Salomon Mt. Kenya 3 route Challenge
(Warning; Long story, you can read a friendlier PDF version from this link https://www.dropbox.com/.../Salomon%20Mt.%20Kenya%203... )
This is the story of an attempt to climb Mt. Kenya three times, from three different routes in under 24 hours.
The Routes
Mt. Kenya has three popular climbing routes.
Sirimon: Generally starts from Sirimon gate to Point Lenana. Sirimon gate to Old Moses is tarmacked and is 9 kilometre. We do not like this part as it is tarmacked. So we usually exclude it from our Menu. We would start from Old Moses Camp to point Lenana. A distance of 16 kilometres and a climb that generally takes 2 days on the regular mountain treks.
Naro Moru Route: Generally starts from Naro Moru gate to point Lenana. Naro Moru gate to Met Station is tarmacked. We do not like this part as it is tarmacked. So we excluded it from our Menu. We would start from Met Station to Point Lenana, a 14 kilometre heart-breaking climb that lovers of Mt. Kenya hate. Apart from James Muhia, I have not heard kind words for this route from other mountain spirits. We will meet James shortly. Normal treks take two days on this section of the route.
Chogoria Route: Generally starts from Chogoria gate to Point Lenana. There is no tarmac on any section, so there is nothing to dislike. Because there is nothing to dislike, the menu would have no exclusions. Chogoria route is prettiest of the three sisters, the choice suitor for mountain lovers. She is contoured with picturesque valleys, lakes, ridges and other eye-catching landforms. Chogoria is the longest of the three with a round trip of 36 kilometres.
Four individuals wanted to see if it was possible for them to climb the three routes in under 24 hours.
The Plan
A plan was hatched, Salomon Kenya would cater for gear and logistics and let the four gentlemen worry about the physical part of the challenge.
The challenge would start at Old Moses on the Sirimon route, at 3 am on the 30th of January.
This is how it would go: Climb from Old Moses to Point Lenana, descend from Point Lenana down Naro Moru route to Met Station, Climb from Met station back to Point Lenana, descend the Chogoria route to Bandas Gate. Back up to Lenana for the third time, and finally down to Old Moses. Three climbs three descents. 24 hours.
The lowest altitude would be 3,000 metres at the Bandas gate and highest altitude would be 4985 metres at Point Lenana. It would be constant movement at high altitude.
The Peoples
James Muhia: A prolific mountaineer who just a week before had been on Batian, the highest point on Mt. Kenya where non-technical climbers like myself have never been to.
Victor Kamau Miringu: You can't get a stronger climber and ultra runner around these parts of the world. His CV is a little too heavy for this story.
Limo Kipkemoi: The ultra-runner raising a storm by running an ultra-marathon in each of the 47 counties in Kenya (he’s already done 37). Despite being the least experienced on the mountains he jumped onto the bandwagon for the challenge.
Me: The writer of this story.
The four are recreational athletes with day jobs. The challenge would therefore happen on a weekend.
Apart from the 4 three-routers, the mountain would be rich on that weekend. There was a group attempting two routes in 24 hours. This group had names like Timothy Macharia, Claire Baker, Kinyanjui Kevin, Marylyne Chebet, James Ndiang'ui, Timothy Guoko.
There were others doing a one day-one route climb consisting of names like Wanjau Muriu, Kareko, Stanley, Adhiambo Agoro and a few others.
And there would be ladies on the Chogoria route doing a 1.5 day climb to fully enjoy the vistas, lakes and waterfalls of Chogoria route.
To take care of the climbers there would be more than 10 guides and porters on the mountain affiliated to the groups involved.
As I said the mountain would be rich on that weekend.
Pre-Climb matters
I travelled with Victor from Nairobi to Nanyuki on Friday evening. This info is important because of what happened in Nanyuki. And what happened in Nanyuki is the routine supermarket business of getting foodstuff and other supplies we would need on the mountain. But what is of interest to this story is food purchased, we have different tastes so we practically bought different sets of stuff. On the drive to the mountain Victor started working on his newly acquired samosas. I hadn’t gotten myself any samosas. Being a generous person he offered me one, which, being a disciplined driver, I declined. This generosity could be questioned though as the samosa wasn’t kept around for when I’d be done driving.
