Days 13 & 14 were updated subsequent to the adventures.

Day 13 - Summit bid

After repeated consultation with our technical guide Simon, it was decided that we would awake at 05:00 and start our climb at 06:00 with first light. This of course is a standard "Africa-Time" approach, but I must say that we were literally at the cliff face by 06:00.

Starting a climb on Mt. Kenya is a momentous experience. It's a big mountain which stares you in the face from the moment you arrive. There's no running away from it. Not that running away from it ever featured in our plans... it would just have been a nice comfortable position to take. Our introduction was swift and without ceremony, climbing just over an hour on the first 50 meters. Our communication was slow to fall into any pattern and many an instruction was ignored simply because it didn't sound familiar to us. By about mid-morning we started falling into a steady pattern of clipping onto rope, climbing, locking onto anchor, clipping off rope etc etc. These terms may not sound familiar to many of you, but they've become second nature to us.

Taking the north face of Batian was never our first choice. It holds some formiddable obstacles which could keep one busy for most of the day, if not put an end to any unprepared approach. By around 3:00 pm we reached our first major obstacle, Firmin Tower. The standard approach would be head-on and for experienced climbers. The High on Africa team opted for another option, available only due to the lack of snow, luckily. The previous day we witnessed a few colourfull specks on the Firmin Tower, 3 South Africans as it turned out. They had spent two days trying to get over the tower. With neither the luxury of time or experience, we skirted around the west of the tower and managed to top out in just over two hours. Feeling the effects of climbing for most of the day, we duly finished most of the water we were carrying, making sure we left enough for dinner. We had factored in a biviouac near the top, on Point Nelion. Our plan was to get snow near the summit to melt for cooking and drinking water. Plans made in Africa stand a better chance of being tested to their maximum.

By 20:00 we were still short of any significant targets, still climbing and not so strong. We had been concentrating so hard on climbing, that darkness came very suddenly and unexpectedly. We found ourselves very stuck on a tower called Shipton's Notch in complete darkness. The temperature hovered just below zero and we were extremely exposed. We couldn't stay there and the guide went ahead to scout for suitable biviouac terrain. He found none. We decided to abseil back down the mountain where earlier, we had passed a good flat area. Coming down a mountain in darkness is difficult and progress was very slow. We finally set up a safe "bivvy" by 10:00 pm and I proceeded to prepare dinner. Quite a luxurious affair given the fact that we had planned for it. We turned in for the night and survived our first unsheltered night at around 5000m. The temperature luckily didn't fall below zero and we had a relatively comfortable night.