Mt. Kilimanjaro: Day 4

Today we hiked from Camp 3 (Barranco Camp) at 12000 feet to Camp 4 (Barafu Camp), the base camp at 15,500 feet for most attempts to climb Kilimanjaro. The days hike was quite strenous. First left the Barranco camp vie the Barranco Wall, a steep valcanic side to the valley. Several sections must be navigated using hand and foot holds so we did not use our Treking poles. Climbing out this trail was challenging in it self, but it was made more so because porters moving camp supplies had the right of way, so we had to find someplace to squeeze into as dozens and dozens of porters went by.
After reaching the valley rim we then descended about 1000 feet to 2 dry valleys. Thus by the time we reached Barafu, we had climbed about 4500 feet, almost exactly what we would need to do to reach the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro later that night.
The 7 mile hike between camps was mainly through high mt. desert. In some places only lichens, and grass in the wind shadow or rocks grew.
Barafu Camp, was the highest, coldest, and least attractive camp. Set on a narrow ridge of shocked volcanic rock ledges, there were few flat spots for tents and long trecks to the outhouses. There was also no water, so the porters had to hike about 8 miles round trip to get water for cooking.
As the 6 members of my hiking group ate dinner, we were not in the best of spirits. It was the coldest night so far with frost forming by 7:00 PM, several of us, including me, had altitude related headaches, all of us had lost our appetites and we were forcing food down. To top it off, our guide explained that we will be awakened at 11:00 PM for dinner, then we should gear up for the climb which would start at midnight and was expected to take 6-7 hrs! That meant at best we get 3,5 hrs of sleep (actually because of noise in the camp I only got 1.5 hrs of sleep). For the first time we were asking each other at dinner: can we really make it to the top?