Later that night Victor's stomach would undergo a major coup d’état. According to his sixth sense, unsupported by any lab analysis, he narrowed down on the samosas as agents of the tummy demons. That fellow had a horrible night.
We got to Old Moses at dusk, Limo and James got there a few minutes after us and we set about getting ready for our 3 am start. I would run in the Salomon Supercross shoes while my three compatriots would run in the prettier, cushier Sense Ride three shoes. Matters of taste.
How the Challenge unfolded
Climb started at 3:08 am.
The start time had been selected based on prior experience. A 3 am start meant there would be no sleep in our eyes, secondly we'd be able to get to the Met Station during the day avoiding wildlife encounters, especially Buffalo. And with good speed we'd also get to the Chogoria gate during the day avoiding wildlife too.
Climbing from Old Moses to Sirimon was smooth. I got to Lenana in 3 hours 31 minutes. Just before the summit, breathtaking sunrise views distracted me and I stopped a few times to take it all in. I turned my GoPro on to record the sunrise but lo, battery was frozen dead.
Going down Naro Moru was a breeze, especially in the absence of compacted snow which often makes that summit descent treacherous. I floated down. Descents ask more of keen eyesight and surefootedness to avoid accidents and very little of muscle so the mind can afford to be disengaged from the rigors of physical effort. Descents are therefore when I usually enjoy the mountain and my mind gets a free pass to build castles, get ideas or clarity or just go blank. By the time I got down to Met Station, my watch displayed a time of 5 hours 26 minutes, the descent had taken me 1 hour 52 minutes.
I had a cup of hot coffee courtesy of Sandra and was back on the road after a 20 minute stop. I would shortly meet Limo flying down, then James and much much later Victor. His stomach demons still bossing him around. A shell of his usual strong self though he was half-successfully trying to look normal.
The voice
Going up Naro Moru was uneventful and took 3 hours 55 minutes. At Point Lenana, my watch showed a total lapsed time of 9 hours 42 Minutes. And it is here that I became a dreamer. Some voice spoke to me, “looky here, you've done two climbs and one descent in 9 hours 42 minutes. TWO climbs and ONE descent! You're left with ONE climb and TWO descents, surely you can do that in roughly the same time? this thing can be done in less than 20 hours!”
The math seemed reasonable; 9:42 +9:42= 19:24, leaving a bonus 36 minutes for house-keeping. Sometimes I’m fickle enough to believe such things, and up there, in thin air, sub-20 hour not only sounded realistic, but very attractive too. In a moment of weakness I believed the voice and accordingly adjusted my plans. I allocated the time; descend Chogoria in 2 hours 40 minutes, climb back up in 4 hours, and descend to Sirimon in 3 hours 20. That plan looked like it would involve a lot of sweat though, especially the Chogoria climb, I therefore set a secondary 21 hour time goal in case my body didn’t feel like going too hard. 21 hours would be achievable without having to dig deep.
With new goals, I happily began rolling down Chogoria route. The Go-pro was now working and strapped to my chest, recording a bit of descent. I soon met Wanjau, a quick chat. Then Kareko, a wave and some niceties. He was going to summit this time, we had been here on this mountain together on 29th Dec and he'd turned back exactly where he was now. I continued cruising down. Met Claire Baker, a few selfies, she's going for the second summit, just behind her is Timo, Kevin and is it Stanley? They've decided not to go up to Lenana as they intend to leave the mountain before dark. I glide on down, come up to a guide waiting for James Ndiangui whose yellow (some call it lime green) jersey can be spotted in the distance. I presently cross paths with the said lime-greened James who tips his hat to me and I return the favor. He was here in December for his first one day attempt and summited effortlessly, now, a month later he is back for a two-summit attempt...
It’s a clear day, I’m definitely enjoying the views, challenge is unfolding perfectly. There is a half-hearted congregation of rain clouds way to my right, not that rain would interfere with anything. Slightly further down I come up on Simon with his big camera, he says he wants a short interview, cameras and me don’t have a good relationship but I say fine. We're done with it shortly and I resume my run.
