BootsnAll Travel Community

Just back from a successful summit of Uhuru and here are a few observations (more details later):

1) Never saw a mosquito - took malaria meds anyway.
2) Trash all over the mountain, terrible - Machame route.
3) Water in both my water bottle in an insulated parka and in an insulated Camelback froze on summit night.
4) Dressed in too many layers on summit night and overheated.
5) No problem with digital camera freezing - operated normally on summit.
6) Cell phone reception on the summit was good and I was able to phone home!
7) Trail was relentless uphill and then relentless downhill - expected a more moderate trail at least to Barafu.
8) Walk from Mweka Gate to van (~1/2 mile) was bad due to hounding of locals wanting to sell stuff - I just wanted a shower!
9) Although I did not book with them, Tusker runs a class operation on the mountain! They were by far the group with the most content people.
10) Our outfitter (Marangu Hotel) had a mess tent with a table and camp stools, make sure yours has at least this. We saw one couple that had to eat all their meals on the ground. Very uncomfortable. Comfort in the camps breeds successful summits and a more pleasant experience.
11) Saw 3 or 4 people being rushed down from the summit. Make sure your guides know the differences between, and how to recognize, AMS, HAPE, and HACE. Watch each other for signs.
12) We took 7 days to do the Machame route. I believe if we took the 6 day option we wouldn't have made it. Taking the extra time to recover by doing a couple shorter days really helped.

So any other details about Marangu Hotel?

Here's a few photos of the Marangu Hotel:

http://homepage.mac.com/aubrey/PhotoAlbum22.html

Very accommodating outfit. Knowledgeable, relaxed, extra gear for use at no change. Hard working friendly staff. No pressure. Its not near any 'nightlife' so its just peaceful place to stay.

We did 2 nights before the trek and one after. Looking back I'd have departed the same day the trek ended so we could have spent an extra day in Amsterdam. You get back to the hotel before 2 PM and the KLM flight leaves a 9 pleanty of time to shower, pack up, and get to the airport. The 2 nights we spend before the trek were well worth it to acclimatize to the time zone and stretch the legs after the long flight.

Other things:
-Gaiters - YES for the horrendous mud on the first day and dust all other days.
-Trekking Poles - YES used them every day and I generally don't like to hike with them.
-Long Drops - Not too bad. Most were reasonably 'clean' and had locking doors. Barafu were down right nice with cement floors, metal 'splash' guards to waist high, locking door, and a view window!
-Saw a few people give up on summit night and turn around. Give yourself at least until dawn before you quit if possible. Once you see the ridge line you won't quit until you get at least to Stella Point.

I took the Lemosho Glades Trail with Tusker and saw no trash, our guides carried a bag and picked anything they saw up.

We had a mess tent with chairs and our own outhouse...wonderful!

Took the 9 days up option. Never got close to altitude sickness but saw it around us at Lava Tower Camp, didn't use Diamox either, just drank lots of maji (water).

Climbed to Crater Camp in daylight and did the summit in 1 hour the next morning, then down to Millennium and then Mweka gate. The Tusker truck was waiting at the Ranger Office so we drove past the shops.

We had a great time!

There were a few places where it looked like someone just took a large garbage bag full of trash and just hurled it against the rocks and exploding with trash all over a concentrated area. In other places there would be a candy wrapper or water bottle every 10 meters of so. I assume there is a crew that goes through to try and clean up. We saw trail crews doing trail maintenance downhill of Mweka camp. The guide showed us the muddy trench that use to be the trail in that section. Now the trail is really very nice towards the bottom. They were also building what looked to be a good size cabin/hut for rangers and rescue staff at Machame Camp (just working on the foundation at this point). And the rangers at Shira camp were very interested in what we thought of the mountain, trail, long drops, etc. They seemed to care about what we thought and took notes so there seems to be in interest in improving conditions on the mountain.