A few weeks before I started the world trip, I made a gut call and quickly decided to add trekking Mt. Kilimanjaro to the agenda. I had been on again and off again about doing Kilimanjaro in the first place – mainly due to costs, however, I found a local no-frills operator who offered tours for about $1200 all in. Adding this trek also became an awesome excuse to buy some gear that I had been thinking about purchasing anyways. (I’ll save that for another post though)

Originally, I selected 6 day trek on the mountain, however, at the last minute I made it a 7 day trek because I had never been at altitude before and wanted the extra day to adjust. This added another $200 to the cost of the trek, but at that point, I decided $200 was worth paying if it meant a successful summit. The costs of the tour included pick up and drop off in Nairobi, 2 nights in Moshi, Tanzania, all meals on the mountain, all necessary permits, a guide, porters, and a tent. Not included were select equipment like sleeping bag, sleeping pad, trekking poles, meals at the hotel in Moshi, or the visa into Tanzania ($100). I ended up renting them from the tour operator at a fairly reasonable cost.

I was picked up in Nairobi and because of traffic we had to race to meet the bus before it hit the border. My driver got a flat tire on the way and spent about 30 minutes changing the tire. It was another one of those classic, “This is Africa moments”. We eventually caught up to the bus about 30-40km from the border. Looking back, I think finding the bus was a lot easier than crossing the border. Crossing the border was an absolute exercise in controlled chaos and patience.

The exit out of Kenya was actually easy and straightforward. Simply go and get your exit stamp and walk to the Tanzanian side of  the border. It was getting the Tanzanian visa is where the chaos entered. Now, my driver attempted to explain to me what to do and of course I was confused, but acted like I understood. Basically, I needed to get in line to give my completed application form to the border officials. Upon entering the extremely long line, my driver pulled me aside and raced my form to the border guard. I only requested a single entry visa be issued as I had no intentions of returning to Tanzania anytime soon. The border guard insisted that they only issued year long multi-entry visas which forced me to pay $100 instead of $50. After cutting a bunch of people in line (due to my bus driver’s assistance), I then had to withdraw money from the ATM (at the currency exchange booth), pay for the visa, and get a receipt. What I didn’t realize was that the receipt was issued at the bank office located at the border. So when I withdrew the money, I thought I had to go back to where the border officials were. When the driver saw me, he asked where my receipt if I had a receipt. I was a bit dumbfounded and he (albeit a bit frustrated) re-directed me to the right spot.  Now that I had my receipt, I had to step in line to actually get a visa issued…a line that was moving extremely slowly. Once again, my driver stepped in and came to the rescue all while I pissed off 10 or 12 people who had been “waiting for hours”. I think this took a total of 1-1.5 hours. It helps when your driver is in a hurry. Looking back, I sorta wished I had taken care of the visa before arriving at the border.
I was taken to Arusha first and transferred to a bus to Moshi. After that I met the tour company owner and got more details about the trek. I went to sleep and got ready for the start of the climb up the mountain. The thing I remember most from the first day was driving through the entrance gate and thinking, “This is it…there’s no turning back now!” It was cool seeing all the signs with the rules of the park and tips for successful hike.

The first day was really hard even though I felt up to the challenge and had just run a marathon in the summer. I mean you literally start hiking up the mountain right from the entrance gate and it’s a six hour walk to Camp 1. Even though I was sweaty and pretty exhausted, I was just trying to get the body in a mode to where it would be used to all the trekking. Day 1 proved to be long but I still had a good time even took a minute to enjoy the sunset.

The next 2 days was mostly more of the same time of hiking as day 1. You were really trying to get above the clouds. For me, one of the highlights was on day 3, when we reached 4,000 meters. Of course, I had never been that high before and was pretty happy when the only affects that the altitude had on me were minor headaches. On the day 3, the top altitude reach was 4640m at a place called the lava tower. 4640m really wasn’t that big a deal. I felt no different than at 4000m yet it was still an amazing feeling to make it up to there and not have any adverse affects.

One of the neatest parts of the Machame route was on day 4 and climbing the “Breakfast” wall. Although Kilimanjaro is not a technical climb requiring ropes or ice picks, the “Breakfast” wall (also known as Barranco Wall) was 4 hours of straight up rock climbing. It was fun yet challenging. My photos don’t really do it justice.

Some of the most memorable moments came on day 5 and 6 because they sort of blurred into one giant day. Once you reached Barafu camp at the end of day 5, you weren’t there for very long. At midnight the start of day 6, you started towards the summit. Even though you wanted to sleep, there were just too much excitement and adrenaline to be near the summit to get any actual sleep. Day 5 started out with an awesome sunrise especially after enduring 4 days of the mountain. It was almost foretelling that the day would offer excellent views of the mountain on the way to the camp. I don’t have the exact words to describe it, but maybe my photos can help do it some justice.