I drift on down. In not too long I see the power ladies in the distance, they may have left many things at home but they sure came along with their voices, these voices cheer me from way off and I soon come up to them ; Millicent Wanjiru Maina, Avani Patel, Carol Nganga, Eugenie, and Engineer (because she calls me author). A little chit-chat, a few photos and they dispatch me. A few metres later I meet Nyaruai Muhoro - the de facto head of mission for this Chogoria group and Paul who seems to be beneath the weather. Chogoria route today is the meet and greet avenue.
The hug
Chogoria route is picturesque but long and can get boring lower down. Boring but runnable. I picked up speed, also knowing that I would fly in the last 5 kilometre motorable section. Despite the several stops, I was still on track for a comfortable 2:40 descent time, or below 2:35 if I put my foot down.
I was happy with myself.
I guess mother earth was happy with me too, because at this point she got emotional and felt the urgent need for a hug. She placed a rock on my path, my toe found the rock, hit it, and I was momentarily airborne as I went in for the embrace. It was a solid hug, a little too solid, air was knocked neat and clean off my lungs. The Go-pro strapped to my chest had a brief, very intimate sandwich moment between my left rib cage and the ground before forcefully divorcing from the chest strap and finding refuge a few metres away on a tuft of grass.
I lay there a few moments in a daze, I don't want to say I was groaning, but there were sounds involved, low growling ones. Anyways, I knew my ‘new-improved’ time plans were out of the window. I slowly pulled myself together, assessed the damage; big toe was screaming loudest, red liquid on my right palm, screech marks on my left elbow and above right knee, a sharpish pang at the rib area where Go-pro made contact with rib cage. For a mountain run, this was a normal day in the office. Audit over. I proceeded to make my way down to Chogoria gate. The challenge had just begun, at the 56th Kilometre, my honeymoon was officially over. I was now going to earn my time.
I got to the gate with 12 hours 47 minutes on my watch. I spent 30 minutes trying to get myself together. My goal was back to the original 24 hour challenge. This meant I had 11 hours to go up Chogoria route and down to old Moses, a generous amount of time. I got my poles out, I carry them for such emergencies, And started the Chogoria climb. 3 kilometres into the climb I’d cross paths with Limo powering down.
It was not until I’d climbed for 6 kilometres that I became sure my chest was not aligned to my goals, it was too keen on slowing me down. Climbing at good speed meant taking in deep lungfuls of air. However, the chest expansions on account of ‘deep lungfuls’ caused annoying discomforts, so I had to breath shallow, which meant I had to move much slower than I wanted. I would have to make-do with the slow pace and do my best to ignore the discomforts, I still had sufficient hours at my disposal to bag the 24 hours.
One other thing had happened after the fall. I had been eating up big chunks of my nutrition. The slow speed made me get cold, hence more food to heat up the body. Also just to keep the spirits up, there’s nothing like have an extra amount of sugar in your veins and brain during trying times. I wasn’t worried about my depleting rations, knowing salvation would be waiting for me at Mintos camp, where the ladies were to set camp.
I arrived at Mintos at 8 pm, very hungry and thoroughly relieved. I headed straight to the guides base/kitchen and asked Abu, the guide, for some food. He served me a mountain-plate of steaming rice and meat. The food looked good to my eyes but my body said no, after four spoonfuls I gave up. Abu handed me a cup of tea which went down very very well. My inability to get food in worried me a little, and for the first time, I entertained thoughts of finishing outside the 24 hour time goal.
I analyzed my situation, I had 6 hours to get to Lenana and back to Old Moses for a 24 hour finish. In normal circumstances that was more than sufficient time. But my current hurdle was the time I’d take to the summit on depleted energy levels. I wasn't foreseeing any sleep issues, neither was the cold going to be a problem. So to my benefit I had more of the odds in my favor. As I was seated there thinking, the guides were setting up hot water bottles for the ladies, not fair.
It was time to leave.
I got up from my bench, headed out, positioned myself at a no man’s land area around the tents, and hollered; ''Naomba Chakula" a holler that elicited a cocktail of the ladies’ voices and shortly Judy emerged to stock me up with Mandazis, GU chews and a lunch bar. I was set.
I headed out into the dark of night, I had been in Mintos for 40 minutes. My watch displayed a time of 17 hours 44 minutes, 6 hours 16 minutes left on the challenge.
