Women's Expedition to Mt Kenya - 2000

On the 10th of January a team of women from the Cape Town section of the Mountain Club of South Africa set off to climb Mount Kenya.

Our inspiration for a women only trip came from the failure of Deshun Deysel's attempt to climb the mountain. She was the first South African woman to lead an expedition to Mount Kenya. Surely we could do better than that, and improve the image of South African women climbers. Also Mount Kenya, which offers long rock routes at altitude, would be a good place to gain more mountaineering experience. The other reason to climb as an all women team was that we would all be of equal strength and experience. We were all capable of leading the climb and if we got to the top we would know that nobody had dragged us up there.

We got our first glimpse of Mount Kenya arriving at the Naro Moru park gate. We arrived in the evening, the cloud had cleared off the mountain and the sun was setting on the peaks. It seemed like a promising start. Also the weather was perfect. It hadn't rained for two weeks and even the infamous Vertical Bog was completely dry.

We walked in very slowly, taking three days instead of the usual two to reach MacKinder's camp (4200m) which became our base. It seemed cleaner, warmer and more friendly than camping at the Austrian Hut (4800m).

The approach (peak in the distance). Photo: Kirsty Donald.

Looking up towards the summit from the Teleki valley. Photo: Kirsty Donald.

The dry weather ended with our arrival at MacKinder's camp and a definite pattern developed: Perfectly clear sunny mornings, clouds gathering by ten o'clock and snow starting anytime between ten and two o'clock. Then at four or five the clouds lifted and the evenings were clear again. The weather was our biggest concern when, after walking up Point Lenana (4985m) to acclimatise, we lugged our climbing gear up to the Austrian Hut, planning to climb the next day. We were all extremely reluctant to be caught out in a snowstorm, and we wanted a view from the top. Crossing the Lewis Glacier from the hut to the start of the climb was another worry as the four of us had limited snow and ice experience. We were glad we only heard the unfortunate story of the man who slid down the glacier and froze to death in the Curling Pond after our descent from the mountain. We were also anxious about the number of people planning to climb the next day and decided that if we weren't getting anywhere by ten o'clock we would turn around.

The next day started at 4:30 am with the most nauseating breakfast of the trip. Pronutro wasn't our favourite food (and a monkey had stolen the muesli we brought to mix with it). By mistake we'd turned all our purified water into cooldrink. Pronutro and Game - enough to turn anyone's stomach. From then on everything went well. We were across the glacier and at the start of the route by sunrise, although we were still behind a Kenyan guide, KG, and his client. Following them saved us some routefinding although we had to wait for them on the cruxes of the route. We simulclimbed in two parties of two, just belaying on the two crux pitches. Most of the climb is scrambling, made harder by the altitude. We just had to stop to gasp for breath. By eight o'clock we were halfway, crossing MacKinder's gendarme, where we swopped leads, and dropped into the shade to climb the crux, De Graaf's variation. This is a stunning pitch on perfect rock. I thought it was about grade 16 but with frozen fingers and thin air it felt hard. It was good to get moving after that and from there we followed an alternative route to avoid rockfall till we were on the summit of Nelion (5188m) at 10:30am.

Walking in a snow-storm on Point Lenana. Photo: Judy Moore.

Kirsty climbing on the standard route up Nelion. Photo: Judy Moore.

We stayed long enough to take photos, eat Winegums and realise we'd forgotten the celebratory whisky. Gathering clouds and snowflakes encouraged us to hurry down. It took eleven abseils and some scrambling to descend and we were back in the Austrian hut by two o'clock.

We slept well at MacKinders camp that night, happy with our climb. Confident with our ability to work well as a team we were looking forward to climbing the South-West ridge of Batian. Unfortunately, after we'd walked the summit circuit, we spent the rest of out stay building snow(wo)men, bouldering, playing hacky sack and staring out the window of MacKinder's Hut waiting for it to stop snowing. The biggest achievement of the trip was undoubtedly getting a double hack, at the last possible minute at the park gate!

The girls on the summit (Kirsty, Mary, Judy, Alison). Photo: Anon.

Homeward bound. Photo: Mary Jenner.

We left, inspired to go back, and looking forward to many more and bigger trips. Three days after we got back the four of us were climbing together on Fountain Ledge, enjoying our climbing and still good friends.