Upper Glacier Camp, altitude 18,300 feet. Hiking time: 7.5 hours — clearly the most challenging day going up! We hiked with helmets, maybe to protect our heads from small falling objects, but if you lost your footing, you knew the helmet wasn’t going to help much.

I remember two clear thoughts that day: “If I misstep, it will be my last,” and “I told Ann this hike had no steep drop-offs — WRONG!”

The air was so thin in the morning that the porters tied our shoes. Well, my boot was not tight, and at one point during the day I needed to stop and tighten it. Our leader wouldn’t let me stop. I kept pestering him, telling him the boot was loose and I needed to tighten it. He finally said, “At the snowline you can stop.”

Well, I was rather pissed off by the time we stopped. He understood. He turned to me and said, “Six people died out there several years ago. It just isn’t safe to stop there.” We were going over the Western Breach of Kilimanjaro — known to be dangerous and difficult.

Dave had to turn around shortly after leaving Arrow Glacier Camp. He had a stomach virus for the entire climb and was unable to continue.