#10255 Bundling Up on the Equator in Kenya

Most people don’t associate winter clothing with tropical travel, but pack your long-johns for a bracing ascent of Point Lenana, Mt. Kenya’s third-highest peak. While the twin towers of Batian (17,058 ft) and Nelion (17,022 ft) are accessible only to climbers with technical expertise, Lenana (16,355 ft) is attainable by any reasonably fit adventurer. Awakened at 3 a.m. for the final day’s climb, hikers stumble out of a bare bunkhouse into the frigid darkness. The space between stars is diminished here, and this makes the tough slog up the scree somehow more tolerable. Then, as the sun breaks out over the blanket of clouds far below, you step out onto the peak and enjoy your reward. Away to the south is the immense bulk of Kilimanjaro, and at your feet are the impossible blue-greens of the Afro-alpine tarns and the dizzying whites of Lewis Glacier.