Initially I thought that since Dire Dawa is 4200 feet above sea level it was weird that they'd climb to ~4300 feet above ground level. But Dire Dawa is just a

Initially I thought that since Dire Dawa is 4200 feet above sea level it was weird that they'd climb to ~4300 feet above ground level. But Dire Dawa is just a few miles north of the Ahmar Mountains (part of the Ethiopian Highlands), and they probably needed to climb that much to clear them.