And you thought "cattle class" was bad...

On the heels of booking my "cattle-class" T fare on NWA/KLM, I find this gem:

United Airlines Exploring Viability Of Stacking Them Like Cordwood

It's On Like Donkey Kong

My AmEx is a bit warm now, because I just booked my tickets.

Non-refundable too, so it's on!

Kayak was very helpful. Orbitz not so much. it would show me some good flight options, then say it wasn't available.... and show it to me again!!

I'm sure AMS (Amsterdam-Schiphol) is nice, but I don't wanna spend 5-6hrs there on the way home. I know DTW (Detroit) is dull, but it beats going through JFK.

Cheap fare probably means I'll get the crappiest seat on the plane. I'm thinking I'll need a small Rx for Ambien would be nice.

"Oooh, I'm jealous!"

Who said that to me?

National Geographic photographer David Evans.

I met him at an alumni event up here in DC last week, where he showed some of his pics and talked about life as a globetrotting photog.

Now, this dude's been all over the place: Chad, Brazil, Romania, China. For a living. And he tells me he's jealous of my Kili trek. Wow.

I got to pick his brain a bit about lenses. I was thinking about getting a wide-angle zoom. He suggested I look at fixed focal-length lenses, but said the jack-of-all-trades kit lens I had (18-135mm Nikon AF) might do just fine as a travel solution. Changing lenses in the bush can be risky.

I also asked him if telecoverters were worth it. The answer was pretty diplomatic: He didn't think so. (Then again, he can justify buying top-shelf telephoto glass and has no need for them). "But try it. If it works for you, great!"

So OK, I'll give the teleconverter a miss. Time to shop for a lens. :)

Trivia Dump

This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but my brain is a shop-vac for pointless trivia. Planning for a trip just gives me more arcane trivia to pick up.

What I've remembered so far:

• Tanzania was formed in 1964 with the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (hence "Tanzania")
• It was once a German colony
• Flying from DCA to JRO will take anywhere from 22-24hrs
  
• The unit of currency is the shilling.
• Current exchange rate: US$1 = 1,313 TZS
• Therefore, if you have $762 to your name, you can be a millionaire in Tanzania.
• Kilimanjaro is the largest free-standing mountain in the world, and is composed of three volcanic cones: Shira (extinct), Kibo (dormant and the tallest) and Mawenzi (extinct)
• The summit is called Uhuru Peak and is at an elevation of 5892m (19,331ft)
• Fastest ascent: 5hrs, 38min
• An average of 10 climbers die on Kili's slopes each year
• Three climbers were killed in a rockslide on the Western Breach in 2006. (Yours truly is going up the Western Breach.)
  

Kili Book Reviews, Part I

Kilimanjaro: The Trekking Guide to Africa’s Highest Mountain by Henry Stedman

I ran around looking for a recent-edition book on Kilimanjaro before I even booked the trip. A freind who climbed Kili recommended this as one of several books to read.
(Sidebar: Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro made the "do not read" list.)

The book is in its 2nd edition (2006) but he has a companion website with updates, and the 3rd edition streets in late December. I was initially disappointed to be getting an "old" version, but it was a great read and very useful.

It's a very thorough book, as Henry has climed Kili using every available route. He also covers how to get there, places to stay, things you'll see, the history of Kili and the tribes who live around it ... I'm hard pressed to think of anything he's missed.

Well, a Swahili pronunciation guide would be nice...

"But Why?"

"Why on Earth do you want to climb Kilimanjaro?"

I knew someone would ask me this. It was a friend of my dad's, who admittedly isn't much of a traveler. I wasn't sure how to answer him.

I could say...

1. I wanted to climb it before the glaciers disappear.

2. It's one of the only Seven Summits I will ever be able to climb.

3. "Because it's there!" And in the spirit of George Mallory, I could say it exasperatedly.
(Seriously. That was his answer to a pesky reporter in 1924 who didn't seem to accept all his other reasons for wanting to scale a big snow-covered rock called Mt Everest.)

I truth, it's all three, and then some.

(But I chose number 3. The smart-assedness runs deep.)

The Outfitter I Picked

You can't go barreling up Kilimanjaro without a guide. Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) won't let you. And you'll probably want a few porters to carry some of your stuff, in "great white hunter" style.

And not wanting to do this on the cheap, I signed on with an outfitter that runs scheduled treks.

After much looking around, I picked Kiliwarriors, a Tanzanian-owned outfit.

I found them while I was working for ASTA several years ago. They wanted to be included in a section for travel suppliers on our member Web site. Since many of these suppliers weren't native English speakers (or writers) I usually went to their sites to lift a few images and hack together a page for them. I was very impressed with the way they did things (good wages for the hired help, eco-friendly, and generally being straight-shooters).

I thought if I go to climb Kili – and I knew I would one day – I want to climb with these folks.

Fast forward about 5 years. It had been a few years since my last epic trip and I was itching for another one. A project I'm on looks like it will end early summer of 2010, and I'm racking up paid time off like a madman, so it seemed like a good time to go. I did a little research on other firms, but kept coming back to Kiliwarriors. No slick brochures (you have to download it as a PDF) or free DVDs (they have one for $20 or so from Amazon) but I like them even more for it.

$500 says I'm gonna climb Kilimanjaro

Well, I've up and done it. After some research, I plunked down a $500 deposit to climb Kilimanjaro in June 2010.

Ultimately I hope to write about the trip, but this far out it will be about what I'm learning about Kili, Tanzania, booking a trip and so on.

More to come. I swear!