Ras Dashin: Day 1

It was really happening, we were setting out on an adventure that would take us to the top of Ethiopia. After a restful night of sleep, we all jumped in our mini bus and headed two hours away to the town of Debark. There, we all registered into Simien Mountains National Park, picked up supplies, and most importantly, met up with our guide and scout.

Our guide, Dashin or Dajin, would lead the way and ensure we made it to the top. He spoke great English and was able to educate us about the wildlife and flora in the park. Our scout, Yayu, would be responsible for keeping us safe, carrying the bag of whoever was the most tired (usually me), making us laugh, and being all around the coolest guy ever. He spoke no English.

As we finished up in Debark, some might say debarked from Debark, we piled back into the car and headed up an unpaved road to get to our starting point. I think it was around this time our guide and scout sized us up and made some assumptions about the trip. This was mostly due to Michael, Joe, and Zach having an epic tickle fight, nay, tickle war in the van. Dashin/Dajin tried to not acknowledge what was going on but I am confident he thought, “Oh god, I’m going to have to spend the next 5 straight days with these people”. Yayu on the other hand was giggling, and we all knew we were instant friends.

We arrived at our starting point- all excited to begin what, at certain points in the previous months, seemed like an impossibility. We unloaded our gear and organized a bit. We would carry daypacks with essentials- water, sunscreen, hats, etc. while the rest of it would be packed onto mules and taken to our campsites separately. In all, for six people to climb the mountain, it took one guide, one scout, three cooks, four mule handlers, and four mules. I still feel like it was a bit much, but we trusted they knew best.

As we started walking, we quickly came to a ridge that looked over a huge section of Simien Mountains National Park. The ridge must have been a 500-meter drop and made the whole scene more dramatic. Without a doubt, the view from that ridge is the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever witnessed. Layers and layers of hills and ridges going on for as far as the eye could see. The sheer vastness and beauty of it quickly silenced us all- a difficult task given the six of us. No one in the group had ever been to the Grand Canyon so no one could compare, but I suspect it is a much grander version of the US treasure.

We walked for the next few hours to our campsite for the night. We were moving at a pretty fast pace, as if Dashin/Dajin wanted to test our fitness levels. Fortunately, at some moments, the scenery was so incredible we had to stop to take some photos. I appreciated these views not only for their beauty but each of these places represent a spot where I was able to catch my breath.

Yayu is amazing and this photo with Danielle should be on every PC pamphlet

We eventually made it to the campsite, which overlooked a gorgeous golden valley. Not a bad place to sleep on my first camping trip ever.

One perk of the tour company we used was that everything was set up for us- all we had to do each day was walk. Upon reaching our campsite, all of our tents were set up and coffee, tea, and snacks were waiting for us. This particular night was not my favorite. If I am in the sun too much without taking certain precautions (hat and scarf to block out the sun), I get terrible headaches. Sure enough, I ended up with a miserable one. With the sun going down and the temperate getting frigid, I decided my day was going to end early. As everyone else was eating dinner and relishing the day, I was in my tent sleeping and hoping this would not be a pattern for the trip.

A few notes for going forward…

• Simien Mountains National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and everyone in the world should go there at some point in his or her life. Alright, that is unrealistic, but seriously, it is amazing. The Simien Mountains are a range of mountains often referred to as the “Roof of Africa”. In this range, there are some of the tallest mountains in Africa. So while Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is much taller, this is like a giant mountain plateau. The result is the terrain of this trip was crazy difficult.

Here is your average mountain. To summit, you need to climb up for however long it takes and then go back down.

Our mountain would be the fifth one from the left. All this is to say, in climbing Ras Dashin, the tallest mountain in Ethiopia, we also had to climb four other huge mountains just to get there.

• Everyone in Ethiopia pronounces Ras Dashin exactly how it appears to be spelled. Apparently, this is incorrect. It should be pronounce Ras Dajin. If you were to say it this way outside of the National Park, you would be laughed at (think of someone rolling their “r” in the word burrito for a full three seconds- that’s probably the equivalent). But our guide, literally named after the mountain, placed a great importance on the proper pronunciation. If we said it wrong, he would correct us with a lecture. It went as far as Joe was writing notes in a journal one day and Dajin looked over his shoulder and told him to spell “Dashin” the right way. It became an ongoing joke and resulted in most of us being afraid to say the name of the mountain we were climbing. And while it may sound reasonable, we were mispronouncing his name after all, it is worth noting he called Zach “Jack” for five days straight.