Climb Kilimanjaro

Our group (6 people): A young American/Singaporean girl with whom I shared the tent. Very sportive, did many marathons. A young American couple – both TV producers (not really hikers but sportive overall). Two experienced older male hikers from the US.

Day 1: Londorossi gate to Mt Mkumba (2’785m)

2.5 hours of walking, 6 hours of bus and waiting around.

We arrived by bus from Arusha – it took us 4 hours (we left at 9am and got to the gate at 1pm). Another 2 hours at the gate to sign in (you need to have a passport number for this, no need for the passport itself) and for the porters to weigh all the bags – porters are not allowed to carry more than 20kg: 15kg of a client bag and 5kg of their own. We had three porters for each of us, some carried food and others carried tents. With us were three guides who would lead us up the mountain.
At the gate, we had a very poor lunch: just cucumbers, avocados (only 1/5 each), bananas and white bread. After the 2 hour wait we drove 20 min in a bus and started to walk (we should have driven further but there was deep water from the previous day rain which we could not cross). Just 15 minutes into our hike, it started to rain. It was no ordinary rain – this was a heavy rain: Within minutes I was completely soaked – my boots, rain jacket – everything was completely drenched. Fortunately, at this time, we were still in the lower altitudes and it was rather warm at around 20°C. The hike was on a steep and very wet dirt path in the rainforest. At one point, I saw a monkey with a big bushy tail taking cover from the rain in a tree. The rain was so heavy that making photo was not possible.

Upon arrival to the camp, I discovered the importance of bringing tested waterproof gear (my rain jacket and hiking boots were not tested in such a rain before and got completely soaked). In general, I would recommend bringing a rain poncho that covers your backpack too instead of a rain jacket. Most of the porters and our guides brought umbrellas. We laughed at it at first, but as it turned out, it wasn’t such a bad idea. With heavy rain and the slow pace, the umbrella protects your head, backpack and body.
That night was the first time ever in my life to sleep in a tent. I love hiking but I prefer and choose comfortable living. I don’t mind walking an extra 10-20km to find a bed and a shower. As it turned out, sleeping in a tent was completely fine for me – it was very low and small but ok.

First night was spent in the rainforest: the night was rather warm and it finally stopped to rain.

Day 2: Mt Mkumba to Shira camp (3’504m).

Approx. 8km, 5 hours, easy.

Clothes: 3/4 quarters pants, t-shirt and a windbreaker.

Breakfast was ok, we had porridge, eggs, pancakes/chapati (chapati is a kind of flat bread), peanut butter, jam and bananas. In the morning, the weather was usually nice: sunny and warm. We walked 1 hour through the rainforest. It was always rather annoying to walk in the morning as 1000 of porters were overtaking you and you needed to wait. When we got out of the rainforest to the savannah, we walked in tall grass and on volcanic stones. It was a nice day especially as it did not rain. Until noon, it was sunny and then it got a bit cloudy with a few raindrops in the afternoon. First, I walked with plastic bags inside of my shoes as my leather-hiking boots were still wet from the day before, but with the sun and the wind, they dried up in three hours. The weather stayed dry over the next days but because of the first day, I had rented a heavy and smelly rain poncho.
We had lunch on the way and arrived at the camp around 4pm. It had spectacular views of Kilimanjaro. This was a nice day.

Day 3: Shira camp to Moir camp (4’155m)

14km, 5-7 hours, easy.

Clothes: 3/4 quarters pants, t-shirt and a windbreaker. Later I needed my merino pullover.

The walk was flat for a long time crossing the huge Shira crater. Shira is the oldest of Kilimanjaro’s three volcanos. We had one hour of sun and the rest of the day it was cloudy.

That evening it was New Year’s Eve. We had dinner early at 5:30pm: exceptionally it was a kind of pizza and soup. Usually we didn’t get a lot of food but that day there was enough. I ate too many peanuts before dinner (every day at 4pm we had popcorn and peanuts as an appetizer). The pizza was not great and it was definitely the simplest New Year’s Eve dinner of my life. The location was making up for it though. It was a mystic atmosphere with a rather foggy and cloudy camp in a volcanic landscape.

