The fun began long before setting foot in Africa. About 1 month before Lukasz and I departed on our journey, there was a lot of preparation that needed to be done! In addition to planning the trip and figuring out what we wanted to do and which of the thousands of companies to use, we had to purchase plane tickets and travel insurance, obtain Visas for Tanzania, start taking anti-malaria pills, and receive our immunizations.
During the month, we also learned that Tanzania might not be the safest place to travel given the bombs found in Zanzibar, Islamic terrorism, political unrest and violence due to election time, American kidnappings, and recent deadly cholera outbreak... Needless to say, by the time we were ready to leave, I had a healthy fear of a lot more than being eaten by lions or succumbing to severe altitude sickness.
One thing we both thought would be fun to do is climb to the roof of Africa - Mount Kilimanjaro - which is the world's largest standalone mountain at over 19,300 ft high. (Since we weren't able to take a ground photo of the mountain due to the clouds, I'm borrowing one from greenglobaltravel.com.)
When it came to preparing for this climb, Lukasz and I were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Being a non-technical "tourist" climb, Lukasz didn't think training was necessary. I was more worried about being able to handle the altitude, and being the competitive type, I wasn't about to let him reach the summit without me, so I did a few additional things to get ready. Some may even say I went a bit overboard... :-)
I read everything I could to be prepared. Since November is Monsoon season, there would be very few others climbing, but to expect rain and snow every day and poor visibility. I also learned about the different routes and # of days to maximize our chance of success, and read stories from people who were successful and not successful, what to bring, how to train and prepare and so on... I spent a lot of time (and far too much $$) at REI, and borrowed a few items from friends. Thanks Ron and Nathan!! :-)
We chose the 6 day Machame route, which should have some of the best views, be great for acclimating, pass the Lava Tower (which I was hoping we'd be able to climb), and was to be a little bit more challenging than some of the other routes - a point I "forgot" to mention to Lukasz.
Given issues with my blood levels and lungs, I talked with Dr. Hackett from the High Altitude Institute about prep and risks, as well as what meds to bring. In addition to high altitude meds, such as Diamox, nifedipine, and dexamethazone, we had the equivalent of a small pharmacy, including 3 types of antibiotics, Imodium, Mefloquine, hydration salts, an Epi-pen, Tylenol 3, Ibuprofen, regular Tylenol, sleep meds, an inhaler, and clean IV tubing and needles. Luckily, we didn't end up needing most of these!
I also set up extra infusions and decided to rent an altitude tent to help pre-acclimate and (hopefully) raise my blood count (assuming of course that 3 weeks of induced hypoxia and lots of iron in the blood would stimulate RBC production). I used the altitude tent for 2.5 weeks, working my way from 10,500 to 15,000 ft. The machine was not pressurized, so this tent would not prevent altitude sickness due to the change in pressure while on the mountain, such as headaches or cerebral edema, but getting used to less O2 would help my lungs acclimate.
The company I went with was Altitudetech and this was an experience! The machine arrived with a broken piece from shipping.
There wasn't time to ship it back and wait for new pieces as it already took a week to get here, but the company called back right away and talked us through a workaround that involved cutting some of the tubing, unscrewing and removing a few pieces and using the clamps to reattach the tubing and bypass the broken piece. Sounded easy enough and they sent us some pictures. However, whoever had put the generator together had put the screws in upside down and there was almost no room to unscrew. We tried removing other pieces and turning the clamps around, but there simply wasn't room and we didn't want to break anything. After an hour I was very frustrated, but thankfully, Lukasz (who has much more patience than I) got creative and used a bent paperclip and other odds and ends to remove the upside down screws.
Lukasz also helped with setting up the altitude tent, and in less than an hour, I was ready to test it out. I put new batteries in the pulse ox (the purple thing you see on my finger below, which helps monitor my O2 sats and heart rate, letting me know if I was acclimating okay).
My plan (from Altitudetech) was to spend 3 nights at each altitude before increasing by 1000 ft. They recommend spending 8 hrs/night in the tent, but I was only able to get 5-6 hrs most nights. It took about 15 minutes for the tent's O2 level to be the equivalent of 10,500 ft. I had slept on the Grand Mesa between 8,500 and 10,000 feet for a few nights prior to using this tent, but was limited due to snowy conditions. This will be a piece of cake!!
Lukasz had no interest in trying out the tent for himself, but he was kind enough to let me temporarily stay in his spare bedroom so the tent wouldn't be around the kids or get ruined by the dogs we had at home. He also would pop his head in to check on me and make sure I was okay as I was a little bit nervous. One of the first nights in the tent, he noticed my O2 sats were in the 70's (which is a bit low), but since I was sleeping so peacefully, he opted to send me a picture of it instead of waking me up. :-)
When I called the company to see what my O2 sats should be while in the tent, they freaked me out by saying mine were much too low and they should be no lower than 91-92% while awake, because your sats can drop up to 10 points while sound asleep. Apparently mine do as mine were about 85-90% while awake. Seems like the company would want to tell the people using the tent what the levels should be instead of just providing a pulse ox, otherwise it seems rather useless!
After about a week I was sleeping at 12,000 ft. I was feeling fine while in the tent, but had been having chest tightness and trouble breathing in the mornings, and I just didn't feel well. I thought I was having anxiety as it would last for a few hours and I'd be fine, but by the 3rd day of symptoms when the chest tightness and shortness of breath came on during the evening while making banana bread, I started getting nervous.
