August 24th, 1999
Leaving Munich early in the morning, we arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport early evening. We, meaning some of my ex-colleagues from Vereinsbank Group; Georg and his girlfriend Michaela, Ernst, Peter (Thilo) and me.

The hour drive to the hotel in the town of Moshi made it clear to us that we are in a different world. The last 2 miles to the hotel took some 20 - 25 minutes, this thing which is considered a road in Africa was just an accumulation of bumps. The two in our group, who have never visited such an emerging country, couldn't believe that there could be a great hotel at the end of the road. Then, we saw a lot of lights and a building behind an 8 feet high wall. We passed through the gate and found a beautiful tropical garden bar just in front of us. Suddenly the mood of everybody picked up sharply and we went for some drinks before we called it a day.

August 25th, 1999

After an early breakfast we've sorted out our gear for the trip and took the bus towards the Machame gate, our starting point at 1800 meters altitude. Some 2 miles before the Machame Gate the bus stopped. There we met our guide Felix, the two assistant guides, the cook and 8 other porters. From there we walked up to the gate. After our registration, Edwin--one of the assistant guides - took us into the rain forest. The trail starts nice and easy, 2 -3 meters wide, but got more difficult after 1 ½ hours. It got really muddy and you had to watch out that the water and mud didn't flow into the trekking shoes. I started the trip with a torn muscle injury sustained in austria a week and a half before and decided to see how my leg holds up. Going pretty fast up to 2.650 meter altitude I relaxed happily - everything was holding up well. But at the same time I realized that I went up too fast, at that altitude you better slow down and take it easy. I took a break and a couple of minutes later the others showed up. Their speed was too high as well and Peter looked pretty tired & stressed. So Peter and I took it easy and walked up the rest of the day with lots of breaks and "Pole, Pole" (Swahili: slowly, slowly). We arrived at the Machame camp at around 3.000 meters altitude at 4:00 p.m. There we met most of our porters and the cook was working hard on dinner already, it is no easy task to satisfy a bunch of hungry Bavarians.

August 26th , 1999

We had reached the end of the rain forest the day before and reached the 2nd "vegetation zone" up the Kilimanjaro now, the moor. Starting at slightly under 3.000 meters altitude we targeted the Shira camp at 3.840 meters which results in a gain of 900 meters altitude.We thought we went up slowly, but retrospectively we probably went up too fast again and didn't take enough brakes. Peter and I felt the extreme UV-radiation at Kili and I got in trouble when we arrived at Shira Camp. I probably had a sun stroke and went in the tent immediately to get some rest. This remained a problem for me during the next two days. My sun hat wasn't resistant against the UV-radiation and every afternoon my forehead was burning with fire. Sun creme with a factor of 30 couldn't solve the problem.

Besides that, everybody else had some problems with the altitude, with a little headache coming up. We didn't really get that warning signal, but it should have been a clear sign that we should go "Pole, Pole".

August 27th, 1999
Next morning we started towards Barranco camp. Slowly gaining altitude we went into the next vegetation zone, a black sand and stone desert. Moving up slowly we were praying for a lunch break. But the trail was just going up and down and up and up.... Finally at 01:30 p.m. we arrived for our lunch break at the highest point for the day at 4.450 meters. Michaela admits that she felt pretty lousy, with a strong headache. We decided to shorten lunch to just 15 minutes, to go down to Barranco camp as fast as possible. But Michaela's altitude sickness got worse at a rapid speed. Finally she was admitting that she had problems already in the afternoon the day before and early in the morning, but thought it didn't come from the altitude. Michaela didn't have much experience in mountains before, and I think after the easy first days she took the danger of the altitude too lightly. There is one rule which the doctors at the altitude hospital in the Everest Region told me and Georg on our trip last year and everybody should really take it to the heart: whatever sickness you have, as long as it is not otherwise proved, you work on the assumption of altitude sickness! So, we got a bit nervous and gave her ½ a diamox (a special high altitude medicine) and shortly afterwards another ½. She finally had to vomit, another sign of altitude sickness. She said, every step she did she felt like someone was drumming on her head. Nevertheless, we've been happy, because after lunch the trail was really going down fast and we have reached camp at low altitude (3900 meters) in 1 ½ hours.