That New Year’s night we went to bed at 9:00pm but I woke up at 11pm (as nature called, and had to go a separate toilet tent) and I wasn’t able to fall asleep again. At the stroke of midnight, shouts, songs and rockets rang out in the night. I got out and was met by a fantastic sky with so many stars. I could see people from other groups, drinking and dancing but nothing going on in our group (boring…). After a half an hour, my tent mate joined me outside and we ended up going to another group and danced a bit. What an experience: dancing with strangers on New Year’s Eve under the stars on Kilimanjaro. It was fun. It was also the first New Year’s Eve in the past 20 years without any alcohol… But despite this, I never felt as bad as I did the next day…

1.1.2019: Day 4: Moir camp to Barranco camp (3’986m)
Approx. 7 km, first we came to the Lava Tower camp 4600m and then down to Barranco camp at 3’968m. The worst day for me.

Clothes: 3/4 quarter pants, a t-shirt, a merino pullover and a windbreaker. Later I put on merino 3/4 pants, another merino pullover, a hat and gloves.

I did not sleep well that night – not easy to fall asleep after dancing at 1am.

I woke up at 6:30am as usual. Got a big bucket of warm water and washed my hair with shampoo and a conditioner. My tent mate helped me. I felt very happy about being able to wash my hair and I took many photos that morning.
The happiness feeling changed quickly…

I made four big mistakes that day:

• I took a pill against constipation the night before (normally I can take two pills without any reaction). I don‘t know why but it provoked a strong ‘traveller’s disease’ in the afternoon (actually I discovered later that high altitude increases the effect of anti-constipation pills – so be careful). That meant I was dehydrated, and as anyone can tell you dehydration and high altitude is not a good combination.
• I washed my hair – it was a sunny day in the morning but there was a strong cold wind and I did not put on a hat, so my head and ears were aching and feeling weird in the evening (always protect your head from the wind).
  I took many photos in the beginning of the hike and afterwards always paced to catch up with the others. Never walk fast in high altitude! This also contributed to my altitude sickness.
• I did not drink enough fluid in the morning and brought only 1.5 litres with me for the 3 hours hike until lunch.

Therefore, after 2 hours of hiking I started to have a slight headache, which grew stronger and stronger. Then I started to feel nauseated and dizzy. We arrived at Lava Tower camp (4’600m) after 3-4 hours for lunch. I felt very bad. I could not eat anything. Then ‘traveller’s disease’ started. The following walk down to Barranca camp was a nightmare: I started feeling sick, headache, turning head and I got the hiccups. The view was great with nice trees (like big pineapples) but I did not care, I just wanted to arrive somewhere.

My altitude sickness got even worse in the afternoon. I started to have high altitude cerebral oedema (HACE) – a severe form of altitude sickness. It’s a swelling of the brain caused by a lack of oxygen. The symptoms of HACE are loss of coordination, feeling confused and hallucinations. Everything seemed to be very far away, like in a movie, like it‘s not happening to me. It’s a similar feeling like just before you lose consciousness. It actually means that your brain does not function properly (brain swells with fluid) and normally you need to descent immediately as it can provoke a chain reaction of serious incidents, like coma and even death. So if you have such symptoms, descend immediately at least 1000m down, rest and see how you feel. Don’t listen to the guides who tell you “Hakuna matata”, they do not always understand how you feel (and they are not trained medical professionals) and they are encouraged by agencies to bring people to the top, almost no matter what…
I got very scared and wanted to stop my hike altogether and go all the way down the mountain. The others were not really supporting me including the guides. A very different experience from my Nepal hikes where the guides wanted to bring you down immediately if you felt even minor altitude sickness symptoms… I think they also did not understand how bad I felt. I did not know how bad it was myself. Had I known about HACE at the time, I would go down for sure. I felt like if I lied in a tent I would just die and nobody would notice. Crazy! I could not eat any dinner (had no appetite). I took anti diarrhoea pill in the evening, drank many electrolytes (4 packages). Our guide was sure that I would feel better the next morning but I was very scared to go to sleep and not to wake up again. The scariest was that I had impaired hearing; everything was far away, my head was spinning and I had this weird feeling like I’m watching a movie. It felt like I was about to lose the consciousness…
I went to bed at 7:30pm and during the night; I woke up every 1.5 -2 hours having to go to the bathroom to micturate (wee)…a lot. Apparently, this is one of the side effects of how your body is adjusting to the altitude. Altitude pills like Diamox actually provoke an intensive micturation. It’s incredible how our bodies can adjust to the environment… Now my body was doing the same even without Diamox. At around midnight, I started to feel much better.

