CLIMBING MOUNT KILIMANJARO | The Summit

At 19,341 feet above the clouds, the crater of Mount Kilimanjaro, well, you might as well be on Mars. Why do humans see a mountain? And for the adventurous few, we're so captivated, so enchanted with the idea of standing on top of the world that we push ourselves past our physical and mental breaking points for just a few moments of freedom. That's what it was. It was freedom. In this film, I make the final push to the summit of Uruhu Peak on Mount Kilimanjaro. Eric Conover here from 15,200 feet above the plains of Tanzania on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, just about 4,000 feet from the summit right behind me. The last time you saw me, I was hurting pretty bad. Let me catch my breath for a second. I have never felt the altitude this hard as I feel it right now. Mount Kilimanjaro has its own weather. Weather systems form when the air hits the mountain and uplifts, and these thunderstorms pop up out of nowhere. This is real. Guys, we go down. Yeah, we go down. No option. We go down just because of the weather. I'm not gonna lie, man, that was a setback. That was mentally pretty tough to go back down. But the following day, the weather cleared up and we left camp. We trekked our way through the moorland and we finally made it to the barren Alpine Desert. At this altitude, nothing lives. It is as barren as can be. But you know what? We had a sense of hope because it was the first time that we actually felt like we arrived at the foot of this mountain. The summit, it felt close enough to touch. Even though it was still some 5,000 feet away, you get the idea. Look at that mountain! Look at that! Woo! We all did good and knock the wood, we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it. Oh, we're gonna make it. This is our first actual glimpse of the full summit. We just got into the Alpine Desert, feeling strong, no altitude sickness. Patrick, this whole trip, he would do anything to contact his girlfriend. He would climb a 2,000 foot cliff to send one text message. I tried, I sent it, and then it said not delivered. That's a good boy. We finally made our way to the next spot and we set up camp at a location called Lava Tower. We've been here at Lava Tower for the past two days to acclimate our bodies to the altitude. 15,000 feet, they call the danger zone. That's when you really, really get the symptoms of high altitude sickness. It's the worst headache you've ever had and your body is just wrenching. At this high of an elevation, our food is very simple. Lots of soup, porridge for breakfast. Porridge? That's millet porridge, yes. Porridge. This is Louis. This is our chef for the past four or five days. Best cook in Tanzania. We call him Mama. You call him Mama? Yes, Mama Louis. Mama Louis. Yes. The lens is fogging up, it's so hot in here. This is a very, very quick tour of our campsite. This is the chef's tent, porter's tent, porter's tent. Then you walk over this way, mess hall tent. Then those are our tents, these little guys here. About three or four of them. And there's Kili. The thing that you can't really prepare for when you're this high up is the cold. Last night, it got down to probably around 10 degrees. This is the third night. Third, I can't even think. This is the third night we've been camped out and it's gotten down below zero. As you can see, we sleep in every single piece of clothing we own, hats, winter jackets, gloves, all our layers. So a hot coffee in the morning is very much appreciated. How cold do you think it's getting in the tent? The tent, it has to be, I'd say mid-30s. Easily. Patrick drank his water this morning and it was almost a slush. Yeah, yeah. And once that sun comes out, oh boy. That sun is life or death here. As you can see, the ground starts to thaw instantly. And it's very wet in here also because the ground freezes except on the tent. So everything in here is pretty wet. That's Patrick's mattress and that's all water. And then the back is dark blue. That's soaking wet. All right, let's keep the warmth in. Today, we're making our way to Arrowhead Glacier Camp which is about 16,000 feet in elevation. You can actually see it right back there behind me. This way? Yeah, I love the sound. That way? Right here? Right there. That's it? Right there? Yeah, right there. That's Arrowhead Glacier Camp. From there, we have two more nights and then we're making our attempt on the summit. Feeling good? How are you feeling, Patrick? I'm feeling all right. We said goodbye to Lava Tower and we began our ascent to Arrow Glacier Camp. And now this is the part in the climb where Kilimanjaro starts to look a lot more like the Himalayas than a mountain on the equator in Tanzania. So as you can see, we have reached the snows of Africa. It only took another thousand feet and we are pretty much in full on snow pack. To think that we started this journey in the jungle when we were sweating, like we were sweating that first day. How are you feeling as far as the altitude? Definitely feel a little bit when you're going in the inclines. Think about if you had two straws in your mouth and you had to go up the stair master. That's what it starts to feel like when you're at this altitude. If you spend time in the mountains, your body will adapt to the mountain. Your lungs get stronger. You become a man out here. Kidding. The real men are the porters. The porters are the real men. They carry all the gear up here. We just have our day packs. I'm just hoping tomorrow for the summit, we have a clear day to actually see, you know, the glaciers and all that. Because this, you can't even see. Camp is right over that way. Camp's right here. Gonna head into the mess hall, get some tea, warm up nice. All right, time to get warm. So tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow is the day where we go over the Western Breach. The Western Breach is a rock face scramble