Hello to everyone who is following, based upon the hundreds of messages every day, we gather that it is quite a bit of you. We are now at 13,500 feet and the effects of altitude are officially kicking in. A few seats were empty around the dinner table tonight as several are in bed early in order to sleep of the nausea that comes with hiking this high. The reality of what we are attempting is hitting the camp like a freight train. This hike is no joke! We are confident that no one is ill enough to stay behind, we plan on hiking on as a full crew in the morning once everyone has had a chance to adjust to this altitude, a night of sleep can do amazing things and there is a reason we are taking it roughly 2,000 feet at a time. As they say in Swahili, pole pole, slowly slowly.

So, now that you are all somewhat caught up with the medical status of the camp, let’s move in to the day. We woke in our tents to find a field of white around us. The rain that had come in the night had frozen to a white dew by morning. We arose from our tents in down jackets and fleeces. By the time the sun had fully risen, we had stripped down to t-shirts and shorts. We were told that we had a VERY good chance of rain but the god’s must have looking over us as we did not a drop of rain – say some prayers it stays that way. It is freaking cold!!!!!! We had the MOST amazing hike today. We traveled through the Alpine zone, it made finding a spot to pee quite difficult as the landscape turned from lush green forests to the sparse bushes and lava rock. Which is rough since we are drinking water like camels to counteract the effects of altitude.

It was a stunning site to see, my personal favorite yet. Several times I could envision a battle scene from Braveheart as we traveled through a valley with soaring hillsides to our left and right. Scavenging ravens circled overhead, searching out our weakest link, luckily we are a pack of 150 strong, I think we have them beat! We stopped for a quick lunch and hiked the “less than and hour…and a half” to our camp for the night where the clouds parted and made for the most stunning moonrise and sunset one could dream of. It was hard to know which way to turn until we were grounded by the sounds of music from the guys and the crew. Hard to focus on the cold when you have rockstars jamming the sun away. Cy started off by dedicating a song to the grandmother of Carrie Marzolf who passed away 19 years ago today. Many anniversaries to be honored on this trek. It is humbling to watch as each trekker takes a moment or a day to honor, remember, celebrate the people they are here for or their own personal accomplishments.

I have said it before and I will say it a million more times, I have the greatest job in the entire world. Thank you, James Chippendale. We miss you on the trek but I can hear you telling me to do more all the way from Texas☺ Your name comes up a few (hundred) times a day, so do not worry, you are here whether you like it or not!!! Thank you for taking one for the team and holding down the fort at Austin City Limits. I hope that everyone reading this tells their friends who are going to ACL to get signed up to be a bone marrow donor.

Tomorrow we will take a few moments to be one of the 1,000 locations around the world to honor Oct 2 – LivesSTRONG day – by wearing yellow and holding up our yellow prayer flags. Hope you all join us in your own way. We are so honored to be working with LiveSTRONG for the first time at ACL. Good luck gang! And, thanks Chris Brewer for helping us with volunteers.

On a personal note…Ryan your Top Ten list was one of the funniest message we have received and we welcome many more!! Love you!!!

Shannon Foley
13,500 feet
can’t remember name of camp - must be the altitude!
Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Quote of the day:

Message was received today for Glenn Tilbrook that said “…wishes you good luck, he is doing the same trek in a couple of years”
Nick Harper responds, “Blimey, two years!?!?!? We are climbing it in 8 days!”

 

Click on the yellow flags to see where the team is today!