Crater Glacier

Crater Floor, Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania

Appearing to sit on sand, this fifty foot tall glacier rests on crushed volcanic rock at eighteen thousand five hundred feet in the crater floor of the highest free standing mountain in the world.

Having started one of the hardest hikes in the world in the cloud forest seven days before, I reached the summit of Uhuru Peak at nineteen thousand three hundred feet. I ran down the scree of the crater wall (which can be seen behind the glacier) to the floor.

I hiked the crater floor photographing the Western Breech and this spur of a giant compacted snowfield that surrounded the massive lava cone in the center of the three mile wide crater, finally stopping for dinner at the summit camp.