The 24 hour goal was now feeling like a liability as opposed to a challenge.
Abu's tea and the four rice spoonfuls powered me a little but by the time I started the summit climb I was running on empty again. I tried a bite of the Mandazi but no, it just wouldn't go down, the GU chews too. I was therefore pleasantly surprised my slow uncomfortable pace was good enough to get me to Point Lenana at 10:45 pm, with 19 hours 37 minutes on my watch. It had taken me a total of 6 hours 46 minutes to climb Chogoria route. Almost three hours slower than planned.
But the hard part was over. The descent would be uncomfortable too yes, but more manageable at a physical level.
I needed to get to Old Moses in 4 hours 20 minutes. It was ironical that I had comfortably climbed up the same stretch earlier in 3 hours 31 minutes and now going down in 4 hours felt like a task. But now I was motivated to get the challenge done with today and sleep soundly for the rest of my life, I didn’t want to revisit the challenge. I was sure if I wasn’t successful today I’d be back in a few weeks’ time for a take-two.
As I started on my way down I could spot a head torch way down starting the summit climb, I assumed the torch was attached to Limo’s head. I couldn’t help being impressed, Limo first climbed Mt. Kenya less than 6 months ago and here he was on a three summit attempt on course to finish in a very impressive time. It had taken me many years to consider such things. I tipped my imaginary hat at the torch (I had a hat in my bag, I wasn’t ready to take it out just to tip it and re-bag it).
I went on my way down. My toe had been silent on the climb, now it woke, but I wasn’t going to give it any attention, and the poles were perfect as back up feet.
Got to Shipton's camp. Refilled water. Looked at my watch, 3 hours 12 minutes needed to Old Moses. In my best of days I’ve climbed from Old Moses to Shiptons in 2 hours, but that involved lots of running and fresh legs and no injury.
My limited math calculated that I could make it with brisk walking and minimal running. This was good news. But my energy gauge was now at below empty. I decided I had to force the Mandazi down my throat. Now, I know they would taste heavenly in real life, but up there, past midnight and 4200m altitude, they tasted like sin. I chewed, drank a little water, chewed further and swallowed. If the Mandazis tasted like sin wait until I put the GU chews in my mouth, I fail to find anything to compare the taste with. But despite the taste, I could soon feel energy coursing through my veins, making my powerwalk more comfortable.
For the next 2 hours 30 minutes, I was constantly looking at my watch, checking how much time I had versus the distance left, calculating what pace I needed to maintain. Maybe next time a calculator should be part of my kit. I would alternate my math class with the mandazi force-chewing task.
With 23 hours on my watch, I had approximately 3.5 kilometres to go and was comfortably walking at 12 minutes per kilometre. I knew I would make it and could now afford to relax. I recalled back in 2019 hallucinating around this stretch at night, I had been walking ahead of Victor, I had seen a Jackal on the road, I had warned Victor, he had looked closely and said ‘’C’mon it’s a tuft of grass’’. But this was 2021 and I hadn’t hallucinated yet.
I temporarily considered slowing down so as to finish in a picture-perfect time of 23:59 but a little voice told me to act mature, that I was too old for such nonsense.
So yes I slowed down, but not to immaturity levels, and that’s how I finished in a time of 23 hours 43 minutes.
Gathoni (bless her), the Old Moses caretaker, was at hand with a steaming cup of tea. She tried to convince me to drink hot water, that it was good for my lungs, airways etc . I said ‘’no thank you Ma’am’’ and drank three other cups of divine tea.
Angels on the mountains.
Debrief
Limo would finish in 26 hours 30 minutes. The skirmishes in Victor’s stomach would ensure he did only two routes. James would injure his knee and have to contend with two routes too. James and Victor are inconsolable, you could send them flowers, not beer. I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up soon to the news that they have done the three routes chini ya maji (undercover).
Now that a 24 hour 3 route climb is possible for regular folk, elite mountain runners can do it in under 18 hours.
Outdoor enthusiasts in Kenya and East Africa are increasingly warming up to the mountains. If speeding up a mountain is your thing, go for it. However, mountains or high altitude don’t treat everyone equally, it is always advisable to know your relationship status with the mountains before going for speed ascents to avoid getting your heart broken or suffer other body ills.