Day 5: Barranco to Karanga camp.
Slept at 4’034m, 3.2km 5-6 hours.

Clothes: 2 merino pullovers, long hiking pants and a windbreaker. Also gloves and a hat.

I was feeling very good (as a contrast to the previous day), even before I took a Diamox pill. My body somehow adjusted to the altitude by itself. In any case, I took Diamox (it’s a medicine, which should help prevent altitude sickness. Some claim that there are many side effects; some say that it does not really have any effect at all. I don’t know. I did not feel anything. After the horrible experience the day before I decided to take it. I was taking half of a 250mg Diamox pill (morning and evening after food with 12 hours in between). So only 2 pills in total during the whole climb as I just started 2 days before the summit.

It was a cloudy and rather cold day. We climbed the Barranco wall. It is not dangerous at all even though you need to use your hands a bit. It was a horrendous traffic jam with hordes of porters, combined with a very narrow path. At one point, we waited 30 min just for porters to pass. Views were ok but not very exciting. After the steep Barranco wall, we entered what I would describe as a “moon” landscape with volcano rocks and shrubs on the way to the Karanga camp. It was a short day, arriving at the camp at 2pm where we had lunch and I went to read a book in my tent. This was a nice change to a hectic day – just to lie, relax and read. It was cloudy and foggy outside so the tent was not hot. Dinner was at 7pm and I had too much, which meant I couldn’t fall asleep until around 10:30pm.

That night I was not sleeping well. My tent mate woke me up three times and I had trouble falling asleep afterwards. When I did sleep, I had a weird dream…Almost everybody had weird dreams that night – it’s the effect of altitude.

Day 6: Karanga camp to Kosovo camp (base camp at 4’876m).
Approx. 3.5km, 4.5 hours

Clothes: long pants, a light merino pullover at first, later a windproof jacket was needed. During the last hour I also put on rainproof pants for wind breaking and an additional pullover, a bit too late though as I was already frozen.

It was my second day on Diamox. I still did not feel any effect (good or bad).

The day started with a beautiful view of Kili. We did 950m altitude gain in 4.5 hours (with short breaks) a total of 5.7 km. Very slowly (pole pole). I took hundreds of photos. I always walked last with one guide. First, it was very hot (I was in a light merino pullover); at around 10am a very strong and cold wind changed the weather situation. I was not fast enough to change into the correct gear so I was a bit afraid that I caught a cold. It was rather tough.

We went to the base camp at 4’876m and had lunch there. Most people staying 200m below in the Barafu camp but it’s better to stay where we were as you avoid an extra 40min steep climb in the summit night. I didn‘t feel any altitude issues but that day I walked slowly and drank a lot. In fact, I drank 5 litres during the day.
Upon arrival, my knees and my lower back were hurting a bit, so getting my backpack off was a big relief.

We had lunch when we arrived to the camp – at 2pm. The wind was so strong that our lunch tent collapsed. We moved to the smaller tents after lunch and even though the wind was strong, the sun made it very hot in there.

We then prepared for the summit night, charged everything and had dinner at 5pm. I ate a lot for both lunch and dinner as I knew I would need my strength for the summit night. I took 1/2 pill of Diamox.

I slept rather ok (from 7pm to 11pm) despite a strong wind that was nearly ripping our tent apart.

I thought that the summit ascent would be cancelled because of the weather but the guide told that it‘s never cancelled as it‘s not dangerous per se.

Even so, the wind was rough and our guide with 30+ years of experience said that he had only experienced something similar once before!

Day 7: Summit Day: Kosovo (4’876m) to Summit (5’895m) to Mweka camp (3’110m)

1000m up and almost 3000m!!!! down. Approx. 21km: 5km up and 12km down, the rest more or less flat.

Summit night: we woke up at 11pm and got dressed. I was partly dressed during the night to keep me warm. Being cold the day before, I decided I would put on the correct gear today: a sport bra, merino t-shirt, 3 thin merino pullovers and a fleece. My Patagonia down-jacket (thin, I need to have a thicker one next time) and a rain jacket (as a windbreaker). In my socks I put two chemical hand-warmer packages to keep warm, bandages for knees, one merino 3/4 underwear, one long medium merino pants, long hiking pants and rain pants for wind breaking. Head: merino buff, merino hat on the head and two hoods. I also wore thin merino gloves underneath skiing gloves and hand-warmer packages.

