Several years ago, my husband and I started contemplating a trek to the summit of Kilimanjaro. Work and other circumstances kept getting in the way, and in the meantime, we weren’t getting any younger. Friends of ours successfully summited Kili in 2018, and we decided that we just needed to set a date and do it. Last fall, I read WanderingJim's report here and contacted him for advice. Thanks, WanderingJim, for helping us out and encouraging us! I have also been communicating with 14er.com member Dan_Suitor this past year. Like us, he has been planning his Kili hike for September 2020.

After a great deal of research, we decided to book our vacation with Gladys Adventures because they are KPAP certified; they are a local Moshi company; and they have great reviews. Forgive me if I get on my soap box here for just a bit and explain about KPAP (Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project). This organization ensures that its porters are paid a fair living wage, trained properly, fed sufficient meals on the mountain, and outfitted with proper hiking gear. Many trekking companies are NOT KPAP certified, and they can basically exploit their porters and guides if they so desire. I’m not suggesting that every non-KPAP company does, in fact, exploit its employees, but I really feel strongly about supporting those people who helped me successfully trek to the top. A KPAP representative accompanied our team to the mountain, checked everyone’s gear, and ensured that no one was being asked to carry too much weight. On our trek last week, we noted porters from non-KPAP companies who were wearing loafers while carrying heavy loads up the mountain. That is simply unacceptable. Here is the link for KPAP where you can find a list of KPAP-certified companies: https://kiliporters.org/

Back to the hike – since we live in South Florida, we knew that we would need to do some altitude preparation if we wanted to have a good shot at reaching the top of Kili. And, to be honest, we didn’t want to drag ourselves to the top just to say we did it. We wanted to be coherent and enjoy the entire experience. So we spent the month prior to heading to Africa in Summit County, Colorado, redoing some of our favorite 14ers and trying to hike a lot of miles each day. That paid off in full!

Of course, we had no idea last fall when we contacted our company and purchased plane tickets that COVID would alter our plans. Our flights were canceled, rescheduled, changed, etc. multiple times over the summer, including while we were in Colorado working on altitude adjustment, and we had no idea if we were going to actually make it to Tanzania or not until we stepped off the plane. Gladys Adventures was fabulous! They hadn’t collected any money from us until after we arrived, and yet, they had a driver waiting at the airport to pick us up and take us to a hotel room. In fact, no money exchanged hands for two days while we caught up on our sleep and got ready for our hike at a nice hotel in Moshi.

Finally, on September 03, we met with our guides, Erick and Clarence, went over our gear list, and finalized our plans to leave at 8 AM the next day with the team. This was really going to happen!

We chose a 7-night/8-day Lemosho hike and walked approximately 42 miles from gate to gate. Each day, we added a little more elevation and had the opportunity to see different climate zones. We had initially signed up for a group hike, hoping that others would be joining us, but, with COVID, our group quickly dwindled to just the two of us. That is, of course, good and bad. We had a lot of one-on-one attention, but we would’ve enjoyed talking with other hikers and meeting more people.

On September 04, we boarded a van with our 10 porters, cook, and two guides and set out for the Lemosho Gate at 6,889 feet. The hike was an easy 3.7 miles through the jungle to Forest Camp, which is at 9,500 feet. We were able to see some cool black-and-white colobus monkeys and blue-faced monkeys on this stretch of the hike.

When we reached the camp, we saw how efficient the porters were. Everything was set up for us and ready to go. We had a dining tent waiting with hot drinks and a private toilet tent which was part of the group climb cost. We actually thought we wouldn’t use the private toilet tent. Then we saw the drop toilets. I can’t recommend a private toilet tent enough.

After getting into camp, our guides did a health check which included a check of our oxygen levels, pulse, etc. They would do this twice each day until after the summit. Our month in Colorado most definitely helped us here as we both tested at 94 – 99% oxygen every single time we were checked – even at base camp.

One other hiking group joined us at this camp and basically followed the same route, so we did have a chance to talk to a solo hiker from Portland most nights.

The second day we hiked to Shira Camp 1 which is at 11,500 feet. This trek was a little longer, about 5 miles, with a lot of ascents and descents which led out of the forest and into a savanna of tall grass and volcanic rock.

Day Three took us to Moir Hut Camp at 13,800 feet. This particular hike was one of our longest for the entire trek – 8.7 miles – but it was a stunning hike through flatlands and then up into a section of rock walls with caves and beautiful overlooks. We were the only group at Moir Camp, and you can see how empty the large campground area looks in our photo. After we arrived in camp, we climbed a nearby 14er to work on acclimatization. So far, so good for us! We were just enjoying the trek!

The weather was perfect for the entire trek except for the morning of Day 4. We awoke to light rain and thought we were in for a soggy day. Fortunately the rain stopped during breakfast, and the skies cleared up. The rain helped with some of the ever-present dust that we had encountered up to this point. We basically lived with dust the entire trek. We did wash out clothes twice and did the equivalent of “sink baths” in our tent, but there was no getting away from the dust.

