Oldonyo Lesatima

December 26, 2023

4001m

Aberdares National Park, Kenya

Oldonyo Lesatima, commonly known as “Mt. Satima” is the highest peak in Aberdare Range and is the first “ultra prominent peak” that Rob and I planned in this East Africa peak-bagging trip. The summit elevation is 4001 m and the trail-head is almost 3500 m. This hike felt longer and tougher than suggested by the stats as the entire 14 km was done in the higher altitude zone. In the previous day we ascended Mt. Kinangop which provided some acclimatization, but then we drove directly to Lesatima’s basecamp near the trail-head. There wasn’t enough time for us to recover from that exhausting 28-km outing.

The drive between Kinangop and Lesatima’s trail-heads took several hours. I was hoping to spend the night at one of the lodges at around 2400 m elevation, but we left the pavement and drove all the way past the park’s gate to the basecamp. The road was actually not too bad. We got to the basecamp in the dark and it was raining. Needless to say I was not in a good mood, but fortunately the tents were already set up for us so all we needed was to unload all the gears from the truck and move into the tent. Elijah said that we would spend two nights at this basecamp and there’s another truck coming to pick us up the day after Lesatima’s ascent. Rob and I had brought our own sleeping bag and mattress mostly for contingency and comfort, but that turned out to be a great decision. They did not provide us sleeping bags at this basecamp at all. We then moved into the dinning tent for a much-needed dinner. I’ve done enough guided trips by this point and I’m already starting to get familiar with the process.

Arriving at the 3430-m basecamp in the dark and in rain

Lesatima hiking route from the NW. G P X DL

The next morning we got out of the tent at around 7 am and the breakfast was ready in short time. There’s no need to rush as we had the entire day to do this 14-km hike, but I still wanted to get going earlier as the weather’s generally better in the morning. The basecamp was slightly under the trail-head so we had to walk an extra kilometer. The trail is very similar to Mt. Kinangop’s alpine section, but without that many swampy stretches. Lesatima is known to be swampy so Rob and I decided to wear boots this time. This turned out to be unnecessary as the trail was only “moderately swampy” and we were able to keep our feet dry entirely. I should have just worn the trail-runners to conserve energy. The hike was long and monotonous but en route we walked by some impressive rock towers.

This was our sleeping tent. It was quite roomy, thankfully

Plodding to the actual trail-head. Another group had already arrived

Looking back. There’s no wonder why the camp is called “Twin Peaks”

The terrain was wide and open, but monotonous

This is the most iconic rock spire in the vicinity

Rob actually tried that spire on the way down, but it’s technical at the top

We kept being distracted by the rock formation

Rob following the seemingly flat and endless trail

As you can see, the terrain is very gradual but also foreshortening

About halfway up we entered an area known as “Dragon’s Teeth”. I had to slow down considerably, partly due to the altitude and the lack of proper acclimatization and partly due to the cold that I caught travelling. Elijah apparently did not need to acclimatize and kept plodding without doing a single stop. I had to call for a break and slowed down to a snail’s pace for that final 100 m steep ascent onto the false summit. The false summit was to our left, but we would focus on the true summit first, which required another 15 minutes of plodding. There’s no more trail, but the terrain was wide and open. This hike was more scenic than we thought. The guiding company gave each of us two tortilla wraps and I carried mine all the way to the summit. Despite the altitude I was able to eat both wraps while sitting on the summit.

Entering that area known as “Dragon’s Teeth”

Passing the group that had parked their vehicle at the actual trail-head

Rob ascending through the Dragon’s Teeth

There are a lot of technical towers in the area

Looking back at the teeth. We traversed over the gap

Elijah leading us onto the upper half of the route

Me marching up with the Dragon’s Teeth behind

Looking back, those rock towers now looking tiny

About to start a long and gradual traverse to the next saddle

Getting higher than a subsidiary summit to the north

The final 100 m grunt onto the false summit

This is just a random view from the true summit.

Me on the true summit of Oldonyo Lesatima

On the way down we decided to check out that false summit for completion. Rob did multiple measurements and determined the true summit to be at least 10 m higher. Once leaving the false summit we made a single dash down to that Dragon’s Teeth area where I needed to take a break to regather some energy. I was feeling very weak. Lower down Rob decided spontaneously to scramble one of the rock towers whereas I took that as an oppourtunity to slowly descend to the camp by myself at my own pace. I finished the round trip in just over 5 hours and Rob and Elijah showed up about 10 minutes later. We then spent the rest of the day at this camp. It started to rain minutes after I got back to the camp and it stayed rainy, windy and cold. Killing the rest of the day at this 3430-m camp did not help the recovery and in fact, my symptoms actually got worse. It was a combination of cold/flu, a mild food poisoning, the 10-hour jetlag and the fact we did not acclimatize for the higher altitude. I managed to “tough it out” and nevertheless got this summit, but I was suffering a lot. In the following morning the breakfast was ready by 6 am and the truck came shortly after. It was still windy and cold so it took us a while to get ready, but by 6:30 am we had started the full day worth of driving northwards towards Mt. Kulal. Thankfully by descending rapidly to the lower altitude I was able to (mostly) recover, at last.