It turned out to be an extraordinary adventure. After setting out at 1 am on the 13th of December, we reached Gillman's point 18700 feet at 6.30 am in sunlight, but we didn't get to see Africa spread out before us as we had hoped. What a grueling 600 feet through lots of new snow and white out conditions. At one point my glasses steamed over and I could hardly see in front of me.
Any slip form the path meant a foot disappearing into several feet of snow.
The effort to retrieve a foot at that altitude is a killer. All ten of us summated and walked a total a total distance of 60 miles across Kilimanjaro over the six days. At the summit we took some photos of each other, left thoughts of our friends and then started to head down the Mweka trail to the south side and reached our camp at 9000 feet at 6pm. What a long day - 15 hours of hiking up and down Kili. He didn't learn how to hyperventilate and he paid a stiff price as his heart raced passed 170 bpm.