The view less than half way up to Point Lenana of our 14200ft camp before we entered the clouds.
(In the linked full version you can just make out my orange and blue tent.)
It isn’t natural for us to mention that we were the only ones around but we were for almost the entire trip, from the first day until the last. Early to mid-May seems to be a major lull time for Kenyan tourism. We met a solo unrelated climber at base camp coming down, other than that the lofty camps, grandiose panoramas, and long drops (pseudo-toilets; glorified holes) were totally ours. Our tents were undisturbed. The long hike with no car access and third-world conditions meant that even an air vessel would be foreign to the environment in which we found ourselves. This exclusivity added a certain air to the trip that I’ve rarely felt at a US National Park.
Going down the mountain was significantly harder than going up in a way. There were some perks though at some places and boggy, seaping muck in others. On the loose gravel on the way down from the summit, Willis showed us how to essentially ski down. I loved it. Willis, Adam and I were the only ones that followed through all the way with the technique.
!http://tappan.wcp.muohio.edu/~thad/photos/qdig-files/converted-images/qdig-files/01%20Mountain/The%20Top/Thad/med_100_11161.jpg!
We wait for the rest.
I can’t wait to see whether Willis’ photos turned out from my freestyle rock skiing. It’ll probably be until late August though when we all get back to school.
The air at 14k ft that night felt lie syrup compared to the summit! Even that was just a spoonful of the difference between this point and ground level at 4,000ft.
We got up mighty early for the rest of the descent the next day. I roused everyone at 3:00am; thats an hour after the target leave time and I weathered the flak which came in–”I can’t believe Thad was the one we had to wake us up.” I had actually been up since 2 but I couldn’t understand why willis hadn’t awoken us yet so I waited, heh…
!http://tappan.wcp.muohio.edu/~thad/photos/qdig-files/converted-images/qdig-files/01%20Mountain/The%20Top/Thad/med_100_1133.jpg!
HIking in the dark was easier than the daylight but only because you didn’t think at all. You couldn’t see far, you could only put one foot in front of the next. Our single file line meandered down the distance covered in the previously 10hr hike in something like 4 hours.
When we got back to the gate we saw something unexpected.
!http://tappan.wcp.muohio.edu/~thad/photos/qdig-files/converted-images/qdig-files/01%20Mountain/Down%20again/med_ivory1.jpg!
Yes, that is park rangers cleaning ivory. Evidently, in the three days while we were up the mountain a guy in the park had been gored. The rangers had to hunt down the elephant and kill it, kind of like they do with bears, just in case. We didn’t know that though–we thought Oh Crap, I’m just gonna sneak by and snap this picture from my waist as if I’m not really seeing this. Please don’t kill us, poacher people! Of course we later found out the true story. Willis says the parks have a deal with some philanthropic organizations which in turn buy up the ivory at a fair price (to compensate the park workers and deprecate corruption) and then incinerates it to prevent illegal trade.
We started from 7,000ft at the park entrance, and at about 8,000 we took our packs and food out of the car where it couldn’t make it any farther up the muddy roads in the steadily strengthening afternoon drizzle. By the end of that day we made it to 10,000ft and base camp. 
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