Up with tea at 6:30 in the tent, breakfast at 7:30. Facing the dreaded Barranco Wall (one of the three things about all this that made me most nervous). Just before we left (poles stashed because you need hands free to haul yourself up), I asked Johnny if the path we were looking at WAS the Barranco Wall, or if it was at the top of the path. Turns out the path was the wall, and I felt better as it looked easier than I had imagined (see pic below). It took us two hours to get to the top because we waited a long time for porters to pass. I think Johnny was annoyed with me for stopping for them, but there was no way I wanted to compete with them for the limited space! We later learned that a new porter, aged 25 with two young children, died by falling off this trail. He apparently had never climbed the mountain before signing on for this job, got altitude sickness (dizziness), and fell off.
We were told the rest of the day was all downhill to Karanga Camp with a bit of uphill at the end. So we clambered over a bunch of glacial moraines, a stark vegetation-free landscape until we came to a very steep downhill to a river and then up the other side. The downhill was mostly scrambling down boulders and very steep, and I took 2 ibuprofen at lunch because my knees hurt for the first time since I started all this! The promised 4 hours turned into 5+ and then we got to clean up and rest for the rest of the afternoon. Total of 4.5 miles and net 1000 foot ascent.
Pics: (1) The Barranco Wall (2) Barranco Camp (3) at the top of Barranco Wall (4) Our group at the top of the wall (5) Approaching Karanga Camp
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