Afritrex - The Mountains
Mount Cameroun, Morocco
Elevation: 4,040 m
First ascent: Joseph Merrick, 1840s
Range: none.
Easiest route: Scramble
Coordinates: 4°13′00″N, 9°10′21″E
Date of Ascent: (predicted) 17 March 2008
This will be a pleasure to climb: easy, temperate and with stunning views across Cameroon. Or an endless one step forward-two-steps-back scree climb through torrential rain to a fog shrouded summit. Either way it will be the easiest ascent as we have a long time off beforehand to prepare and to recover afterwards, so for once we will be able to allow a little wear and tear on the temple our bodies will have become….
Mount Cameroon is also known as Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness"). It is part of the area of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos, the site of the 1986 Lake Nyos tragedy. The most recent eruptions occurred on March 28, 1999 and May 28, 2000.
Mount Cameroon is one of Africa's largest volcanoes, rising to 4,040 metres above the coast of west Cameroon. It rises from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit which is cold, windy, and occasionally brushed with snow. The massive steep-sided volcano of dominantly basaltic-to-trachybasaltic composition forms a volcanic horst constructed above a basement of Precambrian metamorphic rocks covered with Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments. More than 100 small cinder cones, often fissure-controlled parallel to the long axis of the massive 1,400 km³ (336 mi³) volcano, occur on the flanks and surrounding lowlands. A large satellitic peak, Etinde (also known as Little Mount Cameroon), is located on the southern flank near the coast. Mount Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcanoes. The first written accounts of volcanic activity could be the one from the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator, who might have observed the mountain in the 5th century BC. Moderate explosive and effusive eruptions have occurred throughout history from both summit and flank vents. A 1922 eruption on the southwestern flank produced a lava flow that reached the Atlantic coast, and a lava flow from a 1999 south-flank eruption stopped only 200 m (660 ft) from the sea, cutting the coastal highway.
The peak can be reached by hikers, while the annual Mount Cameroon Race of Hope scales the peak in around 4½ hours.
English explorer Mary Kingsley, one of the first Europeans to scale the mountain, recounts her expedition in her 1897 memoir Travels in West Africa.
Cameroon Mountain is an isolated volcanic mass, covering 800 square miles and towering higher than any other mountain in Western Africa. It is also the nearest African mountain to any sea coast, as it rises from the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, a spectacular site when viewed from sea. The offshore island of Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, is south of the mountain. On this island, another volcano, Pico de Santa Isabel, rises to 9,868 ft. (3,008 m.). The mountain's high summit crater is known as Great Cameroon, Fako, or locally as Mongo-ma-Lobo, the Mountain of Thunder. A second distinct summit is the densely forested Little Cameroon (5,820 ft.). The entire massif is known locally as Mongo-mo-Ndemi, or Mountain of Greatness.
Cameroon is home to some of the heaviest rains on earth, receiving hundreds of annual inches on the seaward side of the mountain. The highest reported precipitation was in the town of Debundja, which received 577 inches in 1919. The majority of Cameroon's rain falls in July, August, and September. The mountain has had a history of violent eruptions, including seven in the Twentieth Century. It erupted on March 28 1999 for the first time since 1982.
Locals of the Bakweiri ethnic group attribute the recent eruption to the death of Monono Otto, a traditional chief.
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