“Pole, pole,” the guides said as climbers trekked through the dark of night on their journey to the “Roof of Africa.”
“Pole, pole,” they said, when after walking seven hours non-stop many began to struggle with not only the lack of oxygen but also with how mentally demanding the summit journey can be.
“Pole, pole,” they said minutes from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world, to encourage climbers in the final push to the top.
A mantra of the mountain, in Swahili, “pole, pole” means slowly, slowly, with the idea being the slower they walk, the better acclimated climbers become as they ascend. Cathy Blanchard and Deb White of Cody took the words to heart as they powered through to reach the summit.
“It was the hardest thing I've ever done for sure,” White said. “It was really difficult and you’re in your own head because you're in the dark, but quitting wasn't an option.”
And while reaching the iconic sign at 19,341 feet was monumental, the trip was about more than the summit; it was about every step along the 53-mile, nine-day journey for the two.
“It was satisfying to accomplish a goal, and it was exciting,” Blanchard said. “But you learn a lot about yourself as well. There was a lot of introspection and quiet time.”
Ready To Go
White doesn’t consider herself a mountain climber, but she did scale the Grand Teton six years ago. She said she loves Africa, having visited seven times, so Kilimanjaro was something on her bucket list. She was set to go in March 2020, but the trip got postponed due to the pandemic.
When she and Blanchard became good friends, she asked Blanchard to go on the trip, and the two began training. They worked with personal trainer Jesseca Cross for a year and also climbed Heart and Cedar mountains in the Cody area multiple times to prepare. They planned to go to Africa last February, but minor injuries and health issues pushed the trip to October.
“It's been on my list for so long, and I kept pushing it off and pushing it off and I'm really glad I was finally able to go,” White said.
The pair left Cody on Oct. 5, with the climb beginning Oct. 9. Arriving a day before the expedition began, Blanchard and White met the other 10 members of their group at the hotel. The group was made up of 10 Americans, one Canadian and one New Zealander. One was 55 years old, while the rest were over the age of 60. They named themselves Team G or Team Geriatric.
“Our guides actually were really nervous about having a group of all seniors,” she said. “They'd never experienced that. Most groups are just random and they're usually more mixed.”
The Journey Begins
Approaching Mount Kilimanjaro, its sheer magnitude was striking. Rising from the Tanzanian plains, the mountain seems to touch the sky.
Climbing to the summit can be achieved in five to nine days, with a 95% success rate for the longer trip. The mountain has five different climate and vegetation zones, starting in the balmy rainforest and ending with the snow-covered peak.
The group traveled the Northern Circuit Route, which is the longest on Kilimanjaro. They took Diamox to prevent altitude sickness and followed the slowly, slowly mantra.
“They don't let you walk fast,” White said. “They set a super slow pace, because the whole thing is about acclimating.”
The first two days are spent trekking through rainforest, followed by the meadows of the Shira Plateau on day three. Blanchard said the second day was one of the most difficult of the trip excluding the hike to the summit, as the group traveled over rough, steep terrain.
“It was a lot of bouldering and scrambling,” White added.
Days four and five were spent in the Alpine desert, with the terrain becoming increasingly sparse by day six at 13,200 feet. The two felt that coming from Wyoming and starting at 5,000 feet above sea level definitely gave them a slight edge over the others in their group, who were from places at sea level and struggled more.
“Every day got harder,” Blanchard said. “I mean, there were times at 15,000 feet and above that I had to take deep breaths, but that's not unusual on an incline for me. So I just thought we did really well with the altitude.”
Eat, Climb Sleep
The ladies chose the Ultimate Kilimanjaro company to guide their trip. Six guides led the group along with 40 porters carrying the majority of gear to the next campsite, often placing it on their heads.
“All we had to carry was our water, snacks and clothing changes for the day,” White said. “You could bring 33 pounds of other gear, which actually isn't that much when you include a sleeping bag and a pad and everything from tropical to winter gear.”
The guides did health checks twice a day, testing blood oxygen and heart rate. They were vigilant for altitude sickness or other struggles members of the group may have been going through.
“You could just tell they were always watching and if somebody was not keeping up, or somebody stumbled, they were just right on it all the time,” White said. They wanted us to succeed safely.”
