A writer for the Honolulu Advertiser recounts:

At 18,000 feet, the altitude ambushed me. I could barely breathe, and my water bottles were frozen solid. My head pulsed, my legs wobbled like a newborn calf’s and I saw things that were not there. Then I started throwing up and falling down.

As we reached the summit, however, I saw the most amazing sunrise.

A bright orange orb burst through a bumpy white blanket of clouds that encircled the mountain. The ice field and glacier glistened white and orange in the morning light.

Yatin and I were able to force smiles through bleeding, wind-burned lips before I puked again.

Ah, the mystique of Africa.