Mt. Ololokwe Climb (via "Guiness and Goat route) - December 2024

 Let me tell you the tale of when I climbed Mt. Ololokwe, the Guiness and Goat route.

So one day I’m sitting at home, Christmas break, nothing to do. I get a text from none other than Simon Maina, my guide friend from Mt. Kenya. 

“Peter Naituli is up in Samburu for a wedding, he wants to know if you if you want to climb Mt. Ololokwe, but you have to get there by tomorrow.”

I knew this was an opportunity that might not present itself ever again, and I had to seize it.

So one time in 2022, I was hiking this mountain with Jackson, and we met a dude called Forest, and we watched him rappel down the same route from this cave, and then he climbed back up solo. And it was so EPIC. And I said to myself

“One day I’m gonna come back here and climb this beast.”

I had to quickly get myself organized so I could leave the following morning. Naituli only had his basic gear with him so I had to make a pit stop in Naro Moru to grab a second rope from Simon.

Naitulie and I met up just outside of Nanyuki at a farm of a friend of his. My first impression of him was “holy shit, this guy’s tricepts are insane.”

Like, I’ve never seen a dude so authentically jacked. You don't get this way from just lifting weights. So we immediately hit it off and I knew that I had found a rare kindred spirit. Our whole life philosophy was on the same wavelength. Our love for calisthenics, our endless pursuit of goals and milestones...

So we drove up to Samburu and we had to pick up a local Samburu guide called Simon. Naituli directed me along some dirt roads white a bit off the highway, turn left turn right, in the dark...I have no idea how he knew that way. Then he got out and walked off somewhere for a few minutes then reappeared with our guide.

Simon directed us to a little-known bush camp, not the Sabache camp but another one run by the locals. It was evident that we were in the domain of Elephants, judging by the many droppings and mashed up trees as well as the distant crashing sounds. African scops owls serenated us to sleep.

At 5:30 we woke up and got our selves organized and started the bush-wack from Hell up to the base of the cliff. Along the way many branches were slapping me in the face and at one point a twig slapped me in the eye and I thought I had a serious scratch but it went away. Then we got further and I realized my helmet had fallen off of my bag because it wasn’t fully clipped on. Simon was able to backtrack and find it and we were on our way.

At last it was nearly 10 and we got to the base of the cliff and Naituli gave me a little briefing. He was not impressed. I guess my knowledge was a little rusty and I needed a few more reminders than he expected. “What is the golden rule of belaying?” he asked. “Never let go of the dead rope?” I said. “Well at least you know that!” Seemingly satisfied with my readiness, he disappeared up the cliff.

I have to be honest, I was shaking a little bit during the 1^st pitch, just cause of the scale of this cliff, and just how flat the rock was, like there weren’t many holds, and you had to use the friction of your shoes and there were like some tiny little ledges that were like crimps kinda, and lots of spots where you had to just put your toe on the rock and hope it doesn’t slip.

So by the second pitch the shaking went away and I had a nice rhythm going and I felt really calm and I remember feeling this emotion of being really happy and at peace. We were moving like a well oiled machine, efficient.

I was having the time of my life

So some of these pitches, to give an idea, were pretty long, like one was 45m and one was 50m long. And some of the runs were oooooffff I don’t remember exactly but maybe like 10m, between camps, and there weren’t very many cracks so we ended up not using any nuts (except the ones between our own legs).

So there were times when Naituli just disappeared and I could barely hear him. Sometimes I could barely make out him screaming “CLIMB WHEN READY” and once or twice I couldn’t even hear him at all but I could feel the rope get tight and a couple of tugs, and that’s how I knew it was time to climb.

By halfway up we were in a smooth cruising mode and super excited and just enjoying the epicness of it and I knew I might never do this again so I really focused on being present in the moment and taking it all in. I could actually understand why this mountain is sacred to the Samburu, because I could feel a deep sense of reverence for this mountain. And it wasn’t so much like I was conquering but more like I was finding harmony with it.

So Naituli is an extremely competent guide and has actually done this as a free solo and of course the leader takes all the risk so I can’t brag too much about it, but I did feel pretty good about myself when we reached the cave at the top. A couple of birds tried to distract me, there were stone partridges, a stripe-breasted seedeater and a cliff chat.  but I was pretty locked in so I had like a 3 second view then cracked on with the mission.

So the last little bit you had to climb up this tree root and you didn’t need any rope so I guess that counts as pitch 7, I took a moment to thank Naituli. The guide/client relationship on a mountaineering trip is quite a bit more important than on your average hike or safari, , it demands a serious amount of responsibility by both people, cause there could be deadly consequences. I think I measured up.

We weren’t done yet, getting back down was a whole other ordeal that’s a whole other story I won’t include in the video. The logical celly was to head to Archer’s Post for some Nyama Choma, we absolutely demolished a couple of kilos of meat before crashing at the local hotel.

The next morning it was already over and we said our goodbye. It was kind of a bitter sweet moment because it’s very rare that you meet someone that so closely shares your vision. Especially our endless pursuit of physical goals, and the need for quests that emanate from the depths of our souls. This is a dude who will, in the middle of the hike, spot a cool ledge and just bust out a few one-armed pullups, just for the fun of it. So you can see why we got along. I had a feeling like I wouldn’t see Naituli for a long time or ever again, cause the guy is pretty busy. 

But, the memory of this epic climb will sit in my soul like an ember waiting to be rekindled.