i want to climb kilamanjaro

shadowcomplex

Would appreciate advice on this, what am i getting myself into, what tour operator should i go with

Esel

Do a search in this forum.

MadsL

Is it not more of a walk?

Esel

MadsL wrote: »

Is it not more of a walk?

Have you walked it?

MadsL

Hence the question mark. I heard it was a bit of a stroll. Is it not?

Cereal Number

I climbed a kilamanjaro before, she was a nice enough lass

MadsL

Cereal Number wrote: »

I climbed a kilamanjaro before, she was a nice enough lass

Did she take six days to conquer?

Esel

Can we at least spell it correctly? Some interesting climbing history info in that article, as well as info on 'trekking' the mountain. At 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) I would not classify it as a 'walk' - I'm sure that many apparently fit people who attempt it don't succeed due to the altitude.

Cereal Number

MadsL wrote: »

Did she take six days to conquer?

Two man job

Sev

From the perspective of a climber, it's would be classified as a "walk". Kilimanjaro is very tall, much higher than any mountain in the European Alps, but it's not steep, it's a gentle incline all the way to the summit*

The reason it is a walk, is because it poses nothing more technically demanding than a difficult "hillwalk" in the Irish hills. The chance of you falling to your death on Kilimanjaro is virtually nil. But it's important to understand that even stairs will be difficult to climb at 5800m.

If you were super fit, you could run up Kilimanjaro in a day without acclimatisation, but it would be a very dangerous thing to do - you would certainly develop acute altitude sickness.

The altitude is a serious proposition, but easily overcome by taking it easy and giving yourself enough time to acclimatise by making the ascent gradually over a sufficient number of days. The problem with Kilimanjaro is that people try to climb it too quickly, there are many 5-day itineraries which are medically ill-advised.

So yes, Kilimanjaro is a walk... but it's a very long walk to high altitude. That said, almost anyone can do it by taking it easy and ascending slowly in their own time.

If you want more information, as Esel says, search this forum for "Kilimanjaro". It seems every 20th post on this forum is about climbing Kilimanjaro!

*it gets a little steep at the very end, but nothing technical.

MadsL

Well, I now live at 5,000 ft so I guess I'm in training

mlumley

Why not do it for charity? My wife did it last year, had to raise €3500, plus money for inoculations. She said it was the best thing she had ever done. See this site for more info, http://www.kilimanjaroachievers.com/Press.html

Gillo

Not meaning to knock your wife but a lot of that money doesn't end up going into an actual charitable cause. I'd (and a lot of people I know) would be quite cynical of people "going on holiday" for charity. All that being said, fair dues to your wife for both climbing it & making a bit of money for charity.

OP, once you are reasonably fit and take your time you should be able to do it easy enough. Learn about altitude sickness, the symptoms, the causes and how to lesson the efforts. There are plenty of guided trips or "expeditions", as someone else said do a search of the forum you'll find loads.

Esel

So, just to clarify for MadsL, it is a (very demanding, very long, latterly very cold) hillwalk rather than a walk (in any park).

shadowcomplex

Thanks for the replies folks , I have read up about AMS and its something everyone should be aware of when attempting to climb Kilimanjaro.I am going to do Carrantuohill first as I've never climbed a mountain before

a few questions

1.taking AMS into account is 7 days enough time

2.which route should I do, there's a fair few

3.I would like to do it for charity but im unsure, most organisatons want 5k and I'm worried I wouldn't be able to raise this much plus a lot of the money wouldn't go to the charity anyway,thoughts

4.Whats a tougher challenge Kilimanjaro or Everest base camp

Sev

Esel wrote: »

So, just to clarify for MadsL, it is a (very demanding, very long, latterly very cold) hillwalk rather than a walk (in any park).

Yes, I forgot to say it's cold too! But not super super cold. Expect like -10C in the early morning when you wake up on summit day, but you warm up rather quickly on the summit when the sun rises.

shadowcomplex wrote: »

4.Whats a tougher challenge Kilimanjaro or Everest base camp

It's hard to say. I would probably say Kilimanjaro is "tougher", but this is because I climbed it with a 5-day itinerary which I now understand to be a very bad idea. It means that if you keep to schedule, you ascend (without prior acclimatisation) 4000m to 5900m in less than 48hrs. I was ok, because in generally I cope pretty well with altitude, but I hazarded a guess that 50% of people who try this would develope AMS and have to abandon going for the summit (irrespective of how fit they are). I'd recommend extending it to 6 days at least, better 7.

The EBC trek on the other hand is a longer, but a more gradual affair. If you go with a trekking company, you will only ascend on average 300m per day, and spend typically less than 6hrs a day walking, with plenty of time to rest and chill in the evenings. The difference however, is that Kilimanjaro is straight up all the way, a gradual but relentless slope, whereas hiking in the Khumbu (Everest region) is all up and down valleys. Plenty of heartbreak when you have to lose all the altitude you worked so hard on gaining.

