Well I didn’t drink it, but I did climb it!

“If you can’t climb it, drink it” is the local motto for Kilimanjaro beer. I still have yet to have a sip of this lager, but I’ve heard it’s not bad to drink after a long day of hiking!

Earlier this week I summited Kilimanjaro! Honestly it was one of the toughest things I’ve done on this trip and 9/10 would not summit a mountain that high again. While the hiking itself wasn’t challenging, I learned that high altitude and May do not go very well together. Thankfully with medicine (Diamox + Ibuprofen = love), I was able to address altitude sickness symptoms and successfully make it to the top. While it doesn’t make the list of most scenic hikes I’ve done, I’m still proud to have made it.

Some interesting facts about Kilimanjaro:

• Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters or19,340 feet) is actually slightly higher than Everest Base Camp (5,364 meters or 17,598 feet).

• Kilimanjaro as we know it isn’t actually Kilimanjaro! The mountain that we commonly refer to as “Kilimanjaro” is actually Mt. Kibo (Uhuru Peak is the highest point at 5,895 meters). However I’m still referring to it as Mount Kilimanjaro because that the name we use colloquially.

• Mount Kilimanjaro is technically a dormant volcano with three volcanic formations (scientifically known as volcanic cones): Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. While the latter two are extinct volcanos, Kibo is dormant - scientists estimate that it last erupted 360,000 years ago.

• The iconic snow-capped Kilimanjaro peak you see in photos and on the beer bottles no longer exists. Because of global warming, the glaciers are rapidly melting and the mountain no longer looks like what it once did. Scientists predict that the glaciers and snow will disappear within the next twenty years.

The way up

There are several routes up Kilimanjaro, and I chose to take the Lemosho route over the course of seven days. This route starts from the west side of the mountain, then takes a southernly loop around the mountain and approaches the summit from the southeast. In my research I found that Lemosho was commonly referred to as the most scenic route. In addition, I wanted to make sure that I actually made it to the top so I chose a trip that allowed more time to acclimatize to the high altitude.

You are required to hike with a guide, so after conducting some research I booked my trip with Monkey Adventures, a local travel operator. They are definitely more of a budget-friendly company and that’s reflected in the overall experience, but the guide and crew were professional and respectful. It’s incredible how much work goes into supporting a Kilimanjaro summit. For just one client, there was a team of six supporting in the background: one senior guide, one cook, and four porters.

I ended up being the only traveler in my trip which had its pros and cons. It was great to have my own tent and I prefer to hike solo without worrying about keeping to others’ paces. However, there isn’t the same type of camaraderie among hikers in the evenings at each campsite as there has been on other treks I’ve done (Tour du Mont Blanc, W trek) so it was easy to feel lonely.

The Conditions

After camping in tents in a different location almost every day for over a month, I wasn’t shying away from living in a tent again (the only exception is the Marangu Route, which offers dormitory-style huts). This time it was a wee bit different though:

• There is no electricity aka no outlets to charge your phone/camera/head torch/gadget so you best bring your power bank. Oh and this also means no lights which means great star gazing but you best be bringing your head torch to the toilet so you can see where you’re aiming.

• There is no running water. There are glacial rivers where your porters will fill up your water each day (recommended 3L/day) or they will boil water the night before to ensure you stay hydrated. No running water also means no flush toilets, no showers and no water for brushing your teeth or washing your hands. I ended up using my water bottle for my teeth, bringing a LOT of hand sanitizer with me, and an entire pack of baby wipes to freshen up each night. The crew does bring you a bowl of hot water each evening to wash your face which is thoughtful (all tour companies do this, not just Monkey Adventures), but sometimes I found it cumbersome to do inside my tent. Which leads me to…

• You do everything in your tent. Meals, meetings, and face washing are done in your tent. The cook would cook in a separate tent and a porter would bring your food to you directly in your tent. There were main reasons for this were so that you could stay warm while eating (no shared common room facilities at the campsites) and so they could minimize the amount of equipment the porters carry (an extra chair and table is a lot of extra weight!). However, I noticed that the more luxurious tour operators had a dining table set up and tents that divided up into a sleeping and eating section.

• The bathrooms are NOT designed for women in mind. As I mentioned, there’s no running water on the mountain so all the toilets are squat toilets, a concept I’m quite familiar with. However the toilets were more like holes in the ground with two platforms to place your feet rather than the porcelain squat toilets that are more common in the city. I normally wouldn’t mind this except for the fact that the holes for the toilets were tiny! Likely this size of an iPad. Now if you’re a man this probably doesn’t matter because you can aim, but it’s a bit harder if you’re a woman. It takes a lot of careful maneuvering to make sure your aim and the ricochet doesn’t get on your pants, shoes, or potentially your face. Hopefully you’re sitting at your computer or scrolling on your phone laughing out loud right now. I mean, it is funny in retrospect but not when it’s dark and you only have your head torch to help you see.

