Advice on KIlimanjaro

Mr_Hat

Hey,
I'm looking for some good advice on companies to travel with to KIlimanjaro. I'd prefer not to go down the charity route and there seem to be A LOT of companies travelling there. But unsurprisingly I've never heard of any of them. So all and any advice welcome. Thanks in advance.

Sean

dogmatix

Explore worldwide do a number of trips there and thereabouts. Explore are a british company so their trips are all ex-london to the tour start point but you can do a land only price which is cheaper although you do have to arrange your own flights to the tour start point.

I've done a dozen trips with them over the last 18 years and never had any complaints. I've never been with them to Africa though so cannot comment on that particular trip. Exodus are a similar company and no doubt do trips to Kili also.

http://www.explore.co.uk/holidays/search?region[0]=2586-sub-saharan-africa&category[3][0]=&q=kilimanjaro

Coeus

Hey, there was an article on trekking Kilimanjaro on the RTE website over the weekend. It lists some operators who do the trek.
http://www.rte.ie/travel/2011/0721/kilimanjaro.html

I'm hoping to go myself with Adventure Alternative in February

mithril

I am just back with Adventure Alternative and I found them very good apart from the guide on the final night who took me up a bit too fast.

You get exactly what you pay for. The success rates of the different groups vary enormously, from 30 to 95%.

If its cheap, its either because the porters/guides are being underpaid, or the number of days of the mountain have being reduced below the optimum to save costs.

Thye Marangu route should be avoided for several reasons, although its the cheapest option (not enough time to acclimatize, bed bugs in the huts, same route up and down.)

ruskin

Agree with Mithril. I did Kilimanjaro with Adventure Alternative in 2009, and found the experience fantastic- 19 people in our group, all from Ireland, with a few from UK.

Coeus

Good to hear the positive experiences about Adventure Alternative. My roommate on my Everest Base Camp trek recommended them to me.

Their trek is a day longer (which is needed on the way up) than most companies do on the Macheme route which is what I was looking for

mithril

Some advice based on my experience:

• A lot of us were not properly prepared for how cold it was on the mountain at nights (minus 10-12). You need a 4 season sleeping bag to get a comfortable sleep at night. Even 3 season plus a liner was not warm enough. If you don't want to buy one because you won't use it again its possible to rent a warm sleeping bag in Tanzania and use a cheap liner for hygiene.
• I never normally use climbing poles but I found them a big help on the final night where the last section is covered in scree like Croagh Patrick. You tend to slide back if you don't have the poles to hold a grip. They are a bulky item to carry. You can rent them cheaply in Moshi which is a better option if you don't already have a pair you are accustomed to.
• Boots do not need to be anything special but it would be wise to break them in in advance (a light pair of boots with some ankle protection is ideal and preferable to a heavy duty and expensive mountain boot)
• Much the best guide for the climb is the Trailblazers book by Henry Steadman. Its worth getting a copy before you go. The only place you really could get lost is the descent from Kilimanjaro where the path is eroded and you may be confused due to altitude sickness. Its good though knowing exactly the type of terrain you will be facing in advance.
• There is unexpectedly good mobile coverage on the mountain and I was able to ring Ireland nearly every evening which is great to let the folks at home know how are doing and hopefully get some encouragement.
• Most of us did not use Diamox, and when a couple of us tried it, they found they were continually urinating without doing much for a headache and stopped. You do need to drink loads of water and this seemd to be the best remedy for altitude sickness. Its also very importent to walk slowly no matter how fit you are since this helps acclimitisation to the mountain.The group with the lowest success rate are young men who push too hard on the initial stages.
• Bring a big bag of energy bar , chocolate or other treats with you. You need a lot of calories and these will help supplement if you don't like some of the food you are given which is healthy, high carbodydrate but gets monotonous.
• I drank the boiled water given out at the campsite without treatment. During the longer days, I also refilled my bottle from streams and added a chlorine table. I had no issues.
• A combination of Camelbak (2 liters) plus a water bottle(700ml) is probably optimal. The tubes in the camelbak will freeze the final night (blow back into the tubes when drinking to delay this) but you should have most of the liquid gone before it happens
• Toilets are generally filthy and washing facilities are limited to a small basin of hot water in the morning and evening. Bring plenty of baby wipes, hand sanitizer and toilet paper with you. The volcanic dust on the mountain gets anywhere so consider taking a nail brush or old tooth brush with you.
• Ideally take enough money with you to cover your entire stay without resort to ATMs. Credit cards are not commonly accepted as a means of payment. Visa is better than mastercard which will not work in a lot of ATMs. Be careful taking out money in ATMs since there are reports of unauthorized extra payments and fraud from some machines.
• The main internal airline in East Africa is Precision Airways who run connecting flights between Nairobi/Kilimanjaro/Zanzibar. Be careful if you book on-line with them since they have a bad record of overbooking flights and not honouring online bookings. Its safer and more reliable to visit their office in Moshi and book and obtain the tickets there.
• Nice to have if you are a bit of a gadget freak are a solar charger (to power MP3 player, phone,etc.) and a Kindle reader (very light with enormous number of books). I was able to download the electronic version of the Irish Times onto the Kindle and have it read over breakfast before most of the Irish population woke up. You do have a lot of time to fill in the evenings so bring something to pass the time if you don't like playing cards