Mount Kilimanjaro isn’t the world’s tallest mountain, that doesn’t mean reaching the 19,340 foot/5,895 meter “rooftop of Africa" is a walk in the park. The biggest challenge isn’t fitness or speed, but simply adjusting to the altitude, leaving only 65 percent of those who climb Mount Kilimanjaro to actually reach the top.
In fact, those who start climbing too quickly have the worst odds of success, according to the tour guides accompanying us up Africa’s highest mountain. The key to climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, they said, is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro so slowly—aka pole, pole—so your body can adjust to the elevation by the time you reach the summit.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Day 1
Elevation: 2,700 meters / 8,858 feet
Outlook: Overly Confident
Tom and I began our 6-day climb at Marungu Gate, the beginning of Mount Kilimanjaro’s oldest route, with 3 Tanzanian guides, 7 fellow climbers, and 13 porters in tow. This well-worn path offers the most direct route up Mount Kilimanjaro, but — although a popular choice for Kilimanjaro climbers, who sleep in mountain huts along the way—it offers climbers the worst odds of reaching the summit by providing fewer opportunities for acclimation.
Tom and I are hoping to improve our chances by taking Diamox, an altitude medication strongly recommended by another friend who climbed the snow-capped volcano. But this precaution felt misplaced during our first day of hiking, as we wound our way through the old growth rainforest encircling the base of Mount Kilimanjaro at a comically slow pace. This hike wasn’t difficult at all, Tom and I decided, agreeing that we’d climbed far more challenging peaks in Washington State. Outlook: confident. Maybe a little too much so.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Day 2
Elevation: 3,720 meters / 12,205 feet
Outlook: Feeling strong
Somehow, I found our second day of climbing even easier than the first, despite passing through another 1,000 meters of elevation. Today we’re hiking through Mount Kilimanjaro’s moorlands zone—the second of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s 5 ecological zones, which transform from forest to meadows to moorlands and alpine deserts on the way to the summit. The waving grasses and heather scrubs offer striking views—including of Mount Mehru, another volcano in the windswept valley—but sadly also bear signs of wildfire devastation.
The latest wildfire ripped through Kilimanjaro in November 2022, destroying 12.7 square miles of land and some mountain huts just as Tom and I were making our way north to Tanzania. Our guide says the fire was probably started by a rogue cigarette that quickly set this dry and windy area aflame. Even so, the trail remains littered with cigarette butts, which feels especially reckless given the area’s ongoing fire hazard. Another benefit to climbing pole pole is that we have plenty of time to collect all the discarded wrappers, cigarette butts, and other trash we find along the trail.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Day 3
Elevation: 4,000 meters / 13,123 feet
Outlook: Humbled
Today is a technically rest day, but we still got up early (with the help of coffee in bed) for an “acclimation hike” up to Zebra Rock, a short hike away from the huts where we slept last night. The aptly named rock earned its stripes after years of being battered by mineral-rich mountain rains, creating a unique photo op in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro.
But the real purpose of today’s climb is adjusting to the elevation, which is starting to feel real at 4,000 meters. I haven’t struggled as much as some travelers, including the poor guy I heard puking in the toilets last night, but we’re all starting to feel the effects of high elevation. Fortunately, I haven’t had any trouble following our guides’ advice to “eat like there’s no tomorrow” and “sleep like a baby hippo,” but some people in our group are starting to experience insomnia, nausea, diarrhea, and other symptoms of altitude sickness. So far, my pills appear to be working, because my symptoms have been limited to a moment of dizziness on the trail this morning. So far, so good—but we’ve still got 2,000 more meters (6,562 feet) of elevation to go.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Day 4
Elevation: 4,750 meters / 15,584 feet
Outlook: Getting Real
On the morning of our 4th day, we packed up our gear and set out for Kibo Huts, our final stop before (hopefully) summiting Mount Kilimanjaro. Now the air is noticeably thinner, making each step—even taking deep breaths—a struggle. I’m trying to breathe through my nose, which a fellow climber, Sam, insists will help me save oxygen, but this is difficult because my nose has been running ever since we entered Mount Kilimanjaro’s arctic desert zone.
On top of being physically tired, we’ve also been confronted by some unfortunate reminders that not everybody reaches the summit. This includes Tanzania’s minister of communications, who—despite hoping to brag about the new internet connections atop Mt. Kilimanjaro—was evacuated by helicopter on our third day. In other cases, we’ve watched sick or injured climbers rushed down the mountain on stretchers. Hopefully this won’t happen to anyone in our group, but these incidents (and the upturned stretchers scattered along the trail) serve as unsettling reminders that only 65 percent of Mt. Kilimanjaro climbers actually make it to the top.
Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Day 5
Elevation: 5,895 meters / 19,341 feet
Outlook: Exhausted
On the morning our fifth day, we got up early—like 00:00 early—to reach Mount Kilimanjaro’s summit by 6 am. We spent most of yesterday eating and napping to prepare for our overnight climb, which has been timed to watch the sun rise above Africa’s highest mountain. Unlike the early days of our climb—when we hiked in tees, shorts, and sun hats—we’re now wearing all the clothes in our backpack, including parkas, gators, and thermal layers Tom and I have been carrying around since September. It’s hard to believe we started climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in a tropical rainforest, because the summit is literally freezing and covered in snow.
Fortunately, we don’t feel too cold as long as we keep moving, slowly zig-zagging our way up the rocky face of the volcano. But about 30 minutes from the crater, I’m struck by a blinding headache followed by nausea so bad I thought I might puke right there on the trail. Nor was I the only hiker who was struggling. Another climber fought to calm her racing heartbeat, while everyone who couldn’t sleep yesterday—including Tom—suddenly appeared to be sleep-walking. Thankfully, after a quick break, some painkillers, caffeine pills, more Diamox, and hot mugs of ginger tea, we regrouped enough to make it to Gilman’s Point—the first of Mount Kilimanjaro’s 3 official summit points. We could have turned back here—and many people do—but we were determined to reach Uhuru Peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro’s highest summit, even though this meant hiking for another 2 hours in the blistering wind and snow.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Day 6
Elevation: 1,879 meters / 6,165 feet
Outlook: Broken
We spent our last day on Kilimanjaro trying to get back down the mountain, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. After hiking all night, we were thoroughly exhausted, but still had to walk 20k (12.5 miles) down to the main gate in almost one day. We don’t have to go pole pole any longer – in fact, our guides now wanted to move as quickly as possible -- but walking 20km is no joke when you’re already running on fumes. I’d used all my energy getting up Mount Kilimanjaro, and now all I want to do was sleep for a week.
But our guides were eager to get us to a lower elevation, herding us back down to the main gate without the multi-course meals, coffees in bed, and other motivational perks we’d grown used to over the past 5 days. By the time we arrived back in the town of Moshi, where we spent our last night together in a luxury lodge, I was so thoroughly spent that I wouldn’t be able to do much more than watch Christmas movies for the next week. But even though Tom and I were temporarily broken, it was completely worth it. We’d succeeded in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro before Tom’s 40th birthday, the one thing we’d come to Africa to do.
By Jen Swanson