• Your crew carries everything for you except for your day bag. This is truly impressive and also really freaking hard work. Think about it - this means carrying food (raw ingredients, spices, oil for seven days worth of meals), supplies (tents, plates/cutlery, water jugs, emergency oxygen), their gear (sleeping bags, clothes), and your gear for seven days, taking the same path you’re taking up and down the mountain. They don’t go up with you on summit day but it doesn’t make what they do any less impressive. Something I read and 1000% agree with is that you shouldn’t trek Kilimanjaro if you’re not willing to tip the crew well. They work incredibly hard to support you in hiking and summiting and rely on tips.

• The weather is unpredictable. It can rain at any moment! It can be bitterly cold at night yet you can easily get sunburned during the day. You’re hiking above the clouds for most of the time which makes for incredible views but also means you’re more prone to the sun’s rays. Don’t worry Mom, I put on sunblock every day! Luckily it only rained while I was hiking on my first day and the rest of the time it rained, I was already tucked away in my tent. However I did learn that no tent is 100% waterproof, even with a waterproof covering. So when the corners of my tent started to seep from the torrential downpour, I got creative with a “band-aid” solution to soak up the water. Ladies - you’ll get it!

• Everything you carry in, you carry out. There are no trash cans in the park, so it’s a carry in, carry out policy. No littering please!

The hike

I didn’t take many photos as I was saving my phone battery for summit day, but my guide Jonas did kindly take some photos of me while we were hiking. They were sent to me over WhatsApp so the image quality isn’t great, but here’s a look at the (some) scenery on Kilimanjaro!

To be honest, I wasn’t particularly enamored by the landscape. It was cool to hike through all five climate zones of Kilimanjaro (Cultivation zone, aka farmland and villages; Rainforest; Heather and Moorland; Alpine; and Arctic), but I kind of found the scenery to be just okay - I’m probably in the minority here on that!

The Summit (Day 6 of the hike)

Summit day began at 1am when Jonas, my guide, and I left our tents and began the long trek up to Mount Uhuru. I was warmly dressed and resembled the Michelin Man. On top I had a long sleeve base layer, my beloved croissant sweatshirt, a light puffy down jacket, and a ski jacket, while on the bottom I wore warm leggings and thick ski pants. Let it be known to that this was what I normally went to sleep in each night - it literally gets freezing (below freezing) cold.

I didn’t find the actual hike up to Uhuru peak (5,895 meters) to be too physically challenging for me, but the altitude did wreck havoc on my fitness. We started at Barafu Base camp at 4,670 meters and after an hour of hiking I felt light-headed, weak, and nauseous. I had to sit down several times, take a deep breath, and fight the urge not to vomit on the path. It didn’t help that it was still dark out (2am!) and things always feel scarier in the dark. These symptoms felt similar to having low blood sugar levels, but my guide recognized that these were symptoms of altitude sickness so I took ibuprofen and Diamox (altitude sickness medication). He offered to carry my bag for me and helped me back to my feet where we continued slowly, one step at a time, up the mountain. Encouraging myself to have enough grit and determination to move one foot in front of the other, when there was still at least five hours to the top and was one of the hardest things I’ve done. Every left foot was “I can” and every right foot was “I will”.

The Diamox and Ibuprofen worked its magic and while I still didn’t feel 100%, I was no longer nauseous. The moment we reached Stella Point (5,756 meters, the biggest milestone until the peak) I almost cried with relief. It would only be a “short” 30 - 45min hike to the Uhuru Peak.

As I hiked closer to the peak, the sun rose behind me, casting the surrounding glaciers, clouds, and mountains in a warm, glowing light. That moment felt magical - here I was after overcoming a bout of altitude sickness, on my way to summiting the highest mountain in Africa. My timing was perfect. We reached the iconic Uhuru Peak sign as the sun finished rising, and I felt exhilarated.

From the summit you can see the last remaining glaciers of Kilimanjaro as well as other mountain ranges in the distance.

The way down the mountain was a lot easier, and I cheered people on as the made their way up. When I got back to base camp, I was surprised by the crew who sang the Kilimanjaro song, showered me with congratulations, and celebrated my success. I couldn’t have done it without them and all of their support.

It took another day to hike down to the park entrance where we were picked up by a bus to take us back to Moshi, the primary base for Kilimanjaro travelers, and I was happy to be back in my altitude range again!

As I reflect on my hike up Kilimanjaro, I feel proud of my perseverance and of believing in myself that I could and would make it to the top of Africa. Someone else carried my day bag for me on summit day, but that doesn’t diminish my accomplishment. And in that moment where I felt like quitting and heading back down to base camp, I knew that even if I didn’t make it up the mountain, I’d still be successful for trying in the first place.