Yes, the countdown to the big climb of Mount Kenya is almost here! David is enroute. At this moment he’s on a layover in NYC eating some salteñas with the big bro. In a few hours he continues the journey, arriving in Nairobi tomorrow night (ehem, with all his check bags, hopefully…our climbing gear!).  Then the adventure begins!

So two weekends ago, when I spent a couple days on the mountain, the weather was perfectly clear. Tonight I spent a couple of hours at the Mountain Club of Kenya (MCK…we meet every Tuesday night at the clubhouse at Wilson Airport) to glean any more information. Wellllll…some people were up on the mountain last weekend…snowed into a hut for four days! Yeah! So we will definitely be bringing our rock AND ice gear. This is gonna be great! While at the clubhouse tonight, I also got the key to one of the huts on the mountain that belongs to the MCK, in case we have to do some alternate routing.

For those familiar with the mountain, our game plan is to enter via the Sirimon route from the north. Day 3 will hopefully find us topping out on Point Lenana (the 3rd highest peak). From there, depending upon the weather, we will attempt the technical route up Nelion (2nd highest peak). Depending on the time and how we are feeling (the top of Nelion is 5,188m/17,016ft) we will spend the night directly below the summit of Nelion. Then we will traverse the icy Gate of the Mists, to summit the highest peak, Batian (5,199m/17,052ft).

If the mountain does not allow us an ascent of the twin peaks, there are a myriad of other choices for climbing and trekking, including the lakes, glaciers and other faces to climb. I’m planning to track this entire trip on my gps, which will provide a very interesting visual when we come back out.

The mountain beckons!

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