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Tuesday, January 13. 2009
Thursday, January 8. 2009
Got back yesterday from the loong trip. We summited (Uhuru Peak, 5985m, 19400ft, top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa) on Dec 30th. I am compiling my notes and pictures for a more detailed write up. For now here is the obligatory summit picture (Susheel and I): 
Tuesday, December 16. 2008
3 more days to go ! Saturday morning I get on a plane to San Francisco and there will meet up with Susheel to catch our Emirates flight to Dubai and then on to Nairobi and from there finally to Kilimanjaro. I have tried to have everything prepared in advance, but then this is me and so there is (as always) some last minute scrambling to wrap things up. The big one that came up yesterday was the need to get new boots. This is to say the least not a good idea, but in last few long walks/hikes I have felt that my boots were loose on the heels and I could feel the heels lift. This is not good and a sure recipe to get blisters or other foot problem. Off I went to REI and a good soul there helped me try out a few different boots and I settled on the Asolo Vortex XCR. In some ways this is similar to my La Sprotiva Trango which is a light weight mountaineering boot. The Vortex is classified as an Alpine boot by Asolo. it is light and flexible, and has good ankle support, Gortex lining and Vibram soles making it suitable for the varied conditions on Kili. I have worn the new boots for 2 days now including a stroll outside in the snow and ice and a stint on the treadmill at a 15% inclination. So far so good. The heels tend to get hot, but then I have been wearing mountaineering wool socks and with the heating cranked up due to the current cold wave, so that is not surprising. The fit is good and I am told that the break in period is only 3 days or so. I have my fingers (toes ?) crossed and am praying that these new boots work out. Besides the boot, I am finding out that trying to keep "essentials" (in case the check-in bag doesn't make it) with me on the flight is going to be difficult with just the single carryon allowed by Emirates. The main bag (check in) is getting very full as well and more than anything now I am looking forward to get past all these preparations and get going !
Wednesday, December 3. 2008
The other day I asked the Tusker Trail folks if there was a way for family and friends to follow the progress of the climb. Turns out that they have a "webcast" for the climb, but than that is to be expected in this digital age. Except that in this case, the way it works is that runners/messengers take SD cards with pictures down from the mountain to the Tusker office where they get uploaded to a custom site. This manual process of "transferring" the pictures from our cameras to the "webcast" will be done every couple of days. I have this image of messengers rushing down with super secret flash cards from high altitudes on the mountain, guarding the flash cards, making sure that they reach the HQ unharmed. Talk about a manual process and limited bandwidth ! (Oh, and we supply the SD Cards, and so I will be carrying 10 extra cards with me). If you are interested the "webcast" site is: http://ftp.tusker.com/webcast_hathi.cfm
Sunday, November 16. 2008
We leave on Dec 20 and the reality of the trip is really hitting home now. Last week I got most of the required vaccinations done (Typhoid, Tetanus, Flu) and on Tuesday I am visiting a travel clinic for the Yellow Fever vaccination. Also got prescription meds - Malrone for Malaria, Cipro for stomach infections and Diamox for high altitude sickness. Now I am wrapping up the final few equipment purchases - Gregory z55 pack, Julbo Explorer glasses being the big ones. Rest are smaller items. Also am transitioning the training to including the weighted pack as part of the daily regimen and longer weekend hikes/walks with the hiking boots.
Sunday, November 16. 2008
A few weeks ago I was checking on the seat assignments for our Emirates flights (SFO-Dubai-Nairobi and return) and saw something like 85 rows on the return flight ! Turns out Emirates routed us through JFK instead of SFO and that too on a brand new Airbus 380. Though flying on the 380 seems exciting, adding yet another long flight is most certainly not. We (mostly Susheel) tried to get Emirates to fix this or at least compensate in some other way. No dice. They didn't budge and now we are stuck flying another long flight from JFK to the west coast. All I can say about Emirates is that I am deeply dissapointed in the airline and had expected a lot more based on its reputation.
Wednesday, October 29. 2008
On October 6th Microsoft announced that the next version of SQL Server has the code name of Kilimanjaro ! For me this is personal in two ways, one of course in that I am signed up to climb Kilimanjaro this December, the other is that I work on the SQL Server team and now Kilimanjaro is part of my life at work and away from work. I can't wait to take a picture at the summit of Kilimanjaro with the SQL Server logo on the roof of Africa !
Thursday, August 14. 2008
As part of the prep for the Kilimanjaro climb, I have started to run (well more like a dwaddling jog !). While I like to hike and climb, I am no fan of running. However running is easy enough to do and with somewhat hilly terrain around my house this is something that can be a suitable training activity. I initially started off with a brisk walk with a 30lbs backpack and with the road going up and down (steep at times), a 4 mile walk with the weighted pack is a decent workout. I then started to include stretches of jogging/running as part of the walk and finally am trying to run with the weighted pack. I find running as it is hard and with the pack it is really a challenge. I am making progress though and am upto 2 miles running with the pack. My goal is to run 4 miles at a decent pace (including uphill) with the 30lbs pack. Lets see...
