Mt Speke

We climbed our first peak, 4890 meter Mt. Speke on the 8th of February. The most climbed route and mountain in the area was first ascended by Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman, two of the most prolific late-in-coming mountain explorers we've seen. Tilman's first book, Snow on the Equator, begins in 1919. I would guess they were of an age that went to WW1 right out of school.
In 1919, they found themselves in Africa, I believe starting up coffee plantations. After a series of adventures (one being the finest mountain expedition, ever, to one of the world's most beautiful peaks, Nanda Devi), they found them selves on Everest in 1936. Again, a small team, traveling light, taking on a big dragon. Eric Shipton was on the very short list of leaders for the 1953 Mount Everest Expedition. The one that made the first ascent, and put Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on top.

I had high hopes for a Shipton/ Tilman route.

We left in dry weather at 5AM and walked for about an hour to Stihlman Pass. Just before the pass we cut off towards our route. The big mountains in the Ruwenzori are massive conglomeration of summits. They are like a spiked hairdo. All the peaks coming off the top of the mass that makes up the mountain. For this reason, traverses are appealing, if you can figure out the wetland trails. The big peaks are Baker, Speke and Stanley. The highest being a summit of Stanley, Mt. Margherita. How it got that name, I don't know, but I'll still drink to that.

There is a vast gulf in styles of guiding and protecting your client as we travel around the world. The Russians, on big mountains, like to act like sheep herders. European guides maintain low client to guide ratios of 2:1 or less. And they go like hell. American guiding tries to get the numbers up a bit (to cut costs for the clients) and we cater to the client more. We will walk with our clients. Euros meet you at the hut. We walk slowly. Euros don't have a low gear. Euros are in mountains that are often more dangerous. Euros trips can be done out of nice cute backpacks. Americans are often out for weeks, pulling sleds and carrying a pack that would have made John Henry eat a couple of extra flapjacks for breakfast....

I certainly was expecting to see plenty of differences in guide styles in the Ruwenzori. It is a remote, rarely visited area. Most of the visitors would, I expect, be pretty avid adventurous, high-skills types. An what I found is pretty true to my guess.

We started off with a bang. Vittorio happened to be carrying the rope. He, from the top of a 100' plus rock step, was hoping we would scramble up a rock slab. Easy enough, but I am not risking someone's neck on an inconvenience. The rope is... let's just say up above. Vittorio hoped we would batman up, using the thin climbing rope I had brought, as a hand line. 8.5mm rope, gloves, steep move at the top of the step... it could be a bad way to start the day off. My partner is a good climber and had no problem with any of the climbing we did. However, there is an excellence International Mountain Guides has doggedly cultivated over the many years they have been guiding. I needed to uphold the high standards they have set.
So we got the start worked out. As any mom would tell you, "A journey of a thousand miles still starts with getting in the car." The start. OK, little bit of a rocky start. Lets get on with it. The terrain stays a little too steep for my comfort zone. Easy enough ground, but a fall would often go 50'. Rather than the full rope work program, a cordolette between myself and my partner was just enough protection so we could relax. It also helps transfer a steady pace and eases communication between partners.

 If your country has been through a terrible war, or genocide, or a horrible dictator, I am guessing you have a different view on hazards. We are very lucky, in America, to have a very soft perspective on what is dangerous. I would argue it is too soft. To the point of impacting individual toughness, problem solving, and tenacity. With pitbull lawyers and a system that lets it go on, it is hard to change it up much. American society is softer than its competitors. There are certainly exceptions a plenty, but for the 333 million of us, on average... we are not Eastern Europeans.

Lets just say, I disrupted Vittorio's schedule quite significantly. We moved along slower than he wanted to. He did things differently. I argued, do only what will work. We held a very few, quick clinics on technique and I really tried to let him do his job. Really, Really tried. Hard.

