Evacuation device, Mount Kilimanjaro, 2002

captured with Olympus 3030 digicamÂ

Gosh, 2002 seems like a very long time ago in the world of digital imaging. Leslie, my sister Katie, and her husband Rich and I did our obligatory trek on Kilimanjaro in the summer of 2002. Leslie and I spent 6 weeks in east Africa, beginning with our Kilimanjaro climb. I grabbed this shot on the next to last day, as we were descending from the top of the mountain. It certainly drives home the reality that injuries, and even death, do happen on Kilimanjaro. Mount Kilimanjaro is 19,340 feet, and our climb began at around 6,000 feet. We chose the Machame route, which is much more enjoyable and more scenic than the Marangu route, otherwise known as the 'Coca Cola' route. You need time to acclimatize to the elevation, and the slower and less sudden the better. So we took 7 days on the mountain, and if I were to do another attempt I would take either 8 or 9 days on a longer route. The Marangu route is an atrociously short 5 days, and less than 50% success rate of reaching the summit. For a fantastic reading of my friend Eric Cheng's Kilimanjaro experience, head on over to this link for a good read and some great photographs from his own experience.