that goes straight up. We're going from 16,000 to 18,500, I believe. We just had a gear check where we went over our helmets, the lights, and all that, because this is the most technical part of this Kilimanjaro summit, is the Western Breach. Then this is for avalanche, rock slide? Rock slide. Tomorrow morning, we are waking up at three o'clock in the morning, hitting it very early so we can be up there at sunrise. It's gotta be at least minus 20. The tent is frozen over, and today we're doing it. We're going for it. Surprisingly, I'm not as tired as I seem. Either that or I'm delusional. I remember thinking that I've never felt such a sense of pure isolation. All you hear are your footsteps on the mountain and the sound of your heart pumping. There was a snowstorm earlier in the night, and it was much warmer, and now with the cold air, it was all frozen. You look ahead, you see only what your headlamp illuminates, but at the same time, we were all just so damn alive. We were doing war cries in the middle of the night on this mountain. Once you get that incline, though, your heart starts racing. You're searching for air that doesn't exist at this height. You're sucking wind. We're making our push up the Western Breach up here. Snowpack. We got Cedar Rock. We got Joseph. We got Patrick. Let's do this. The Western Breach is known as one of the hardest routes to get to the top of Kilimanjaro, and this morning, we found out why. You know what? You know what, guys? What's up? We still in a danger zone. We are going to traverse to the right from there. Almost will be 70% out of danger zone. Okay. The breach was a rock slide, and it's only held together at night during the deep freeze. It's always hard to tell on camera, but turning around was like a shot of vertigo. The climb never seemed to end until it did. After six hours of trekking, we finally breached the wall into the crater of Mount Kilimanjaro. We found ourselves on what looked like another planet. Snow as far as the eye can see, a blinding white with glaciers off in the distance, massive glaciers. In the middle, there was a mount rising up, and in the center, a pit of sulfur, the heart of Kibo. I can't breathe. The Western Breach, hands down, the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life. You couldn't really tell from the video, but it was basically a 2,000-foot vertical. The air where we are right now is half of what you're breathing right now if you're at sea level. We have made it to the crater camp of Mount Kilimanjaro. Way off in the distance this way, that's Mount Meru. That's the other volcano in the chain. Spirits are high. Stomach's uneasy. Oh. Spirits definitely high, though. Spirits are, I mean, to get up here, it's like we're on another planet. It's so barren. Surprisingly, I actually feel very, very good, and the thing is, I trained for this. I trained for about two months before I came on this trip, so I'm dealing with the oxygen pretty well, but I can't even describe this place, man. Taking a walk around this place. We're right by the glaciers, and we finally came over to the sulfur, and it's very fine beach sand. It's incredible to see this huge block of ice right next to this dry sand. We're gonna go head over and set up camp, crater camp for the night, and then either this afternoon or tomorrow, we're gonna be over here at the actual summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Altitude has hit. We were gonna summit this afternoon, but we're gonna push that to first thing tomorrow morning. I feel like absolute ----, but something like this, tea makes it feel a lot better. Cheers, Patrick, to being back at sea level. I keep mentioning the cold. The cold this, the cold that. It was so cold. It's 10 hours later, the same day that we made the summit push. I am in a lush rainforest, about 10,000 feet. For the past two days, I couldn't really feel my feet, and it was so cold, I didn't take my socks off. I just got to the tent here, and I took off my socks. If you are squeamish in any way, look away right now, but this is the first stage of frostbite on my big toe. This is some serious stuff, and this is for anyone who wants to climb Kilimanjaro and takes the Western Breach route, which is a longer route, more time in the cold. This morning when we woke up, it was minus 15, and it was minus five in the tent. Kilimanjaro, you know, it's a steep mountain, and it's tough, don't get me wrong. Even if you are incredibly fit, 77% of the people who climb Kilimanjaro experience AMS, acute mountain sickness, 77%. It's almost unavoidable unless you're from an area that is already at a high elevation. But anyway, back to the story. This is me looking like an old man, fighting the worst stomach pains I've ever felt, making the final push to the summit at sunrise over the crater in the bitter cold. All right, I'm not gonna lie, that hurt. This morning I woke up and I was wrenching in the stomach, had a massive headache. I was the last one in our group to make it up here. I couldn't have made it up here without the help of the Kili Warrior crew. These guys right here got us up this mountain. Why Mount Kilimanjaro? Why Tanzania? Why go out here and sleep in a cold tent for night after night with Pat McDevitt? About four months ago, I had a dream that I was standing above the clouds, kinda like I am right now. I had a vivid, vivid dream that I was up on top of the world. I woke up, I checked my DMs, and I had a message from Kili Warriors. And four months later, here I am. First goal of 2018 has come to reality. If there's something you wanna do in life, don't wait, do it now. Climb that goddamn mountain, and I will see you in the next video. Woo! It's the possibility of having a dream come true, which makes life so interesting. If you dig this video, leave a like and subscribe. This is just the beginning of the 2018 journey, and I will see you in the next video.