You know what Yoda says about Try. I was still only trying. He took the indiscretion like a man though. He kept his mouth shut and did his job. Vittorio, as I suspect is very common in... East Africa, has an exceptionally sweet way about him. I suspect they have been through enough Hell for all their collective lifetimes. In the end, I can't help but have the highest of respect for the people. These guys just need some access to the outside world.

During our day, we had the curtains drawn, some rain, some snow, but not too much heat or cold. I wore the same clothing through out the day.

 When we finally got onto, what I would call, the remnant glacier, My boot selection was at the forefront of my consciousness. The fallacy of my ways, bringing a trail shoe style boot and a lightweight crampon for this terrain was a mistake. The Katoolah spikes I brought are a great set of lightweight spikes, but the tines are too short for alpine conditions. There may not be much of it, but 40-degree-glacier-in-retreat-equatorial-ice is still steep and hard. As much as my Keen boots are my typical go to boot, they aren't a mountaineering boot. What I wanted was a light alpine boot, with a sticky rubber sole, that would take full sized crampons.

The descent was slow. I bit my lip for the bulk of the time, coming down last. The size of the mountain is multiplied by the unending easy-but-not-easy-enough-to-un-roped-in terrain.

Mt. Speke is a large mountain. It fits in well for an acclimitization climb, but there is nothing there I would recommend as a route. Now a traverse of the mountain. It would probably be a 2 day program. That would be a worthy trip.

But, for my first full-on Shipton/ Tilman route, I was disappointed. It is a peak bagger route, not quality climbing, or a grand situation. Obviously, they evolved. As a writer, Bill Tilman is a quiet treasure. The route they did on Speke isn't their best work though.

Houston, we're missing a cable

I am so disappointed. I have left two cables at home. One to connect the Amazon Kindle to charge/ computer and a data cable for the sat phone.
It looks like I have to fall back to the stone age and send postcards to all three of you.

Even at 5/8 charge on the Kindle, I know there are plenty of electricities in there to get through a week of reading and maybe even writing. I have written two dispatches on the Kindle, but have not figured out how to get it out of there, from here.

I will write with pencil and paper, then let fly when we get back to civilisation.

I don't know if this internet connection could even get a photo through it. It took 25 minutes to fire up!???

We go into the Ruwenzori National Park in the morning. We will have 8 porters, for three people: Anthony, the guide and myself.

The weather is hazy, but not raining yet. No chance to prove the excellentness of the Marmot Exum Jacket and Precip full zip pants, yet. I am expecting to prove the modern age to the locals who insist a raincoat must have a poncho over it all.

Actually, those who are the climbers locally, all know nice gear when they see it. Herbert, who will be climbing with us, was playing with the three Metolious  Power Cams, the Keen boots and the Black Diamond ice axe.... I could read the thought bubble coming out of the top of his head, ...."I sure hope you forget this stuff behind..." 

The gear has held up well to its 30 hours or so in a duffel bag. The only fatality was a bottle of suncreme blew its top. I carry multiples  and small ones any more. Andy wrap them in plastic.

Uganda, contrary to what you may see on the internet, is a beautiful place. The people a sweet, kind and gentle. Things seem to run plenty smooth enough and its as hot as I would expect on the equator. I wouldn't want to be disappointed.
I suspect the Ruwenzori will very quickly bound into a hot trip to do.

And the system and people are honest. I was asked by a hurried airport worker if the Amazon Kindle found in the seatback pocket was mine. "Yes, (my heart stopped) thank you." There is a perfectly good excuse for my distraction from checking the seatback pocket, I assure you
"I will need your boarding card and passport." I started to walk with him to the CSI Airplane Seatback Pocket Unit, but he said "Wait here."
As he blazed away with a mission in his step, my heart sunk as I realized I had just given my passport and Kindle to the guy nearly running out of the airport arrival lounge. I was standing there wondering how I was going to explain this event to Anthony and International Mountain Guides.... I suspected this could provide the grand he has wanted to see Paris.
I waited for -only- several l-o-n-g minutes. The same guy half-jogged back in with a bunch of papers. I had two affidavits to sign and I had my passport, Kindle and boarding pass back....

