BootsnAll Travel Community

Just got back from Tanzania and found this forum to share my experience since I had such a great time on Kili.

I've had lots of friends climb Kili and my wife and I decided last October that if we didn't climb it when we did that it would be a long time since we'd have another opportunity.

We took the Machame 7-day route, happened to coincide our summit on New Year's Day 2008, and took copious notes through our trip. Feel free to ask any questions.

We booked through Adventures Within Reach who now works through Eco Tours instead of Zara.

If anyone thinks Kili is too physically demanding for them - our guide told us of a previous client of his that weighed in at 176kg - and summited successfully!

Congrats!

We had a guy in our group that was 130kg+ who was 230kg 12 months earlier he was telling us. He made it to Stella Point...took him 10 hours to get there from Barafu, but he was so proud that he made it!

He said he found it most physically demanding the first day. After that he was fine.

That phase from Barafu to Stella is damn hard though, especially the last 30-40 minutes I found.

Did you notice many people being rushed down on summit night? I had heard horror stories from people saying they saw people looking close to death slumping down the mountain again in waves.

I think there were only 3 or 4 who got taken down as we proceeded up that I saw.

I didn't mention that this 176kg guy brought along 3 bottles of his own oxygen and by the time he made it back down from the summit to Barafu, it was 6pm! But, he was very persistant and made it.

I remember seeing 2 people turning around and passing one that looked like she was having problems as we climbed towards Stella Point. Suprisingly, I didn't see anyone in too bad shape or vomiting when we reached Stella Point at about 6am.

I know this might sound weird, but I actually enjoyed the climb up to Stella Point. We went really, really slowly but there's something about the darkness and the cold wind whipping by at about 20 mph that I really enjoyed. I started feeling euphoric (probably due to the lack of oxygen) at around 18,000ft and couldn't stop smiling and occasionally chuckling.

I reached the summit on 1-4-08. On the way from Horombo to Kibo I saw 4 different people being carried down on those stretcher systems they have. 1 person looked in VERY bad shape. i also remember seeing a man from the (I believe) UK at Gillman's point unable to move. We passed him with about a third of the way to Gillmans. By the time i reached uhuru and was starting to make my decent, he had barely made it to Gillmans. I hope he was alright....

These examples are all the more reason to make sure you book with a reputable company that medically trains their guides and that will not let someone attempt to summit who is ill. There really is no reason ...