Mt. Kilimanjaro

The entrance gate to Machame route and the beginning of the hike.

My tent overlooking the summit of Kili at our campground for the second night, Shira Camp.

My guide Frank posing on day 3 of the hike.  The peak of Kili sits behind him.  Notice that Frank is wearing only a t-shirt and we're at about 14,000 feet.  That's why we call him Iceman. 

Senecios sitting below the peak of Kili on day 4 of the journey.

A map of Kilimanjaro National Park.  The red indicates the Machame route, which was the route I took on a six day, five night trek.  We began at Machame Gate, slept at Machame, Shira, Barranco, Barafu, and Mweka, and finished at Mweka Gate (photo courtesy of alpineascents.com). 

One of the premier sites of Africa is Mt. Kilimanjaro, and one of the premier activities in Africa is hiking Mt. Kili.  The popularity of the hike is due to several reasons: it’s geographical proximity to Arusha and high quality safari drives (Ngorongoro, Massai Mara, Serengeti, etc), the level of difficulty yet accessibility, people can hike this in a relative short period of time (six to ten days), and people can say they’ve hiked the highest mountain in Africa and highest freestanding mountain in the world.  Due to the mystique and reasons listed above, Kilimanjaro attracts thousands of hikers a year and leaves a few dead on its slopes. 

Hiking begins at one of the several trailheads (there are six official routes) in a humid tropical environment before ascending through semi alpine, alpine, and finally through high altitude with snow and no vegetation.   Hikers can expect to sleep at least three days at elevations of 12,500 feet and above, where sleeping can become quite difficult.  (If you want to shell out the money, you can sleep in the crater at the top.  It’s expensive to bring porters to this elevation and VERY cold, but you do get to sleep at about 18,000 feet.) Furthermore, the ascent to the top begins generally at midnight where hikers experience extreme cold and wind for six to seven hours, followed by a 10,000 foot descent to the final camp.  Despite there being no technical climbing required, Kili is a very demanding hike.  Reports listed by Kilimanjaro National Park estimate that 41% of hikers reach Uhuru Peak, the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. 

In late June I made a six day journey to hike to the top of Kili.  The team consisted of my guide Frank, my cook, three porters, and me.  Due to my exhaustion from trekking across Africa, I wasn’t able to make it to the top.  My guide and I decided to turn around at approximately 18,300 feet (Uhuru Peak’s elevation is 19,341 feet officially), so I never made it to the roof of Africa.  I’ll be honest: it was disappointing.  However, aside from the 1,000 feet I didn’t make of the mountain I had a great trek.  I saw some gorgeous areas and met some great people along the way.  Furthermore, I learned a lot about myself.