 We don't achieve success alone. We succeed because of the people who surround us and show support for our hopes and dreams. This one is for every porter on the mountain, this is Mount Kilimanjaro. At 19,341 feet above the clouds stands Mount Kilimanjaro, Mlimma Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single freestanding mountain in the world. Out of the seven routes that take you up Mount Kilimanjaro, our hearts were set on the Machame route, a wonderfully diverse route, 37 miles long and 7 full days of trekking, and our adventure starts right here, right now. As we make our way out of Moshi, we get our first peak at the mountain and the thought that in a few days, you might be up there, you might be up high and you might be celebrating from the roof of Africa is mind-blowing. And then things get real at the Machame Gate. You see your bags that travel across the globe being passed along. You see your guides, busy with the paperwork. You see your teammates as excited as you are, if not more, your bags getting weighed and meticulously packed by the porters and it hits you. It hits you that this is as real as it gets. And that what used to be a dream, maybe for a very long time, might become a reality. All fueled with joy and excitement, we start our hike for the day from an elevation of 1,800 meters. The Machame route passes through five distinct climate zones and today we get to experience the rainforest. The rainforest jungle is simply amazing. Ancient trees coated in moss with every shade of green imaginable. Add to that some wildlife unique to the area. This is a perfect treat for a successful first day on the mountain. Our first breakfast this morning on the mountain and it's very, everything looks really appetizing and delicious. We've got fresh fruits early in the morning, local coffee, hot water to make drinks like hot chocolate and a bucket of peanut butter. And they're probably still bringing more. They have been feeding us quite a lot. We declined like Mount Kilimanjaro, sticking to a schedule is very important. As we were wrapping up breakfast, porters had already started packing and tearing down tents and ascending to our next camp for the day. A steep climb ahead of us today. We just left the camp where we spent the night yesterday. The Machame camp had a good breakfast and we are aiming for the Shira camp today. We have a lot of climbing to do, but we are so pumped to be here. Beautiful and gorgeous views of Mount Meru right in front of us. Mount Meru is a dormant stratovolcano located 70 kilometers west of Mount Kilimanjaro. On a clear day like today, you can see it from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. That first look at Mount Meru standing at 14,980 feet was jaw-dropping. Even more so when you realize that your destination, your final destination, the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro is standing way higher than Mount Meru. Leaving the rainforest behind, we continue our ascent crossing a small valley and up a steep rocky ridge. In the moorland zone, the temperature drops significantly, especially at night. Very few animals live here, but the views are out of this world. The landscape completely changed from where we started earlier. There's a lot of fog and it started to get a little bit chilly, but we only have about 400 feet of climb, which is not bad for how steep this section of the trail was today. We are almost to camp for day two and it feels great to be almost done for the day. We do have another acclimatization hike, but so excited to have some warm food. Just hang out here, explore the area. Every end of the day is well celebrated with some warm food. On the menu today, we have pasta, tasty meat sauce, a lot of fruit and hot drinks. Enough fuel to prepare for our short acclimatization hike. We just got to the end of our bonus hike, which is our acclimatization hike. Nothing too impressive really, but just to climb a couple of hundred feet and get adjusted to the high altitude in here. We did, however, see some vegetation that was unique to the area. We stopped by the Shira Cave and then we got to the end of the trail. Everything was covered in fog until the mountains started clearing up a little bit and you can see the peak of Mount Konimanjaro. Beautiful view and it's just surreal to think that in a matter of few days we will be up there. It's just incredible. For our group of eight climbers, it took 30 crew members to make it this far. Meeting for the first time with our crew, including porters, guides, assistant guides and chefs made us realize that you can't achieve success alone and that it truly takes a village to make it to the peak, any peak. It made us realize that success doesn't happen overnight. It happens day by day with forward progress, both large and small. Thank you. Thank you. I woke up today around 5.45 to use the bathroom and the view of Mount Meru was just amazing. The cloud conversion and the whole sky was just incredible. But even right now, as we get ready to have a breakfast and prepare to start hiking, the view is so gorgeous. It's just amazing to wake up to this view of Mount Meru. A very important thing for our morning ritual is this basket right here where we would place all of our water bottles, camel bags and then the porters would treat water just because we're not accustomed to the water in the area. They would fill them up, get them ready for us before we depart for our hike. And right behind me here is the breakfast, dinner and lunch hall. This is where we would gather the whole team to have our breakfast since this morning and also to have our health checked. Make sure that the levels of our oxygen are looking good. Make sure that we're not suffering of any symptoms like dizziness, headaches, severe headaches, nausea. I'm going to show you how that goes. Good morning. Are you eating okay? I am eating okay. Are you feeling tired? No. Are you feeling dizzy? No. How did you sleep? Fantastic. Fantastic. Like an old baby. Like an old baby, exactly. Take it off. Today's the hardest day so far. We leave Shirak Camp from an elevation