Ol Doinyo Lengai

This past weekend, 17 of the EWH students took a trip to Ol Doinyo Lengai. We trekked barefoot through a stream and around rocky banks to a beautiful waterfall before going to bed early on Saturday to prepare for a hike of Ol Doinyo Lengai (“Mountain of God”), an active volcano in Tanzania that last erupted in 2007.  Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only cold lava volcano in the world and the climb to the top is treacherous with an even more daunting descent. We slept at 9:30PM to wake up at 11PM and began the hike at midnight so that we would be able to catch the sunrise.  Hiking, climbing, and crawling up the mountain was the toughest single day climb I have accomplished and the view from the top of the Rift Valley was phenomenal.  The entire hike took my group around 10 hours including an hour nap on the way up and an hour at the summit to watch the sunrise.  The final crew of the day came in at 17 hours.  There was a water and food shortage on the climb, so KJ, Jason, and I hiked back up the mountain partway to bring supplies to some of the groups and added an extra 5 hours to our day.  The guides were Masai tribespeople who tackled the mountain with ease.  My guide, Elias, didn’t eat or drink anything the entire climb save a small box of apple juice at the summit. His endurance was unreal – especially considering how quickly he ran down the mountain.  After finishing, we all felt he easily could have summited again that day.  I don’t want to be too wordy trying to describe the top of the volcano and the view of the beautiful Rift Valley (fascinating history – read up HERE), so I’ll include the many pictures from our climb below. Enjoy!