TOP TO BOTTOM • U-gan-da eat that? The crew chows on a snack of hard-earned pineapple at Camp 2. Have skis, will bushwhack. Loaded with both ski and jungle gear, the team heads toward the end of the road and the edge of Rwenzori Mountains National Park outside of Kilembe. Words and Photos Mary McIntyre THE Milky Way arcs through the African sky, providing enough light to silhouette the guard and his AK-47 against the horizon. I glance at him as I brush my teeth. He leans against his weapon, looking up at the stars while keeping an eye on the surrounding forest. The man is with the Ugandan Wildlife Authority, and he’s here because a few days ago vandals torched and looted the camp in which we’re currently staying. Our guides worry the criminals may still be in the area. Our trip to the African glaciers ahead may be over, without us ever having seen a hint of snow. valleys. The DRC side remains closed indefinitely; A Hutu extremist group, a remnant from the Rwandan genocide, still wanders the range’s eastern jungles. Past conflicts aside, our chances on the Margherita are quickly fading—or, more accurately, melting. In 1906, the range contained 43 named glaciers, covering more than 2.9 square miles. By 2006, the remaining four glaciers covered less than 0.4 square miles. As far as skiing potential, the only firsthand beta we could find came from a ski mountaineer more than a decade before. She described four turns worth of skiable snow, on a different glacier. It didn’t inspire much hope. As our group—Brody, Kasha Rigby, Robin Hill and myself—packed a few days earlier, we tempered our expectations to simply exploring the fabled Rwenzori Mountains. Now, three days into our journey, we have added a vandal attack to our list of uncertainties. I finish brushing my teeth and return to the cabin and my makeshift mattress of macheted bushes. Starlight pours through the large hole burned in the roof, and I count constellations before drifting off to sleep. If I’d heard the term “African glacier” a year before, I’d have assumed it was a joke. Then Brody Leven, a friend and ski mountaineer, invited me on a trip to Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains—a ski trip, to the range’s Margherita Glacier. Uganda is a country of 41.5 million, located in the east-central part of the continent, and the Rwenzori massif protrudes from the vast equatorial jungles in Uganda’s southwest corner. It is home to Margherita Peak, at 16,763 feet the country’s highest mountain and the third tallest in Africa. Add in 18 other peaks over 15,000 feet, and the range forms a natural border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Along with Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the Rwenzori also hold some of the conti-nent’s only glaciers. Margherita Peak is remote, but climbed enough to sup-port two guiding services, including the one we have enlisted, Rwenzori Trekking Services. The rest of the range remains largely unexplored. The Ugandan side has seen closures as recently as 2001, as the Allied Democratic Forces, a separat-ist rebel group, long operated out of the remote mountain 034 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume Eleven, Issue Three: Page 34
