotiating the traverse back to Rhino point, tough in the dark but tougher on tired legs!

Close to two hours after standing on the summit we walked back into the Saddle Huts, right on schedule and feeling both physically and mentally exhausted.

However the days work was not yet done and after a quick (and very welcome) brunch it was time to make our way down to the Miriakamba Huts for our last night on the mountain.

A gruelling trek down the very steps we had climbed the day before it should normally take around 2 hours. 

It may have been the promise of a beer but walking now as one big group we managed to make it back in a shade over 90 minutes including a decent break to watch a troupe of Baboons relaxing in a break in the forest.

 Baboons, the final (but very welcome) distraction on our way down to BEER!

Fate can be a cruel mistress and sitting at Miriakamba later that afternoon we got a timely reminder of just how fickle the mountains can be as the cloud cleared to reveal a thick dusting of snow on the summit ridge.

 Snow on the summit ridge

Whilst it wouldn’t have necessarily prohibited us from reaching the summit it would have made it significantly more challenging and might have meant we were drinking beer of consolation instead of celebration!

 The route to the summit from Rhino Point