of 3,850 meters and ascend to Lava Tower at 4,600 meters. For many of us this is the highest we have ever been. We are still ascending for the day. Today we're going to be spending about 4 hours to get to Lava Tower and then we will have lunch in there and then we will start descending. So 4 hours of hiking will take us to about 15,000 feet. So that will be the highest we have been on this hike. And I think the highest we've ever been other than Rainbow Mountain once in Peru, so pretty exciting. At this elevation the human body starts experiencing what's known as high altitude sickness. The higher we go up in altitude the thinner the air becomes the less oxygen there is for our body to consume. Symptoms of high altitude sickness vary from headaches, shortness of breath nausea and sleepiness. The most severe form of high altitude sickness is high altitude cerebral edema and it happens when there is fluid in the brain. This is a territory not made for the human body to thrive and yet we are eager to challenge our bodies and push ourselves to the limit. We entered the Alpine Desert Zone not too long ago less vegetation a little bit dry and living in Arizona I always find the desert to be very impressive but here it's so unique it's unlike anything that I've ever seen it's just amazing. We are about to start making our way up to Lava Tower and we have around 800 feet of climb so really looking forward to getting there because that's where we will have our hot lunch but boy we're climbing. Lava Tower is a 90 meter tall rock formation that was formed from Lava Way where Lava Tower was still an active volcano. The lava spurted out of vent, cooled and hardened plugging up the vent and creating what's known as a volcanic plug. We just made it to Lava Tower Camp I really love this camp especially the views of Lava Tower right behind me we had a very steep hike today but the good thing is on the way down getting to Barranco Camp we only going to go down for about 2 hours the majority of the camps right here on Mount Kilimanjaro they do have a lot of information about the name of the camps the elevation that you are at and how much time is going to take you to get to the next camp there's so much activity going on right here and I'm going to show you what the portals are up to. From Lava Tower we spent 2 hours descending to Barranco Camp this section of the trail is my favorite the landscape changes quickly to more vegetation and for the first time we get to see the famous Kilimanjaro Cinesio tree Here we have Cinesio Kilimanjarica we can also call this giant Cinesio Kilimanjarica it's one of the endemic species which means it founds only in Kilimanjaro these 3 live up to 50's so it lives longer according to the weather or the environment where it is I'll call it's one of the kind of smart plant also so since they are small they don't drop the leaves at all it stays there so that it can give the steam warm and if you take a look down underneath of the leaves they are fluffy kind of cotton so it gives the steam warm gives the steam warm and it really consumes lots of water so wherever you see this it must be close to river source so even where we are now we have river source surrounding this tree I want to show you 2 buckets of water that we left out yesterday and they are completely frozen this is one this is the second one it is day 4 of our adventure up Mount Kilimanjaro and it's very hard to believe that we are very close to summit day yesterday we finished our hike at Baranco camp this is where we are right now and I think this camp is my favorite so far I love that there are so many trees that are native to the area we had clear skies yesterday and we were able to see the mountain which was amazing I woke up late at night and I saw the sky so clear freezing cold but I took a moment to take a picture on my phone so sad to leave this camp behind but we have to get going today is going to be pretty exciting because we are going to get to the famous Baranco wall or the Kissen wall as people know it feeling good so far and I think they are waiting for me to get my health check done for the morning get breakfast get packing and get going we leave Baranco camp and our day starts with a fun scramble to the top of the great Baranco wall a steep climb that doesn't require technical skills but might look intimidating to some people step by step and with some help from the guides this scramble can turn into a fun adventure a section of the Baranco wall is named the Kissen wall in narrow section where you come face to face with some boulders get a big old smooch there you go it's really nice to sit here and look back to where we started our climb for the day it was quite a scramble to be fair it was fun I'd rather do this than just shug along for hours and hours uphill we did pass the Kissen wall which honestly was not as exposed as I thought but fun nonetheless so we have a little bit more climbing to do and we are looking forward to make a successful day on this climb how do you feel after climbing the Baranco wall I feel good I feel really good I feel pretty comfortable in this altitude I think some evenings after hard work your body can definitely start to feel like it's recovering slower and you notice that but when I'm on the hike I feel very good we have just made it to the top which is the highest point for today I think around 13800 feet beautiful views we can see Kilimanjaro very very very close it's amazing to even think that we would need a couple of days in order to get there and then the views of Mount Meru are just gorgeous we took so many photos up here the landscape is out of this world it's just a treat to be here the rest of the day is going to be a lot of downhill and we are going to sleep at a lower elevation today so we're finishing up day 4 we can see the camp in the distance and after you start the hike you really kind of go up and down and cruise around 13000 feet going up to 15000 or so and coming back down for a few days on Limachami route and we're kind of cutting through a little area of vegetation again here we're going to go