Most days the group got up at between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and had 30 minutes to get ready and eat breakfast.
“The meals were amazing, they fed you as if you were pregnant, and you could eat all you wanted,” White said. “It was wonderful. Three hot meals, Snickers bars for snacks, and not feeling bad about it.”
The group then climbed anywhere from four to seven miles a day, ranging three to seven hours. Afternoons often consisted of naps and enjoying their fellow climbers’ company before dinner and bed. Each day grew colder as they crossed into the subarctic terrain.
“Most of the time it was cold, so the only time you were warm was when you were in your sleeping bag really,” White said.
Pushed To The Limit
On the seventh day it was time for the summit. They set up a temporary camp at 15,600 feet, eating lunch and dinner and grabbing a few naps in between before beginning the nine-hour climb at 11 p.m. with headlamps to navigate the darkness.
“You could just see other groups coming up behind you and if you looked up above, you could see what looked like a string of Christmas lights with the other groups of headlights up above you, which was really depressing actually, because we were still so far from the top,” White said.
They continued climbing through the night, counting their steps and thinking about family and friends to keep them going.
“I think everyone had their own thing in their head,” Blanchard said. “Afterwards, we talked about it, and we did a lot of counting. I just never felt really discouraged and I was excited to make it to the top.”
They reached Mawenzi Peak at 6 a.m. in time for a magnificent sunrise, then it was two more hours to the highest point on Uhuru Peak at 19,341 feet. Everyone reached the top in the group except for one woman, who peeled off at Stella Point about 500 feet from the summit.
“I don't think quitting was ever an option,” White said. “In fact, one couple in our group had serious gastrointestinal distress and they still made it. We just toughed it out and made it.”
At the top they unfurled their Wyoming flag for a photo and took in the views. To the east on clear days, you can see the vast plains of Tanzania stretching out towards the horizon. To the west, the rolling hills of Kenya are visible.
“It was beautiful,” Blanchard said. “It was exhilarating. It was the best weather we could have had.”
The clear and calm weather at the top is unusual for Uhuru Peak.
“We had asked the lead guide a couple days earlier, ‘When we get to the summit, how long can we stay?’ And he said, ‘Well, you can stay as long as you want, but you won't want to, because usually it's windy and blizzardy,’” White said. “It was just gorgeous. I mean it wasn't warm, but it's like Wyoming, as soon as the sun comes out, it warms right up. We all wanted to hang out longer, but they won't let you.”
Down Is Harder
After nearly an hour on the summit, the group still had to travel seven miles down before finally stopping for lunch. Everyone collapsed and rested for a couple of hours before traveling two more hours down the mountain to their final camp. Going down was the worst part of the trip because the ground kept sliding underneath them.
“I started off with energy because I knew that we accomplished our goal, and now we were going to go down, and I wanted to go down,” Blanchard said. “But not too far down the trail, I was getting pretty tired because we’d been sleep deprived and marching for 12 hours. it wasn't easy.”
The last day was six more hours downward on the steep terrain to reach the bottom.
“It's steep enough that they don't bring climbers up that route,” White said. “They only use it for porters to resupply groups and for people to go down. It's not a trail that they use for ascending.”
At the end of the journey the climbers tipped their guides and porters, and also left their hiking boots and other warm gear for them to wear.
“They are super hard working, and so kind and supportive,” White said. “They just don't have access to good equipment. The guy taking care of your tents when it’s 15 degrees is wearing a sweatshirt. They literally ran around us on the trail and then set up. It's just very difficult work for $10 a day.”
Finding A New Adventure
After the climb, White and Blanchard had a few more days to explore the area and went on a two-day safari which included the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, African buffalo and rhinoceros.
“I've always wanted to go to Africa, not necessarily to climb Kilimanjaro, but for the people and the land and the animals,” Blanchard said.
The pair returned to Cody on Oct. 22 and are enjoying what they were able to accomplish before eventually deciding what new goal to work toward. They’re also trying to convince their new “flatlander” friends from their Team G climbing group to make a trip to Wyoming.
“I'm just trying to think of what I want to do next. I'm not really a mountain climber, so I've just got to come up with something else,” White said. “I have a lot of other places I want to go, but I don't want to climb any more mountains.”