Tea and biscuits were served (just 2 pp as usual – not enough food). I had 3 cups of tea. They told me that you don’t get any other food before the ascent as it could make you sick.

At midnight, we started our ascent. It was insanely cold and with a wind a chill factor of -40°C, it really put you through the wringer. You could feel it in your bones and at times, it felt as if the wind would blow you off the mountain. It wasn’t long before I had to put away my hiking poles, as I needed to keep my hands warm. Soon, I was completely frozen.

With 6.5 hours walking in the dark (sunrise isn’t until 6:30am) and being extremely cold, our guide gave me 4 more hand warmers which I put in my boots and gloves. That gave me one hour of temporary relief.
If you are going to do this trip, check my packing list, as you need to come prepared. However, a thicker parka, warm long underwear, warm skiing socks, big skiing mittens (not gloves) and at least 8 hand warmers are needed!

Practicality when nature calls: For this ascent/descent, with strong winds and an endless array of people all with headlamps, going to the bathroom becomes difficult. I tried to find a suitable place where no one could see me, but in the end, it was just too cold even to take off my gloves.

On this trip another problem occurred. The guides suggested to bring two litres of water (they carry your water for you). You then bring 1 litre yourself (3 litres in total, which is needed for this 9 hour hike). However, the guide who carried my thermoses of water was either far behind or in the front – so I could not get my water. My own bottle was a filter, which froze almost immediately, so in the 9 hours I got less than a litre of fluid. This taught me to bring thermoses or wide-mouth bottles yourself (see my packing list for more info and recommendations).

We walked very slowly up. Almost without stops as it was just too cold to stop. Somewhere around half way up the climb, I started to feel slightly nauseated so I did not eat my snacks at all. All I had was two nut bars but not until we arrived at the camp 9 hours later. This was very hard! The stormy winds made it almost unbearable. My feet, hands and even my core was frozen. The hand warmers helped but only for 30 min/1 hour. We arrived to Stella point at 5:30am. We were a group of three that arrived 30 minutes ahead of everyone else. My tent mate and I hugged and could not stop crying from happiness or relief…maybe both. We thought we had reached the top as our guide also joined in on the hugs and said that we are strong women and then he dropped the bomb…
”We have another 40 min to Uhuru point”! Crazy! It was not the end…the disappointment hit harder than the stormy mountain winds.

The walk from Stella to Uhuru was very tough even though it was not steep at all. With the chilling colds and the strong winds, I had problems with breathing and was slightly nauseated.
We finally arrived at Uhuru point at 6:30am. It was a beautiful sunrise: the sun gave the clouds a red hue but taking photos was impossible, as you would surely get a frostbite just by taking off your gloves. At the summit, I did try to take a photo with my phone but my hands froze immediately to the point where I could not feel them at all and the pain were excruciating and almost making me cry. It was so bad that I had to go to one of the guides to warm my hands in his much thicker jacket. I asked him to take a photo with my phone next to the summit sign – instead he put my phone in his pocket and left. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one freezing!
I didn’t get my phone or water until I later reached the camp. So annoying. With no phone and no water, I did manage to take a crummy photo using my camera that had a frozen lens….

The views on the top of Kilimanjaro are simply amazing. With breath taking views on Kilimanjaro crater (very big and flat), nice views on other volcanos and the nice Kilimanjaro glacier. It is the local’s belief that the volcano will not erupt as long as the glacier is there. However, the glacier is very small and getting smaller… Some studies say that there will be no glaciers anywhere on the globe by 2050 unless we act now…I guess this is a different blog! However, disappearing glaciers might mean we will see Kilimanjaro erupting one day.

Everyone in my group and everyone else as well, walked up as fast as they could to the summit sign and then went immediately down. Because of the wind, no shelter, and the immense cold, it was impossible to stay long on the top. I think I must have stayed for 20 minutes, as I wanted to make photos and look around. I was by far the last in our group to go down. One guide stayed with me (of course not the one who had my water and my phone). Therefore, I went down without any water. It was very tough. It’s a sliding rock/sand path and I would suggest putting on gaiters in order not to get small stones in your boots. The descent took me about 2.5 hours.

