It felt like every day our entire group was looking forward to summit day. When it was finally upon us, nerves were high, but excitement was even higher!

In case you missed an overview of the trip or a summary of the first six days, feel free to check those out!

Here's how it all went down:

10:45 PM: Wake Up Time

We woke up at a time that I normally wouldn't have even fallen asleep yet. A 90-minute nap was all I was going to get for the ascent.

I had packed my gear the night before, so all I had to do was slip my boots on, head to the WiFi tent, and grab some porridge before we started the longest sunrise hike I'd ever been on.

11:38 PM: The Journey Begins

About 8 minutes past our scheduled departure time we begin the ascent. Our guide, August, told us that he anticipated the sun rising somewhere between us walking from Stella Point and Uhuru Peak.

Stella Point is situated at 18,885 ft/5756 m and it marks the end of a really steep 3,500 feet of climbing. While it's not the summit, it is the first point on the ascent where you can actually see the peak.

It was pitch dark outside, save for our headlamps. In the distance, we could make out the ridgeline that we were aiming for.

At 11:38 PM we were one of the first groups to begin hiking. We could only spot a few lights bobbing in the dark a few hundred feet above us.

One of the best parts of hiking in the dark was that you could see all the stars out in full force. Of course, anytime I looked up at them I would nearly trip over myself, so my enjoyment was short-lived.

1:00 AM: Traffic Jam

By midnight, many other groups had begun their ascents below us. August and the rest of the guides insisted that we take it easy. "Pole pole!" they would say often, the Swahili phrase meaning "slow, slow!"

Soon, other groups had caught up to us. However, without any way to go around us on the dark, narrow trail, close to a hundred people were stuck going at August's pole pole pace. It remained this way for close to 30 minutes before we took a break and let folks pass us.

One of the groups, definitely with a favorable ratio of porters, actually sang songs the entire hike up. Those guys had unlimited lung capacity. For those of us who weren't acclimated to this elevation, the thought of using our lungs for more than what was required was near impossible.

Nevertheless, it was a nice morale boost while we were within earshot of them.

2:15 AM: The Wind

Up until this point, the cold was not a huge factor. I actually even debated taking off a couple layers as I could feel myself sweating underneath my thermal underwear, sweatpants, and two heavy jackets.

Thank goodness I didn't. Shortly past 2:00 AM, we lost almost all the mountain's protection against the wind and got hit with an unrelenting breeze that added 10 degrees of wind chill to the already below-freezing ascent.

3:30 AM: The Suck

By this point in the ascent, we had reached the suck. I could tell we were in the suck because everyone stopped talking.

Gone was the playful banter we had for the last 6 days.

Forgotten was the notion of being warm.

I had lost feeling in my toes hours ago. I genuinely didn't know if it would ever come back.

We were in the suck.

What sucks about being in the suck is that the only way out is to keep moving, even though that's exactly the thing that sucks in the first place.

But on we went. In a cold, windy silence.

4:30 AM: The Altitude Plays Tricks on My Brain

At this point, we had been hiking for 5 hours. I had no idea how far we were from the summit.

My brain was being fried by the altitude. I had all these coherent thoughts, but when I tried to vocalize them out loud, they came out all jumbled up. It was like being drunk.

I knew it was from the altitude and that the only way to solve this was to descend to a lower altitude.

That wasn't an option at the moment. So we sauntered on.

5:00 AM: My Water Freezes

This made me quite nervous. With hours still to go, I no longer had access to water, which was a crucial defense against headaches at altitude.

I got very lucky that one person in our group had some warm water in a thermos and let me have a couple sips. It tasted amazing.

On we went.

6:08 AM: Sunrise

What a welcome sign!

We were still cold and tired, but seeing the light peak over the horizon was the most beautiful thing we could have asked for.

It meant that we had to be close to Stella Point.

It meant that we didn't need headlamps anymore.

It meant that I soon might feel my toes again.

Not to mention the fact that it was a beautiful sunrise. I wish I could've sat and stared for longer, but the job was not finished.

6:37 AM: Stella Point

Finally!

Reaching Stella Point felt like a huge milestone. All the really difficult steep climbing was behind us, and the 450 ft that we had left to ascend felt incredibly doable.

Plus, we could see the summit from Stella. While it was still over an hour of trekking away, after 7+ hours that was a big morale boost.

7:00 AM: The Feels

As we approached Uhuru Peak, I tried to take it all in.

We hiked the entire night, in the freezing cold and bone-chilling wind, to get to the top. We collectively entered the suck, stayed in it for hours, and had now emerged on the other end.

I'll admit, it was harder than I expected.

We had an amazing view of Kilimanjaro's glaciers on one side, while the other side showed off its crater (Kilimanjaro is a volcano). It felt like equal parts Antarctica and a foreign planet.

I felt a rush of emotion at the beauty of it all. Not just the landscape, but the journey to make it this far.

I teared up a little bit at the thought of how the shared adversity of our group had just brought us together in such a powerful way.

We weren't done yet, but I already knew there was something incredibly sentimental about going through the last 8 hours together.

7:45 AM: Uhuru Peak

At last, we made it to the summit!

Here, the emotions really took over. We all hugged it out, happy tears streaming down our faces.

It felt so relieving to make it this far after a night that just dragged on and on.

After taking a group photo and spending about 15 minutes taking it all in, we began our journey back to 15,000 ft.

While that seems like a short time to enjoy the fruits of our labor, there would be plenty of time for us to process the experience while our brains weren't fried by the altitude.

Besides, the view at the top was great, but it didn't compare to the feeling of accomplishment that came with reaching the summit.

When I reflect on what it was like at the top of the mountain, that feeling is what I remember most about the peak.

Rest of the day

Unfortunately in mountaineering, getting to the top is just half the battle. You've got to save some juice to get back down as well. After over 8 hours going up, we got back down to 15,000 ft in about 3 and a half hours.

There we took a small nap, ate lunch, and descended another 5,000 feet down to 10,000 feet of elevation.

From 11:30 PM until 5:00 PM, we spent almost 15 of those 17 hours hiking.

It was a long day. When we finally reached camp down at 10,000 feet everyone ate a massive dinner and then crashed the first chance we got.

Summit day complete ✅

Stay tuned for one final reflection post on Mt. Kilimanjaro coming in a couple days!