These pictures aren't in order, but the day ended up being the hardest and longest day of my life! I wanted to test my limits, and found my limit! We climbed the Western Breech into the Lemosho Crater at 18,800. John thought it was more difficult than he thought it would be and I thought it was easier. I didn't say EASY though, far from it. The Western Breech route is the shortest and steepest nontechnical route on the mountain with some 4th-5th class scrambling. John saw some bolts placed on the route probably for evacuation needs. Porters are usually paid extra to go this route. We had lunch in the crater and then needed to make a decision to either spend the night in the crater, summit in the morning and then start going down OR summit now and start going down. No one really wanted to sleep in the crater (-10 F and hard to breathe) so we opted to summit and then hike down to Barafu, the first camp on the way down. We reached the summit at about 4:30 pm to clear skies in every direction. The glaciers are impressive and magnificent. We walked beside them, not on them. It is a very large mountain even when you're on the summit, you can't see but a small portion of it. The descent from the summit began at a few minutes after five in the evening and lastest until after 9:00 pm when we staggered into the tent. The last hour and a half was in the dark and with our headlamps and we could clearly see the thick dust (like flour) we were breathing. My headlamp died, and my energy about died too. John stepped and then turned around to light my way, until Fredrick decided I needed assistance (which I did). He held my arm for the last 30-60 minutes, and I'm thinking I may have collapsed if he hadn't. He's definitely my hero. We crawled into our tents after a fifteen hour day, an elevation gain of 3360 feet and an elevation drop of 4028 feet.
Going up the Western Breech.
Western Breech.
Michelle and John in the Lemosho Crater.
Beginning the descent.
Climbing and crawling up the Western Breech.
You made it!
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