February 2, 2006: Morning, Day 2

Insomnia is often an indication that altitude is affecting your body. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem for me, at least at this point. It seemed as if it was still dark outside when I woke to the sound of pots rattling and clanging as the cooks began to prepare breakfast. The air was cool, but the moisture inside our tent hadn't frozen, indicating that temperatures hadn't dipped much below freezing, at least to any significant extent.

I rolled out of the tent to see what morning had brought. I wasn't disappointed. The clouds had lifted from the previous night. The rising sun cast a pink hue across the high flying cirrus clouds. Looking to the northeast, Kibo, the peak of Kilimanjaro, appeared for the first time since we had started our climb.


[Photos, top: looking northeast, Kibo is visible to the left of the picture; bottom: the glacier streaked Kibo, sitting 9000 feet above our current position at Machame camp]

Mount Meru again served as our beacon to the west (below)