Kilimanjaro blog post 1 of 4: Choosing the Climbing Route and the Climbing Company

Kilimanjaro image #1: the three volcanos that make up Kilimanjaro




Kilimanjaro image #2: the entrances to the various Kilimanjaro climbing routes




Kilimanjaro image #3: summary of the Kilimanjaro climbing routes




Kilimanjaro image #4: summit night ascent routes





“Mount Kilimanjaro” is located in Tanzania, not far from the border with Kenya. The highest point on the mountain, called "Uhuru Peak", that's the peak of the "Kibo Peak", stands at 5895m above main sea level. It is Africa's highest point, and the top of the world's highest free-standing mountain --when height is measured from main sea level.

In February 2014, I started the research process for the Kilimanjaro climb. The plan was to climb Kili sometime in summer 2014, with a schedule that allowed me maximum moonlight during the climb, yet did not interfere too much with the 2014 worldcup game viewing.

The first part of the preparation involved carefully choosing a climbing route. Here are a few things that I learned while choosing the route:

• Kilimanjaro is oval shaped, extending from west to east, see image #1. The west part, the beeeaaauutiful "Shira Plateau", is a caldera (collapsed magma chamber) of an extinct volcano called "Shira". The middle part is occupied by the dormant volcano "Kibo", the highest point of which is "Uhuru Peak". The east part is occupied by extinct volcano "Mawenzi", which looks skinnier than Kibo, but as ominous as Mount Doom in Mordor. The three peaks are marked in image #1.
• The kilimanjaro climb is not a technical climb, it is a hike. So the best way to prepare for the Kili climb is to go hiking.
• There are *seven* STANDARD routes, entering the mountain at various points, but all of them do the final summit approach from the EAST. The route entrances are shown in blue on image #2: Marangu (entrance #1), Rongai (entrance #2), Northern-Circuit (enters through the west but skirts the northern edge), Shira (entrance #4), Lemosho (entrance #5), Machame (entrance #6), and Umbwe (entrance #7).
• There are *four* NON STANDARD routes, also using entrances 4-5-6-7 above, but doing the final summit approach from the WEST, through a path called the "Western Breach". The Western Breach is considered unsafe by some climbing companies due to falling rocks; specifically the rocks that were imprisoned by the glaciers of the Kili that became loose as the glaciers melted.
• An additional night at “Crater Camp” near the summit can be added to any of the 11 routes, but it not recommended by many companies because of the dangers of sleeping at high altitude.
• Image #3 is a table I made of the 11 routes with some info.
• The climb can be done in as little as 5days-4nights ("Marangu" or "Umbwe" routes), however it is possible to take more time using either of these two routes.
• The climb can be done is as much as 10days-9nights ("Northern Circuit" route), however it is possible to take less days using this route.
• For the seven standard routes, the final climb to the summit is attempted at night.
• For the seven standard routes, the standard progress of summit-night, shown in image #4, is as follows:
  • "Shira/Lemosho/Machame/Umbwe" climbers leave "Barafu Camp" (south east of the main peak) around midnight, arrive to "Stella Point" around sunrise, and to "Uhuru Peak" an hour later.
  • "Marangu/Rongai" climbers leave their "Kibo Hut" camp (east of the main peak) around midnight, arrive to "Stella Point" around sunrise, and to "Uhuru Peak" an hour later.
  • "Northern" climbers leave their "School Hut" camp (near "Kibo Hut") around midnight, arrive to "Stella Point" around sunrise, and to "Uhuru Peak" an hour later.
• Summit hike is attempted at midnight appearently for the following reasons: climbing in the dark makes you not see how scary and steep the path is, sunrise from the top of "Kili" is stunning, in some seasons the peak starts to get foggy around 8AM, scree slopes are easier to ascend when slightly frozen (this is soooo true), and, after the climb up, the hike down can be time-consuming and must be done during daylight hours.

So there you have it. After some more reading about the routes, several google image searches, talking to two friends who had already done the climb, and keeping acclimatisation and safety and crowds and steepness and the number of days on the mountain in mind, I was pretty much decided to do the Lemosho route. But I needed to find a climbing company that offered this route: not all companies offer all routes.

Finding a climbing company is more time consuming than deciding on a route: there are dozens of companies offering the climb, many of which have a web site.

The prices for the climb (not including tip and the fees for the rental of non-essential gear) vary from ~$700 to ~$6000. The average price seemed to be about $1850-$2600. The price variation is partly due to the level of luxury-camping/ luxury-climbing that these companies offer --later when I was on the mountain, we really did see companies offering fancy tents and everyday hot lunches, etc.

I had been warned by many ex-climbers to not book a climbing company online, and instead, to wait to go to Tanzania, and book the climb then, with a cheaper local company. But since this was my first time on the African continent, and since I did not yet have a grasp of how safe or unsafe everything there was, I decided to go ahead and book online, like the majority of international travellers.

After comparing a dozen companies or so, making use of reviews on tripadvisor, reading various blogs, and paying particular attention to the companies’ safety record and to how well the mountain-staff/porters are treated, I decided to book the 8-day Lemosho route climb with “ClimbKili” (Climbkili.com).

I emailed ClimbKili, and they responded promptly with detailed information. After some back and forth discussion, sometime in march, I booked the group-of-6 climb starting on Thursday July 03, 2014. July is the driest but coldest month on the mountain. The chosen date allowed me to watch all worldcup group stage matches and the round of 16 important matches while in North America, and provided an 86% visible moon on summit night (night of July 10 to 11). In retrospect, after talking to other climbers on the mountain about how much they paid and about the level of service that they were offered, and after talking to one of our guides about how well the mountain staff was treated, I am really happy to have chosen this company.