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Africa, Kilimanjaro

One foot in front of the other all the way to Uhuru Peak (and down)

  1. Kick-off for Kili
  2. The scenic route up Kilimanjaro
  3. Last of the ‘easy’ days as going gets tougher but home comforts help
  4. One foot in front of the other all the way to Uhuru Peak (and down)

Day 6: Karanga Camp (3,935m/13,106ft) to Barafu Camp (4,650m/15,331ft)

The next two days are going to blend, in 36 hours we will have added over 6K feet in altitude to reach Kilimanjaro summit/Uhuru Peak and descend another 6-7K feet. All of this will be done with maybe 3-4 hours sleep.

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Africa, Kilimanjaro

Last of the ‘easy’ days as going gets tougher but home comforts help

  1. Kick-off for Kili
  2. The scenic route up Kilimanjaro
  3. Last of the ‘easy’ days as going gets tougher but home comforts help
  4. One foot in front of the other all the way to Uhuru Peak (and down)

Day Four: Shira Two camp (3,810m/12,500ft) to Baranco Hut (3,950m/13,106ft)

“Day four! Half way done”. This is the first line in my notebook that I wrote in my tent knackered after quite a day climbing to Lava Tower. And on the Kilimanjaro tour company website, it’s described as the “last of the ‘easy days’”. Easy days?!

Despite the claims of an ‘easy day’ it was going to be one of the longest days and the peak altitude would take us above 14K feet for the first time. With the landscape changing the paths widened as well and we found ourselves less single-file.

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Shira One Camp
Africa, Kilimanjaro

The scenic route up Kilimanjaro

  1. Kick-off for Kili
  2. The scenic route up Kilimanjaro
  3. Last of the ‘easy’ days as going gets tougher but home comforts help
  4. One foot in front of the other all the way to Uhuru Peak (and down)

Day One: Londorossi Gate (2,220m/6,825ft) to Mt Mkubwa (2,800m/9,100ft)

There are several different routes to take up Kilimanjaro, our Lemosho route is the most scenic route, and at 8 days is one of the longer routes. People come here without proper training and try and do it in 5 days – what’s the point? Throughout the Kili hike, EBC was a reference for me, it is my only other high-altitude hike, but one of the best things about that trip was the scenery and the journey (will try not to talk about the worst things!).

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Team pre-departure
Africa, Kilimanjaro

Kick-off for Kili

  1. Kick-off for Kili
  2. The scenic route up Kilimanjaro
  3. Last of the ‘easy’ days as going gets tougher but home comforts help
  4. One foot in front of the other all the way to Uhuru Peak (and down)

Gathering the groups

“Let me know what you think about Kilimanjaro and if you’d be up for it in Feb 2023”. That was just over a year ago in January 2022 when Beth messaged me. Back in 2016 I, along with 6 others, climbed Everest Base Camp. The aim was to create another small group to do Kili.

“It looks really good, very tempted”

Kilimanjaro was going to be nearly 2K feet higher than Everest Base Camp, which gave me some thought. I’d struggled with the altitude at times on EBC , as had another member of the original EBC crew. In the end, our Kili group was 8 people, Beth, Ollie, and myself part of the same crew from 2016. Now it was time to kick off the preparation.

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