Pre-expedition experience:

This trek is suitable for fit walkers, without previous trekking or mountaineering experience. The itinerary is designed to provide gradual acclimatisation, with a total of eight days spent making a rising traverse of the mountain. The views of the western and southern aspects of Kilimanjaro are superior to those on the northern routes, and our path is less travelled than either the Marangu or Rongai Routes (the latter of which has become increasingly popular in the last couple of years).

Leadership:

An RJ7 accredited Expedition Leader will accompany you for the duration of the trip. Our leaders have been chosen not only on the merits of their technical ability or qualifications, but also on their leadership skills and temperament. We will provide a leader who will make the trek both successful and enjoyable throughout. Their primary objective will be to maximise every participant’s chances of reaching the summit, and to manage a team of individuals with a broad spectrum of experience and expectations. Our leaders hold current mountain first aid certificates and have experience of dealing with altitude related illness. They are well versed with wilderness medicine and emergency care.

Itinerary:

Day 0:
Fly London to Kilimanjaro International Airport

We will take a nightflight from the U.K to Kilimanjaro Aiport with Kenya Airways. This will allow the team a last day in the office or a day to relax before the adventure, or most likely some frantic last minute packing! By flying through the night we will also have time to catch a few hours sleep before we land in Tanzania the following morning.

Day 1:
Arrive Tanzania

We will land early on the following morning, and will have the luxury of a full day getting used to our new surroundings. After breakfast and a quick clean up, we will sit by the pool and a full briefing and welcome will be given. We will also use the day to check personal equipment and for the Guide to prepare all tents and other group kit.

Day 2:
Londorossi Gate to Mti Mkubwa (9,170ft / 2,800m)

After breakfast at the hotel, we meet our local guides, who will come with us on the mountain. It’s a three-hour drive from Moshi to the Londorossi Park Gate, on the west-side of Kilimanjaro, where we should arrive by midday. We register at the Gate to enter the Kilimanjaro Park, before finally getting our boots on and doing what we’ve all trained for; start climbing Kilimanjaro. If we walk quietly it is likely we will see monkeys overhead on this remote and peaceful path. We should reach our camp in the forest at Mti Mkubwa (Big Tree) after approximately 3-4hrs. The height there is 2,800 metres.

Day 3:
Mti Mkubwa to Shira One Camp (11,480ft / 3,500m)

Today we will start to get into the “routine” of climbing a big mountain, and our local crew and cooks will also still be settling in to living on the mountain. Today is a fairly full day’s walk, and we will leave the forest zone beneath us as we gain height and reach high moorland and a desert-like environment. It will probably start to get dusty too as we leave the tree line, and the dust will stay with us for the rest of the trek. It could also be very hot, with no shade from the dense canopy as in the previous day. The trek should take around 5 hours.

Day 4:
Shira One Camp to Shira Two Camp (12,470 ft / 3,800m)

After breakfast, we continue to hike east across the Shira Plateau and take in the spectacular views south across the plains and towards Mount Meru. (4hours).

Day 5:
Shira Two Camp to Baranco Camp (12,675 ft / 3,900 m)

This is the first hard day. Although on paper we only finish our trek 100m higher than the previous night, we will have ascended all the way up to 4600m, at Lava Tower, before winding our way back down the valley into Barranco Camp, nestled underneath the imposing Barranco Wall, which we will climb the next morning. This is an important day for acclimatisation and we will have a leisurely lunch at Lava Tower and let our bodies adapt to the thinner air. (7-8hours).

Day 6:
Baranco Camp to Karanga Camp (13,300ft / 4,050m)

After breakfast, our first challenge is to climb the Barranco Wall, which will have looked impenetrable on the approach, but don’t worry, it’s not as hard or as steep as it looks! Your Guide team will be positioned amongst the group to help on any exposed sections and to calm any nerves. We’ll be on top of the 200m wall in no time, and will then continue eastwards underneath the Decken and Rebman Glaciers to the Karanga Camp (4050m), which is above the Karanga Valley. Camp will look close-by but a steep valley will separate us from arrival, which we must first descend carefully before climbing up the other side and finally rolling into camp for tea and popcorn. (4 to 5 hours).

Day 7:
Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp (15,090ft / 4,650m)

From Karanga Camp a 3-hour steady walk takes us to Barafu Camp (4650m) from where we will make our summit attempt. It’s a short day, which will give the team extra time to acclimatise and a long afternoon to rest, hydrate and eat, which will all be “money in the bank” for our summit bid later that night. After an early supper we will go to bed, with palpable excitement and apprehension, ready for the 11pm wake up call. (3hours)

Day 8:
Barafu Hut to Uhuru Peak (19,340 ft / 5,896m) to Mweka Camp

Despite our proximity to the Equator, on summit night it can be brutally cold. We will leave camp at around Midnight to climb through the darkness, on what will likely be the hardest day of team members’ lives. We will walk at a snail’s pace, set by one of our local Guides, making step by step progress up the seemingly never-ending scree slopes. It is important to remember at this point that every step made, no matter how small, is a step closer to the summit. We should reach the Crater Rim around 6am, watching the sky over our right shoulder turn through amazing shades of orange to deep blue as we will the sun to come up and warm us. Once at Stella Point we’ll be tantalisingly close to the true summit; Uhuru Peak. All that will separate us is an easy angled uphill slope around the edge of the Crater Rim. It looks flat but will take a deceptively long time, typically around 1hr. Shortly the large green sign will appear in our line of sight, and energised by seeing the summit we will all huddle together on top for around half an hour to take photos, congratulate each other and enjoy the spectacular views from the “Roof of Africa”. Soon enough though, it will time to start our long descent. We will speed down the scree slopes back to Barafu where we can have a good lunch and a couple of hours rest, before packing our bags and heading even further down the mountain, all the way to Mweka Camp at 2800m. We can stop on route for a quick celebratory Coke at Millenium Camp before getting back on the trail for the last couple of hours of descent. We will arrive in Mweka at dusk, for a big dinner and maybe even a few beers. Bearing in mind we will have been on the go since midnight, this is a very long day, especially as we will have climbed to 5895m in the morning! (17-19hours)

Day 9:
Mweka Hut to Mweka Gate to Moshi, leave Africa

In the morning, we take the easy walk down to Mweka Gate, with the prospect of hot showers quickening our step. At the Park Gate we will say goodbye to our porters and tip them in return for all their help throughout the expedition. We will be transferred back to the hotel, and it will be the first non-human powered transport we’ll have made for more than a week! It’s a 45minute drive to the hotel, where we can then have a shower and a big lunch with our local Guides, before saying our goodbyes. In the early evening, we will transfer back to Kilimanjaro International Airport. The flight takes off at about 22:00, to head back north through the night.

Day 10:
Arrive UK

We arrive back in the UK in the morning.