The moral of the story? "Please be sure to gather all you belongings before you depart the aircraft."
I was probably reading (on my Kindle) when they said that,.....

A watershed opportunity- The Ruwenzori

Eric Simonson, partner of International Mountain Guides- IMG (www.mountainguides.com), called out of the blue the other day.

My family, bosses and any students that may be in a class at the time have all learned to cringe when I answer the phone with, "Eric Simonson, how the bejeebers are you doing?"

In the past, an identical exchange has led to several Mt. Everest expeditions and general disruptions to a mid-western, Ohio, like-to-be-settled life.
In no way should the blame fall on Eric.
I have to take full responsibility for leaving my family for weeks, or months, while I do something dangerous. It is not pretty. It is not something I am proud of, in the least.

It is at the core of my life's thesis, where I find myself at present, though.

Many, many times, members of climbing parties I was with told a common story. It goes, "The (50 something) teller speaks of always wanting to climb mountains.
               I could associate the deep-seated desire with my own as they spoke.
However, in the years of struggling to build a business, or career, raise kids and generally develop a secure life for their family, these dreams just had to be set aside.
As a guide, I could only think back to my own father and see the parallels with his life. Life often expires too soon. It's a fine line to walk between setting aside for the future and grabbing the bull by the horns for today.
The point here?
Fill your day with little adventures. Plan a few grand ones every year.
They don't have to be expensive, remote, dangerous.
Adventure is stepping across the threshold into the unknown be it: working on your car or home, singing a song, inventing something, talking to someone you are afraid to talk to...
Adventure is not really knowing what you are in for, yet there is enough inner faith to launch forward anyway.
Some confidence that any challenges can be met.
That the vision and drive you have at the start, will not dissolve like a mountain mist as the endeavor warms up.

Little adventures keep us honed and ready. With them, we gain a personal insight we will realize no other way.

The Ruwenzori peaks, situated in Equatorial Uganda, are those misty, fabled mountains in the distance. Ptolemy wrote of 'The Mountains of the Moon' waaay back when he was shaking the world up with astronomy and geography.

Ptolemy
An early Baroque artist's rendition of Claudius Ptolemaeus.
Born	c. AD 90 Egypt

As the 1800's matured, the source of the Nile became a driving siren's call of exploration. Stanley (of "Livingstone, I presume") fame, is credited as being the first European to see the Mountains of the Moon. All previous claims were thought to have been hallucinations. The locals believed the nearby mountains to be covered in salt. At the turn of the century, it was soon realized glaciers covered these mountains straddling the equator, in Africa.

Back when I started climbing, a John Cleare book, Mountains, (I believe) had a couple of photos of the Mountains of the Moon. Likely more than any other images in Cleare's book, the Ruwenzori cast a veil of mystery and intrigue.

What kept people out? Horrendous political times, rampent crime and continuous bad weather. The reputaion is for continuous rain. All that water that makes up the Nile has to come from some where, right?
        

The little guide book on a map I found off the shelf in International Mountain Equipment (different than IMG), as opposed to IME (in North Conway, NH), stated it is nearly impossible to stay dry in the Ruwenzori.
It sounded like a challenge to me.

Much of my rain gear being fairly high milage, I went out to our local outfitter, Outdoor Source and outfitted myself with Marmot's Exum Jacket, Precip pants and a precip full brim rain hat. Let's see how they hold up in some real rain.
The gore-tex fabric will keep the water out (it will, won't it?). Every bit as important as good membrane laminates, is excellent design.
Since it's beginnings, Eric Reynolds and Marmot, has build gear with fabulous attention to detail.

Africa is a different place to climb. The Marmot Matterhorn 30 pack should hold just enough gear to keep a bag of tricks handy.

Let's see if we can keep this going through the trip.