Trek day 5: Kibo huts to summit and return to Horombo

This is the big day. At least a year in planning, training, kit preparation and sponsorship chasing has all been targeted at getting to the summit of Kilimanjaro. We awoke at 10pm and after a brief meal we set off for the summit at 11pm in the light of a full moon so no need for the headtorches, initially. We walked in single file behind the head guide, taking very small steps. The first 800m ascent was a zig zag route up scree. At 5,360m Nick was showing symptoms of altitude sickness and it became clear that it would be dangerous to proceed higher. Wayne linked arms with Nick and helped him back to Kibo huts. Nick writes 'while this was the end of my summit campaign my first priority is to my family. As we said yesterday there would be no heroes'. The rest of the party made it up to Gilman's Point: 5,681m before sunrise. The ascent to this point including clambering over boulders which after the 800m scree ascent was finally exhausting for Mike,Phil and Dalton. They agreed that pushing further to Uhuru Peak at 5895m was not an option and called it a day there. Dalton writes ' about an hour from Gilman's Point I was feeling the effects of altitude but thinking about the team, the families supported by Shooting star, my own family and the memories of my father and my Uncle Johnnie, spurred me on to continue'. Mike and Phil are currently getting some rare and well earned sleep so will comment tomorrow. So it was left to Darren and Joycey to take the Team Shooting Star banner to the summit. Their experience and photographic record will make fantastic reading and viewing. We will put photos on the blog shortly. Joycey writes 'it was the most breathtaking scenery that I had ever seen which would have been great to have shared with the whole team. Reaching the summit was a great achievement for the team but also a personal success which could not have been achieved without the support of my family. This is the first leg of my dual challenge which completes with the London Marathon in less than two weeks and has been the best possible training for it. Darren writes 'having spent the whole day travelling to Kibo huts I was exhausted and excited at the same time and unable to sleep in the four hours allotted. The trek to the summit was a gruelling journey. My motivation had always been to reach the summit for Team Shooting Star and this was further endorsed when others weren't able to continue. The fact that only two of us out of the five made the top only highlights the difficulty of the challenge. Each step from Gilman's Point to Uhuru Peak was painful but somehow made insignificant due to the magical views. Reaching the top was an emotional experience and I did cry (a little). I shall always remember this experience not least the six hours to get back to Horombo huts.'
We all reunited at Horombo huts, full of emotion and stories, rejoicing in shared success and happy that we were all safely off the mountain. It's fair to say that the text books are correct when they say that this challenge is the hardest thing you'll ever do.