Kilimanjaro Summit to Barafu to Mweka

In time, Bethany just got too sick to continue and the guides turned her back. Rachelle also lost her breakfast but recovered quickly. Scott quickly caught up to us. As the hours continued, morning light finally started to appear giving much needed mental support. The oxygen was getting thin and we were extremely tired. Just before the summit ridge, Rachelle laid prostrate down on the ground to rest. The guide immediately came over, picked her up and said, no rest, keep going. They were totally pushing us because they were cold! We could have easily taken longer breaks and been fine.
Finally, we reached Stella Point on the summit ridge but the very top was still an hour away. We were exhausted but we continued. Slowly, we worked all the way up the ridge and over to the summit sign. We were the only ones there so no waiting for pictures, just started shooting pictures fast because I knew our guides were cold and wanted to go down. In fact, the guides started down without us leaving Rachelle and I alone on the top to take a few last shots. I thought this ironic since the only danger on the entire mountain was the snow slope right near the summit. Our total time on top was 5 minutes and soon we were dropping back to Stella Point. There we rested and even shot some video. Finally, it was a long drop back to Barafu Camp. We were tired but with each step, the oxygen gets better. Two porters met us about an hour from camp and brought some juice. My goodness it was good. Back at camp, we were given one hour to rest, then we had to drop down to the next camp, Mweka Camp at 10,170. Now, like walking zombies, we dropped several thousand more feet. By the time we reached the camp, it had been nearly 2 full days of climbing on no sleep. BUT, we felt pretty good with all the extra oxygen, back in the trees of Mweka Camp. Sleeping this night was incredibly satisfying.

Mount Kilimanjaro Climb (Day 5 Summit Day)