Mount Kenya - Day 5

January 29, 2016 - East ridge of The Hat (4500m) and return to Hall Tarns (4300m)

Katharina was having indigestion last night around supper time so we decided to pull the pin on Pt. Lenana and sleep in. In the morning she was feeling much better, so we decided to stay at Hall Tarns, but move the camp down to the lower meadow which is nicer and hopefully quieter. After breakfast we instructed the porters to do the move, while Sammy, Kat, and I started hiking through the lobelias up a fairly gentle scree and boulder field towards the east ridge of The Hat. At the col, we ditched our poles and the white people donned helmets for the next bit of easy scrambling over rocks and scree up to the base of the impressive spire. Here we put on our harnesses and Sammy sat down to wait while we climbed. The first half was a third class scramble with a couple places with some tricky moves. The next part was solid 4th or easy but exposed 5th, so we decided to pitch it out. I led the single pitch right to the top and enjoyed the 360 degree view from this tiny perch. Kat easily followed and we took some pictures from the summit. We debated down climbing the route, but as both of us were somewhat fuzzy headed at 4500m, we decided to rappel instead. It took two rappels to get back down the technical section and I left behind two slings, a carabiner, and a rap-ring. Unfortunately I did not bring a lot of spare gear, so the loss of the 5m sling might cause us grief later. The third class section was easier down climbed than it was on the ascent where we met Sammy at the bottom, who had found himself a nice perch with a view. After a snack, we made the descent back to camp. This went very quickly as we could boot ski the scree most of the way which is an easy way to lose elevation quickly. The crew had watched us from the camp during our climb and descent and had set out a lunch of fried cabbage, french fries, and vegetable stew. Today completes our acclimatization schedule.

Another group, all packed up for shopping on a mountain.

The east ridge of The Hat. Our objective for the day.

Funny rocks on the way up.

Boulder and scree scrambling.

Scrambling higher on the spire.

Summit of the east ridge.

Rappelling off.

Sammy waiting for us to finish the climb.

The rock family portrait (photo-bombed by an ostritch lobelia).

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