drop down by the river and then we're going to go hit our camp for the day a short day which we're happy with but they're also trying to get us to to get some good rest tonight and tomorrow night so that we're ready for the summit day get my fingers very in the other guy's name so on our way to camp tonight there are two trails right behind me one of them switchbacks it looks really steep and then there is the other one that looks a little bit more gentle so our guides right here just told me that we will be taking the switchbacks up and then the other trail is dedicated for the porters and they will take it to get to the water source to fetch the water for us every single day poley poley slowly slowly in Swahili language it's the motto on Mount Kilimanjaro it's not a race up the mountain going slow allows your body to adjust to changes in the elevation and helps you preserve energy for harder days to come just made it to Karanga camp and I have to go over a group picture what a day today is day five of our adventure we stayed here at Karanga camp where we spent the night beautiful views of Mount Meru and the rest of the Moshi valley behind us today we've got a short trip four kilometers four and a half to base camp where we're going to get ready for our push to the summit after the day to day feeling like absolute shit but we're still going solid I've got my guide Ilyes here with me being very supportive and helpful and in front of us right here is a hefty climb to Baraf base camp and then from there get to Kosovo camp that's the camp where we'll be spending the night before the summit push just taking it slowly today not feeling the best but we'll do what we have at this altitude everything becomes difficult breathing is hard walking is hard stopping is hard talking is hard and it all comes down to how much you are willing to push through the pain can you dig deeper and find it in yourself to keep going and how bad do you really want it congratulate you for getting up here at the base camp this is the achievement as well good job for all of you yeah you are here with your good shape with your smiling faces the five of you still smiling up here at the base camp at the 1500 feet 1500 that is something to probably yeah today is summit day we started our push around midnight now a lot of sleep this is going to be the longest two miles of my life going very slow it's really exhausting we think that it would probably take around six hours to get to the summit over a peak but we'll see we're just taking a break right now and we'll get going a little bit here summit day is the most mentally and physically challenging part of the trek we leave Kosovo camp at an elevation of 4863 meters around midnight we start hiking through heavy loose up the mountain in below freezing temperatures in this cold morning the water in our bladders is completely frozen our electronics completely drained from the cold and the lack of sleep making every step a lot more difficult it is so very cold and we still have ways to go but I didn't want to miss the opportunity of showing you this beautiful sunrise here it's just so gorgeous I had to debate with myself for ten minutes should I start to get the phone but here we go fire sky we are close to Stella Point it is about half an hour or less left to get in there so from Stella Point it's going to be about an hour hike in time normally from Stella Point the hike is going to be more easier it's going to be easier the most difficult one hour and a half we are proud of you you are doing very well thank you so much Stella Point is located at 5732 meters getting to Stella Point itself is a huge accomplishment but that's not the end yet from there on it's a different type of excitement knowing that you are closer to the peak and a different type of pain too every person you pass is congratulating you already and encouraging you to keep pushing for they know that it's more of a mental game right now almost there congrats thank you I just can't wait to get there 20 minutes 15 minutes so tired so here we are the sign as we start seeing the sign from far away a wave of emotions hits no matter how strong and tough of a person you think you are no matter strong of a person you actually are you will break you'll start thinking about your reasons to be on the mountain the people who mean the most to you the hard work for months now to make it here to make it this far every moment of strength every moment of weakness all of the training to get here all of the sacrifices you had to make running out of juice and you are here you are here at Uhuru Peak Uhuru freedom in Swahili and freedom is what you feel standing at the roof of Africa freedom is what you feel knowing that you made it up here you pushed through the pain you conquered your fears and you didn't give up on yourself that is freedom we begin we started making our way down from the summit you would think that getting to the summit is the end of the hard work but descending is another level of concentration and physical activity and we have a very very long descent our goal right now is to get to Kosovo camp this is the same camp where we spent the night yesterday and then we'll take one hour nap we'll have lunch and then pack our stuff and we'll descend some more it's going to be a very very long day but we are very happy that we made this in the summit and we'll just push through I guess our prayer we're going to go we're going to go our last day we're going to go we're going to the summit we're going to go we're going to do a little walk and then we'll get down and we'll go we're going to go we're going to go down it's gonna take probably around three hours to get to the gate and then we're having a last sneak peek the mountain right there behind me really beautiful view of the mountain it's hard to believe that we were up there just yesterday we have just made it to muéka gate this is the last point for our very long trek and we all are very happy to have made it this far very much looking forward to take a shower warm meal and to enjoy the rest of Tanzania Ibariki Tanzania