After getting up, doing a quick status check on myself, the trek started Barafu camp started. The hike to the camp was relatively easy. On my way to the camp, there were clear views of the mountain as well which again showed the pure majesty of Kilimanjaro. The other thing I will not forget is the trek into camp itself. Below the camp is a valley. As you are hiking across this valley, you can see the camp sitting above you. Once you arrive in the camp, there are excellent views of valley.

Most of day 5 was spent resting in camp and preparing for the summit which translated into a lot of down time and photo shooting of the mountain. The sunset was one of the most gorgeous I had seen especially being able to see Mt. Meru. After eating dinner, a quick gear inspection was done by the guide to make sure everyone had the proper equipment for the summit attempt. We also discussed leaving a little bit early to avoid getting behind slow trekkers. The idea being that you actually use more energy trekking behind slower groups than if you’re leading the pack and setting a pace to your liking. My gear passed inspection and we had a 3-4 hours to sleep. None of which I actually slept – it was more of a rest. Finally, around 10:30pm, the guide woke me up to get ready for the summit.

The summit trek from 4640m to 5895m was supposed to take about 6 hours. From the camp to 5730m (Stella Point) was the hardest part of the climb. Even though I was wearing multiple layers of socks, gloves, and using both foot and hand warmers, my hands and feet were extremely cold. I actually thought I might be getting frost bite. When I stopped moving, the wind above 5000m was so intense that the rest of my body became cold. This is when my guide and I decided to take fewer breaks and keep moving. We weren’t walking any faster than other people, but we were taking fewer breaks just to stay warm. During the climb to Stella Point, it was one of the few times during the entire trek where I felt I needed to have additional calories. My body was burning calories not only to keep up with the constant movement but also to stay warm. Upon reaching Stella Point, I was relieved when my guide told me the hard part was now over.

We reached near the summit (around 5800m) at approximately 4:30am. I told my guide that I wanted to try and wait it out for 6am to see the sunrise. We huddled against a rock and try to stay out of the wind, but it was just too cold and windy up there. Both of us were having trouble staying warm and it would better if we just headed towards the summit. I will never forget the rush of emotions and adrenaline as I saw the sign marking the highest point in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world. I wanted to the hug that sign because I was so excited to reach the top. I think what made it even more awesome was that I was the first to summit on that day and no one else was around.

I literally owned the summit

I left the summit around 5:25am and we could start to see the sun rising. It was an amazing sight to see the color of the sky changing in slow motion. I wish I had taken photos of that but it was just too cold up at 5895m. We trekked down to 5730m again and clearly saw the sun rising. It was much warmer down there. A few celebratory photos were snapped as well. We were on our way back down! It seemed like it took longer to reach Barafu camp again, but that was mainly because both my guide and I were exhausted from the summit and hiking down. In reality, it only took 2-2.5 hours of hiking down to reach the camp. We were both exhausted and needed sleep.

Even though we had reached Barafu camp again and slept for about 4 hours, the day was not over. We still had to trek down to 3100m to the next camp. For 99% of the journey, I never complained with how tired I might be because I usually wasn’t that tired and I could push through just about anything, but on the trek down to 3100m I questioned if I was going to actually make it. I was tired, hungry (even though I had eaten), and just wanted to sleep. At one point I was asking my guide every 15-20 minutes if the camp at 3100m actually existed. I was having trouble keeping up with my guide. Making it to camp at 3100m, I collapsed into my tent and slept. I woke up for dinner and made a short phone call to the U.S. and went to sleep early that night. I don’t think I’ve ever slept more soundly than that night. The entire day felt like running multiple marathons with very few breaks in between. It was exhilarating and exhausting combined with lots of adrenaline, emotion, and will power. As we were walking out of the park to the exit gate, I caught one last glimpse of the mountain and it reminded me of what had been accomplished.

Climbing Kilimanjaro was worth it.

During the trek, the Machame route was described as the second hardest one. I can see why. Going 7 days without showering, shaving, sleeping on the side of a mountain for 6 nights was all worth the effort of the summit. I think I described it best to a friend when I said this trek required 110% effort everyday and 200% effort on summit day. It was physically draining and it was challenging at times, but the promise of the summit and seeing the summit made all of that go away.

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Tim is preparing to travel the world on a much needed career break. His travels have already taken him to New Zealand, India, China, Taiwan, and many places in western Europe. On his world trip he hopes to become more fluent in Mandarin Chinese, meet new friends, gain new perspectives, and find new opportunities. Follow Tim on his global adventures.

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