Michaela went in her tent immediately, still feeling very lousy. She finally was listening to us and was drinking lots of water, tea and soup. This is probably still the best treatment against altitude problems: liquids, liquids, liquids. Michaela probably didn't drink the required daily dose of 4-5 liters of water, which the body needs. (There is one good test: if your urine is clear and not yellow, you had enough water).

We checked, if there is a straight way down the mountain, just in case it doesn't get better. But she felt a bit better towards the end of the day, and has been O.K. next morning.

We had a heavy discussion before dinner, about the mistakes we've been making the days before, and decided on some changes: decreasing our speed further, more and longer breaks, a closer observation of each other and a signal to everybody if someone doesn't feel well.

August 28th, 1999
Breakfast wasn't breakfast, breakfast is the nickname the local guide gave the wall we had to go up next morning. No real climbing, but a nice alternative to the slow trekking before. We climbed up very slowly to reach the top of the wall after 1 ½ hours. Lots of rest at the Peak and another two hours to the camp in Karanga Valley. The sky cleared at the end of the day and we saw clearly in front of us the south face of Kilimanjaro. Another fascinating thing for us was the sound of the vultures wings beating above our heads and tents, which was really loud. Did they smell food??

August 30th, 1999 - Summit Day
After some tea and cookies we started at 00:20 a.m. at 4.600 meters altitude towards the Uhuru Peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. After a lot of fog and light snowfall in late afternoon the weather got better and it cleared up. We started very "Pole, Pole" and accordingly have been gaining altitude only very slowly. For Peter it was too slowly, and he asked at 5.250 meters if someone would go up with him at a faster pace. Not sure if this is really the right thing, I decided to join him anyway. Thomas, one of the assistant guides, was leading us further up at almost double the speed now. After we gained 250 meters altitude very fast I had to stop Peter. I thought that if we continue with that kind of speed we will not be able to get up the mountain. So we slowed down again, but moved steadily towards Stella Point. At Stella Point (ca. 5.700 meter) the weather turned really ugly. We came into a snow storm with winds coming from the side with an estimated 100 km per hour (60 mph). Peter and I decided to go straight ahead towards Uhuru Peak. But than I saw Michaela and Georg 50 meters behind us and decided to wait for them (Their guide found a shorter way up).

I had a discussion with Georg if we should go ahead or if it is too risky. For that kind of weather you need face masks, expedition gloves and plastic mountain shoes. We had fears that we could get frostbites. But then we talked with the guide and he confirmed our suspicion that this is probably just a wind channel and it gets better further up. At one point, the wind got so strong that Peter fell down from a gust of wind. Nevertheless, Peter moved ahead and reached Uhuru Peak first. I followed him with Michaela (she was one of the strongest that day) and Georg followed us 100 meters behind. Being normally the strongest of the group, he himself confirmed afterwards that he really had been at the edge, at the boarder of his capabilities. But, I think it really helped him that his girlfriend Michaela was in front of him, keeping his ambition to succeed strong. It took us 35 minutes from Stella point to the highest point at Kilimanjaro, the Uhuru peak (5895 meters). The wind subsided and was sometimes in our back, pushing us up to the summit. There, we met Peter again, just on the way to descend the mountain.

At 7 a.m. in the morning it was too cold to really celebrate, but at least it was a little warmer and less windy now. Georg felt a tickling in his middle finger and realized that his middle finger became slightly frozen and was just warming up. We took some obligatory pictures and turned around. After 200 meters we met Ernst with his guide Felix. Ernst was totally exhausted but 5 minutes later the two reached the peak.

Under Stella Point the weather got better again and we've been able to stop and rest for a while. Another 1 ½ hour down the mountain we reached our tents again and went in to take a nap. Another 1 ½ hour down the mountain we reached our tents again and went in to take a nap. But we couldn't call it a day,

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