BABU! HOW ARE YOU?

So, here it is! Read all about it! (Babu! how are you?) I had dragged myself up over the final ledge to summit Kilimanjaro. The dawn had just broken for the first time anywhere in Africa, as the sun rose over the Mwenza Peak, and we were dazzled by the exposure of the new day beneath our feet. We would soon have more of an opportunity than we would wish for to re-traverse all that scree and volcanic ash--like skiing through dry powder snow, if the powder were dirty and stuck to your nose. But for now, it is time to celebrate by taking a few pictures--if only I can move my fingers.

To keep the batteries in the cameras working ( a serious mountain photographer should rely upon mechanical, not electrical, exposures) we had carried the camera inside the parka during the ascent to keep them warm. When I tried to take the camera out of the parka's lining, a strange thing happened that had me puzzled for an inordinate amount of time. As I struggled with the zipper of the shell (see the essay on anything that requires two hands to accomplish!) I found to my puzzlement that it was snowing around me. Just around me, around no one else. I felt like Joe Blifstik, the cartoon character, who always had a cloud hanging over him.

I slowly figured it out, that all the condensation that had built up inside the windbreaker, froze directly in the arid frigid air, and whirled away in snowflakes. Had I been at a lower elevation and a higher temperature and a richer atmosphere--whatever happened in terms of my "personal snowstorm" I would have figured it out sooner!