When I finally made it to Kosovo camp our toilet tent was broken! After 9 hours of not being able to go to the bathroom, this was not what I wanted to hear. The zipper could not close so two people would hold it together as you are inside…so much for privacy.
We had 1 hour to pack our duffel bags and it took us 30 minutes to go down to a lower camp where we had lunch in a hut from hell (at least it felt like hell for a germophobe like me)!
I counted 10 mice running around and one lying dead on the floor. It was dirty all over with eight broken double decker beds in a room of 3 by 3 meter. We sat on these horrible broken beds and ate our lunch. You should definitely lower your hygiene standards when you come here.

After lunch, we started our never-ending descent to Mweka camp. My poor knees did not like this long hike going down. We arrived to Mweka camp at around 6pm and this crazy hiking day started at midnight! I am not sure I understand why we could not spend the night at High Camp, as it is located 1500m before the Mweka and the day after was a short walk anyway. Do check this with your agency and if you can – insist on going down to the High Camp (half way between the base camp and Mweka camp, so you only go down 1’500m and not 3’000m). Our guide gave the reason that you need to go down as much as you can in order for your body to recuperate from the altitude. I believe 1’500m down is sufficient and your knees need to recuperate as well.

Mweka camp at 3’100m is nice as it’s not an open space but has bushes and small trees and each group has its own private spot. We had a dinner at around 7pm. I was expecting a good meal in celebration of making it to the top, but instead it was a very simple meal with no dessert not even fruit. With all the people around, do take extra good care of your valuables.

In the evening, I started to feel pain in my shoulder, which I thought was from carrying my backpack for that many hours. It turned out to be a scratch that was badly infected. The next day half of my neck was hurting like crazy. It wasn’t until I arrived at my hotel and looked in the mirror, that I saw that I had a bubbly infection. I have never had such a thing before in my life but fortunately with some antibiotics cream it was gone after two days. This cream can be tricky to obtain so do bring some with you – it may come in handy.

Day 8: From Mweka camp to Mweka gate

10.5km, 1400m down.

Clothes: 3/4 quarter pants, a light t-shirt, a merino pullover (which I took off after 1 hour, as it was warm) and a windbreaker. It was cloudy and cool in the rain forest but got sunny and hot next to the gate and on the bus drive.

I slept very well. It was warm. Nice campsite. We woke up at 7am, and had breakfast as usual and we tipped our porters and guides. Suggestion was USD 250-300 pp.

I was not happy with the overall service: there was no drinking water provided next to the dining tent, no water to wash hands, no tea on the summit night, no help with backpacks (people in other groups (even with the same company) had all these extras). I anyway tipped them USD 250.

Upon departure, all the guides and porters sang and we took some photos together. We then walked 4 hours down (10km, 1400m down) to Mweka gate on 1640m. We saw two chameleons (brown and green on the way, a blue monkey and monkeys with a big tale – but they were too far away for a photo). After the gate, we drove 10 min to a restaurant where we had a cold buffet lunch (as it was brought in from Arusha). I bought some t-shirts there. USD 10 per t-shirt and you can pay by card. It was weird to be back in civilization. Bathrooms were very clean. We got our certificates proving that we climbed Kili (with people singing and playing music). After lunch, we drove 3 hours to our hotel in Arusha.

When I arrived at my hotel, I didn’t rush to take a shower. First thing I did was getting online (nice after 7 days completely off ). I hung my sleeping bag out to dry and didn’t get under the running water until 6pm. It was nice taking a shower but not as nice as people had described it. Yes, it had been one week…
I was also distracted when I saw my infection on the neck and got scared. I imagined the worst and definitely believed it to be a worm inside…

I had a nice dinner with some of the others from the group but you could feel we were all already far away in our thoughts – Kili was over. I had two glasses of red wine, which gave me a killer hangover the next day… It was nice finally having a good quality meal.
I was very happy that it was over in general. Tents, to carry my heavy backpack, dirty toilets, no clean water, dirty hands the whole day, rain, wind, etc. This was so different from my Nepal experience just two months earlier. There I was sad when my 14-day hike was over. Here, well you do Kili not for the journey but for the result! Although I am glad to have done Kilimanjaro, I prefer enjoying the ride and not just getting to a destination. For this reason, it won’t be on my top ten experience list…it is simply too tough to be enjoyable. That being said, in the hours of writing this, I do look back and realize that I did enjoy this trip as a whole and I am glad to check it off my bucket list

– enjoy your trip, good luck and feel free to ask me any questions before embarking on your journey up this iconic volcano.