Lukasz went to work and the last place I wanted to go was the ED, especially if it was nothing. However, after pacing for awhile and feeling pressure with each breath on the left side, I finally decided to go to the ED. I was embarrassed, especially when I sent Lukasz a text and 5 minutes later he was down in the ED to see me, but my ED doc (ironically enough) had spent the last 6 months using an altitude mask to simulate high altitudes while exercising - which is similar to what I was doing - and he had experience with what I was feeling. He said that it was likely altitude sickness mimicking heart symptoms, but he had me see a cardiologist to be safe (and of course ran through the normal string of tests, like checking troponin, EKG, etc). I felt a lot more comfortable after seeing the doctors, and a side benefit is when my cardiologist couldn't get be out of breath on the highest settings for the treadmill stress test - I felt confident that I was in good enough shape to make it to the top.
The last thing I wanted to do after investing a lot of money in the altitude tent was cancel this part of the trip, so when all tests came back normal, I was thrilled to be given the green light to climb. :-) I did follow the ED's recommendation of going back down to sleep at 8,000 ft to make sure the symptoms were associated with higher altitudes, so I ended up losing a lot of ground (and this also made me think I would have problems on the mountain with not being able to acclimate well). As extra insurance, I saw a pulmonologist at the Lung and Sleep Center, talked to our respiratory therapists, and was loaned a machine that would beep if my sats or heart rate were too low. Over the next 2 weeks, there were no new incidences and I felt great, so Mt Kili was still on the agenda!!! :-)
In addition to sleeping in a tent, I also tried to hike as much as possible, and did a number of hikes/climbs with a 30 lb bag to get a better workout.
Lukasz, Ron, Daisy, Duke, and Macy G were able to come along the first weekend, as we hiked Crags Crest on the Grand Mesa in the snow. It was a lot of fun and the 1-2 feet of snow we hiked through made it a great workout!!
One of my most memorable moments was while I was teasing Lukasz for stopping every few minutes for a break. He said "Mount Kili will be much easier to climb than this". Granted, Ron and I do hiker faster than most "normal" hikers and we had a bit of snow to trek through, but it was a funny comment. Added to that, a few days later when he said he went up the 12 flights of stairs at work with a coworker and was out of breath by the 2nd floor, I started to worry about whether or not the climb would happen... (Mind you, the climb may not be technical involving ropes and ice axes, but still involves hiking over 30 miles with 15,000 ft of elevation gain.)
The next weekend Lukasz was working, but Ron and I spent the weekend hiking ice lakes and blue lakes. We climbed 3000 ft the first day and went up to 12,500, slept at about 10,000 ft, and then hiked up to about 11,500 ft the next day - a super fun weekend to work on acclimating and breaking in the new boots!!
I also went on some after work hikes with friends, but was happy when on the 3rd and final weekend before the trip, Lukasz was able to join me in another hike. We decided to climb Mount Garfield, and when we got to the bridge, noticed there was water under it.
There were 6-7 other vehicles in the Mt Garfield parking lot, but neither of us noticed the vehicles were all high clearance trucks and jeeps. Lukasz was driving a low clearance sedan, and ignoring the sign on the bridge that said "do not enter when water is present", decided to try and go through the water. By the time we realized it was several feet deep, we were already floating (or should I say sinking) in it with a dead engine. So...while the car filled with water up to the seats, the nice man who lived by the bridge helped pull the car out and we popped the hood to dry it out while scooping water out of the car.
I love this picture of Lukasz learning about what's under the hood as the other guy checked the spark plugs and air filter to see if they were wet. Since Lukasz had tried to start the engine right after getting out of the water, water had likely been sucked into it making our efforts fruitless. It would be a crap shoot if the car would dry out enough to start (likely not), and a roll of the dice to see if it would be salvageable. Thankfully, this was not a brand new car!!!
Our boots were soaked and would hopefully dry over the next couple of days, but we did have a pair of dry shoes in the trunk. So, while waiting for the engine to dry out enough to start, we left our coats in the car (not a brilliant move as the wind was vicious), walked the 2 miles into town, and stopped at the Palisade Brewery for a little lunch and warmth. While there, we ran into a friend from work, chatted while eating, and then headed back to the car with our fingers crossed. At least we got about 4 miles of "hiking" in. LOL
When we returned, the car still wouldn't turn, so we called for a tow truck. I love this picture as you can see Mount Garfield in the background. :-) We took the car home, used the shop vac to suck out as much water as possible, and Lukasz made some calls to try and get it into the shop that week before we left. I still can't believe we drowned a car out in the desert!!! LOL
The next day (Sunday), we decided to try hiking up Liberty Cap. I was happy to drive. Lukasz had hiked up the trail before, but had never been on top of the cap before this (the cap looks like a Hershey Kiss from the ground and one of my favorite after work hikes).
Lucky for us, the shop was able to fix Lukasz' car, and we were able to dry it out prior to leaving for Africa. Little did we know that water (and the need to dry things out) would be a recurring theme on this trip)... But, our Visas arrived in the mail with our passports, and the only thing left to do before the trip was to make sure we had everything packed and return the altitude tent and generator.
Goodbye Grand Junction! We're off to Africa!!
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