Sunday, July 6. 2008
Even though the trip to Kili is about 5 months away, I am trying to get the equipment for the climb together. Tusker Trails has sent us a checklist of things that are required for the climb and thanks to the Rainier climb from a couple of years ago I have a lot of these already. Rainier is a 2 day climb with most of it through snow fields and galciers and in general a pretty homogeneous terrain (rocks and snow). On the Kilimanjaro climb it seems to be a much more diverse terrain, with the trek going through savannah, forests, scree and glaciers. A lesson learned from the Rainier climb (and the training hikes leading up to it) was that the footwear is very, very important. I have a pair of La Sportiva Trango boots which are great in many respects, but I have 2 concerns: 1. size, 2. suitability to all terrain types. The size part is from getting a dead big toe nail while trekking down from Mailbox peak. Previous to the Mailbox hke, even though the boots felt a bit snug, I had not considered them too small for me. However after the dead and broken nail, I decided to go back to REI and try out a larger size. Indeed the larger boot felt better and thanks to REIs incredible exchange policy, I now have the same boot in a larger size. In initial walking around th size seems right. In terms of suitability to the varied terrain, the Trango is waterproof (Goretex lining), has a sole that not only provdes adequate cushioning, but also has a great grip and even can take a crampon. However it is a sold as a mountaineering boot and not a hiking boot and so what I am not sure about is how comfortable it will be for hiking over 10 days. From all that I have read it should be OK, time will tell ...
Sunday, May 18. 2008
I wasn't too sure about the answer to this question ("So, where exactly is Kilimanjaro ?") and thought I would try and provide a brief overview, if nothing else, for myself. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa (hence the "Roof of Africa") at 19,340 feet or 5895 meters. It is located in north-east Tanzania near the east coast of Africa, on the border between Tanzania and Kenya (which is to the north of Tanzania). Another interesting fact is that it is only 205 km south of the equator. 
Above is a simple graphic showing its location on a map of Africa, you can also check it out on maps.live.com or for an even more interesting view take look via the Tusker webcam. Kilimanjaro has its own international airport and in terms of distance from the next really big city it is a 50 minute flight from Nairobi and 240km by road from Nairobi and 446km from Dar Es Salam.
Sunday, May 18. 2008
I had assumed that booking tickets for December now in May wouldn't be a big deal. Turns out that I am wrong. Northwest has a flight into Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) and so I had imagined a long but rather straightforward set of flights from Seattle to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro. This direct flight into JRO is not available around the 22nd (seems as if it is cancelled for the holidays) and so now we will have to fly via Nairobi (NBO). This gets a bit more complicated due to conecting flights and layover times which make leaving on Dec 21 as initially planned difficult and we may have to leave on the 20th instead. I am also considering to fly out to San Francisco where there are more airlines (Virgin, Emirates) leaving for Nairobi, and join Susheel there (instead of meeting up in Amsterdam as initially planned). Tusker has booked flights for us via Nairobi via Northwest Airlines for us right now and Susheel has a travel agent who also is trying to find us a good deal. In the next couple of days this should be decided and locked down.
Sunday, May 18. 2008
After much talk and thinking about what a great idea it would be to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, I finally took the plunge and signed up with Tusker Trails to do the climb Dec 22 this year. Susheel who has been pushing me to make up my mind and sign up is going to do the climb as well.  Selecting Tusker as the guide service for this climb was the easy part. I use it as a pseudonym for Hathi (which of course translates to elephant, with tusks, you get the idea) and my gamer tag on XBOX Live is Tusker, Chandana's busines is Tusker LLC and I had tried years ago to buy the tusker.com domain name, which is owned by none other than Tusker Trails. Besides all the convoluted explanations around the name, from a much more practical point of view, Tusker Trails has a great reputation as the premier guide service on Kilimanjaro with a focus on safety. Also Jag (Jagmohan Bhalla) who used to worked with me climbed Kilimanjaro with them and recommended them highly. We are still trying to book plane tickets. Turns out this is some sort of peak time to travel to Kili and/or the number of flights are reduced around that time. Whatever it is, I am unable to book the direct flight from Amsterdam into Kilimanjaro international airport (JRO) and we will need to fly via Nairobi. Hopefully this will be done in the next couple of days. That will put most of the easy parts behind us and then onto the hard part of preparing for the climb and then the even harder part of actually doing the climb ! One lesson learned from the Mt. Rainier attempt was that there is no substitute for being really, really fit and that it takes a lot of hard work to get in shape.
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