Mount Kenya - Day 6

January 30, 2016 - Pt. Lenana summit (4985m) and descent to Shipton's Camp (4200m)

We got up just after 04:00 and had a "simple" breakfast, which consisted of french toast, coffee, and biscuits. After packing the camp, we left under headlamp at 05:30. We hiked along in the dark, Sammy leading the way along the faint trail. The sky began to brighten and we could see that there was an inversion layer of cloud at the lower elevations. As the sky was clear above, we hoped that it would stay that way to the summit. The frozen ground crunched under our feet as we remained in our layers as the pace while hiking at 4300m does not generate any significant amount of body heat. We began to climb about the same time that it got bright enough to switch off the lights. I climbed ahead watching the alpenglow of peaks and then finally a line of sunshine, creeping slowly downwards as I progressed upwards. I continued upwards, shivering slightly in the cold, but eventually crossed the sun boundary, and an instant wave of heat came over me. I stopped to de-layer, apply sunscreen, and then waited up for the others. They arrived and did the same. We continued on upwards to the col, where I scrambled a tiny peak here while waiting again for the others. A long scree traverse followed which brought us to the Austrian hut at 4800m and a great view of the Nellion spire. Sammy and I took a short walk past the hut to the top of the next ridge to get a view down to the MacKinder camp and Pt. John, which looked like a fun objective for another trip. After some food and water, we saddled up for the final 200m climb to the summit of Lenana. This was steep with some fun scrambling, though the thin air had you pausing to catch your breath after any move which required some strength. A via-feratta cable provided guidance on the route and the occasional bit of aid for some of the steeper ledges, but for the most part this was more of a tripping hazard than help. Near the top were a couple ladders and finally a sign designating this route as the world's highest via-feratta. A final ladder was climbed and we were on top of the third highest peak on Mt. Kenya at 4985m. Since we declined the sunrise-on-the-peak option that most groups do, we actually had the place to ourselves. We also got to witness all the view points on the way up that we would not have seen had we made the entire climb under headlamp. Since the weather was very fine, we spent a long time on the top taking photos, eating lunch, and relaxing in the sunshine. Finally we decided to go and make the long scree descent all the way down to Shipton's Camp. We passed one group slogging their way up the scree and we remarked that we were glad that we had done the scramble route up the south ridge instead of the slog from the north. Arrived at Shipton's after a six hour day, breathing in the relatively thicker air at 4200m. The crew had moved the camp while we were climbing and had set out a second breakfast of fried eggs, beans, pancakes, and yet more french toast for our return. We ate what we could, and then crashed for a few hours in the tent.

Sunrise on our ascent towards Point Lenana.