On Day 4, we traveled from Moir Hut to Barranco Camp, which is at 13,000 feet. Along the way, we stopped at Lava Tower, which is at 15,1000. That was the highest elevation we had ever reached on foot. We had lunch there and stayed for awhile. Oxygen levels were checked, and we were doing great! At Barranco Camp, we finally started to see a few other groups that would be accompanying us to the summit. All told, there were 5 groups camped together, which is a far cry from the norm, especially in September.

On Day 5, we headed up the Barranco Wall. Everyone that we spoke to prior to our trek cautioned us about this portion of the climb. They said it was terrifying and that they hated it. We loved it! It was an easy Class 2 scramble that involved some fun rock sections and even had a “kissing rock,” which you can see in the photos. We got to the top of Barranco Wall where there is a stunning view of Kilimanjaro. We were just in time to see an avalanche careening down the mountain, blowing rocks and snow in all directions. It was incredible! Fortunately, no one was on that particular section of the mountain at the time. We continued on to Karanga Camp, elevation 13,100. Our entire trekking time on Day 5 was just a little over 3 miles through an alpine desert.

Day 6 was our last “normal” day of hiking since we would be reaching Barafu Camp (base camp). Barafu is at 15,300 feet. We trekked a short distance of about 2 ½ miles to reach camp and then were told to relax and try to sleep in preparation for our midnight trek to the summit. Surprisingly, we were both able to fall asleep all afternoon and get some rest. Our oxygen levels were in the mid-90s, and we were ready to go. Then the snow and snow pellets moved in! We couldn’t believe it when we saw snow accumulating all around us, and we started to worry that the hike would be called off when visibility became an issue. We were lucky that the storm moved through and left us with a crystal clear night to finish our trek. And we loved hiking up through a few inches of fresh snow to reach the summit.

Shortly after midnight, after some cookies and hot drinks, we set out to climb to Uhuru Peak, elevation 19,341 feet. We left with a half-moon rising to our right and more stars in the sky than I had ever seen. It was incredible. Our guides kept up their chants of “pole, pole” (slowly, slowly) and set a good pace for us. On previous days, we were a little frustrated with the slow pace, but on summit night, we found it to be perfect for us. In fact, we were both able to talk and joke around during the entire ascent with no breathing issues or concerns. At one stopping point, my husband said that we were at 17,100, and I honestly didn’t even realize that we had already climbed almost 2,000 feet.

We reached Stella Point at 18,885 and had some hot tea and snacks and then we turned the corner to see the sun just starting to peak out over the horizon. What a view! We continued the last little part of the trek up where we encountered some weird ice formations called penitentes that we had to climb through. These are thin blades of hard snow/ice that are close together and pointing upwards like spears. Our guide told us that when the mountain is busy, a pretty set path is trampled down through the penitentes, but since hardly anyone had been on the mountain lately, we would have to trek through them and deal with it. At that point, though, we were so close that we didn’t care. We reached the summit of Kilimanjaro – Uhuru peak - by 6:45 AM – about 6 and a half hours after leaving camp. We were ecstatic! And we felt great – not tired or out of breath. We did see other hikers coming in behind us who were struggling, and who just wanted to snap a photo and head down the mountain. We were so glad that we had prepared for this hike in Colorado first.

The long descent was monotonous and kind of anti-climactic, but unless you want to pay $2,500 and take a “hero’s flight” by helicopter (and, really, how is that kind of descent actually called a hero’s flight?), then there is no other way to the bottom. I personally hate descending any mountain. It’s hard on my knees, ankles, and toes, so I was less than thrilled to have so much downhill in front of me. We worked our way back to base camp where our team of porters greeted us with a number of songs and dances about Kilimanjaro in celebration of our successful climb. It was a perfect way to celebrate!

At base camp, our guides gave us the option of stopping at High Camp, which is at 12,959, or continuing to Mweka Camp at 10,039. Either way, we would be hiking the rest of the way out the next day. We decided to stop at High Camp and rest up. No need to risk injury on the last day of our trek. One other group camped at High Camp with us, and we were really glad that we decided to stop early. We watched everyone else drag themselves past us late in the afternoon, knowing they still had two hours of hiking through a rocky creek bed to go, while we soaked our feet and relaxed with a cup of cocoa. We had time to repack our summit gear and get organized before going to bed early and getting a lot of needed rest.

On Day 8, we made the last 6.5 mile trek out of the park from High Camp to Mweka Gate, going from 12,959 feet to 5,380 feet and passing back into the rain forest and civilization. We were tired but ecstatic!

After all of the planning, researching, preparing, etc., we both are very proud of our successful summit! We highly recommend doing a Kili climb if you can manage it. One bonus for us was that the mountain was relatively empty, so we didn’t have to wait in line on the Barranco Wall or on the summit trek. In fact, we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves most of the time. It was an incredible feeling.

As for fellow 14er.com member Dan Suitor, my husband and I realized too late that we were waiting to leave Tanzania on the very same plane in Kilimanjaro that Dan was arriving on to begin his Kili adventure. I’m looking forward to hearing about his trek!