Minto's - Pt. Lenana - Minto's

We were to start at 5am, so up at 4.15am.  Although  it didn't get as cold as it can do at Minto's, we certainly got some rain!  From 12am onwards it poured incessantly putting paid to most of our sleep.  When we peered out of the tent at 4am, the tent creaked with the weight of the snow that had covered it and the ground.

Richard was brave enough to venture out to the porters to see if we would still be able to go up.  Although he couldn't find them on his first attempt due to the mist, he did eventually  and we changed the schedule to leave at 6am.

Still cloudy, drizzling and cold, we clustered in our waterproofs to start the slow plod towards Pt. Lenana.  The porters looked much more relaxed without their heavy loads!  With soggy tents and still raining, Mick decided not to join us.

As we plodded up the valley the cloud dropped beneath us and we walked with views of the peaks and the cloud in the valley below. Reaching the end of the valley at the base of Pt. Lenana we started climbing steeply and it got a lot harder.  it was mostly steep scree and the thin air forced us to stop for breath regularly.

We climbed up into several hidden valleys and above pure icy mountain lakes.  The higher we climbed, the further we saw down to the cloud over Chogoria far below.  The last steep scramble took our minds off our legs, but the altitude kept us slow.

Finally we hauled ourselves, relieved and happy onto the summit.  Unfortunately the 30 minutes we spent at the top were shrouded in cloud, but we feasted on our snacks and had time for a group victory photo!

The sun went but it stayed clear as we headed down, giving us great views every stop of the way.  Although we were tired the descent went quickly and we were soon back in the valley above Minto's.  

We returned to Minto's exhausted, in beautiful sunshine.  Daniel had taken us to see the 'Temple', an astounding huge overhanging cliff - to be approached on all fours!!

It was a slow afternoon, drying out kit and resting from the walk.  More tiring trips were required to give us enough water from the lake, to be treated with iodine, which made it absolutely delisious!!  The water had the neat effect of turning blue when washing out the cup-a-soup mugs!

We finished the evening at 6pm with a dice game (Perudo) as we grew cold, tired but happy.

[Jonathan Hey]