Personally, I preferred hiking in the Khumbu because:

1) Better scenery : The air in October/November in the Himalayas is crystal clear and the views are of jagged ice capped mountain peaks. My experience of the air in East africa was that it was very hazy and visibility was limited

2) The EBC trek is longer, and more of an adventure with a stronger sense of culture and mystery. E.g. crossing narrow rope bridges suspended high above the river

http://www.mountainsoftravelphotos.com/Everest/Lukla%20To%20Namche%20Bazaar/slides/Lukla%20To%20Namche%20Bazaar%2022%20Suspension%20Bridge%20High%20Above%20Dudh%20Kosi%20Before%20Climb%20To%20Namche%20Bazaar.jpg

or visiting buddhist Monasteries with yeti artefacts :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangboche_Hand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khumjung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengboche_Monastery

3) Less red tape : you can't do Kilimanjaro independently... you have to hire a guide to do it and it's expensive, more expensive than it should be. On the other hand, if you're suitably competent and adventurous you could save a lot of money and travel to EBC independently. There are plenty of little villages along the way where you could eat and find accommodation and you could bring a tent too. The trail is very easy to follow and there are lots of people on it, if you have some experience backpacking and hiking in the hills and can use a map, you can't go wrong.

4) The flight! The majority of people doing EBC will start at Lukla a small air strip perched on the side of a steep mountain side, you fly here from Kathmandu. The flight is breath taking. the plane skims over mountain tops with snow capped peaks overhead. Get a seat on the left side of the plane to try spot Everest on the way in.

Other pros of EBC :

1) Kathmandu. Maybe my favourite places in the world. It's traveller heaven especially if you have entered from India. I call it "India light", it's got all the advantages of India, much of the interesting culture and it's cheap! But the weather is excellent, vendors don't hassle you as much and all the amenities that the western traveler misses are available such as steak, good pizza and beer.

2) While in Nepal you could consider visiting Bardia or Chitwan national park to spot rhino and tigers

3) Driving to Lhasa, Tibet by jeep is another popular excursion from Kathmandu. Provides spectactular scenery of the Tibetan plateau and a different view on Everest from the North.

4) From Kathmandu, many people visit Pokhara to go trekking in the Annapurna region which is apparently equally impressive and probably less crowded. It's also more accessible, you can bus it there instead of flying in.

Cons of EBC :

1) The flight to Lukla is very sensitive to weather and it can be delayed for days if it's not clear. To minimise the risk here, go in October/November when the weather is best.

Pros of Kilimanjaro :

1) It's not too far too Nairobi so flights can be inexpensive. Once in Nairobi, it's only a 6hr bus ride to Arusha, the base of the Tanzanian Safari circuit. From there it's about a 2hr drive to Moshi, the base for Kilimanjaro.

2) While there, I'd advise visiting the Serengeti or Masai Mara (find out where where the wildebeest migration is), you are in East Africa after all. Another popular trip from Arusha is to the Ngorongoro crater.

3) There's some wild-life on the Kili trek too. Theres cloud forest in the lower slopes that are home to Colobus and blue monkeys

4) Moshi is about an 8hr bus from Dar es Salaam. You could visit Zanzibar!

Cons of Kilimanjaro

1) Africa is expensive, safaris can be expensive. But they don't have to be... you can do them for cheap if you can contact people on the ground. Africa is corrupt, and when you book these trips through travel agents over the internet etc. it's hard to know where your money is going exactly and why you're paying so much. It seems that everybody ends up doing the same thing anyway just with some having paid more money to the middle man. Always try to make sure you're dealing with the people on the ground who are really providing you the service, it's very common to simply be outsourced to local operators who charge much less than what you're paying. I'd recommend trying to book the Kilimanjaro trip with a local agent in Moshi.

Gillo

Great post Sev

I'd love to try EBC, do you mind me asking roughly what the damage was altogether (ie, flights, tour package and spending money).

Sev

Gillo wrote: »

Great post Sev
I'd love to try EBC, do you mind me asking roughly what the damage was altogether (ie, flights, tour package and spending money).

Hi Gillo, thanks. It was in 2007 when I did this, so prices might have changed a little.

My flight from Dublin to Kathmandu was about 700e I think.

I didn't do a classic EBC itinerary, we taylor made an itinerary with a Kathmandu tour agency called "Far out nepal" (which I would recommend) and I was in a group of five. Because we wanted to climb a trekking peak (guided alpine ascent to 6119m- ice axe, crampons, high altitude) called Lobuche east, our trip was probably longer and a lot more expensive than the standard EBC trip.

I believe it was about 16-17 days in total from Kathmandu back to Kathmandu. We visited EBC and Kala Patthar first then hiked back to near the Cho La pass where we spent some time getting some basic training in rope, axe and crampon technique and crevasse rescue in preparation for an ascent of Lobuche east, one of the nepalese trekking peaks. (See also "Island Peak" and "Mera peak").

$1445 (US Dollars) for the trip, I think the rate was about 1.3 back then.
This included guides and porters all the way there and back.
Accommodation and meals every day
Rental of technical climbing equipment and training.

This price did not include our yeti airlines return-ticket to Lukla which was $210

Apart from that, during the 16-17 days we didn't need any spending money because our accommodation and meals were taken care of. But we brought about 50e-100e discretionary money to cover purchase of chocolate and alcohol.

Living in Kathmandu is very cheap. We stayed at the "Hotel Ganesh Himal" for about 10$ a night, and it would rival any 100$ a night hotel in Europe. Eating in Kathmandu is also fantastically cheap. Typically we went to the Everest Steak House, where you could get an excellent fillet steak for about 4e. "Fire and Ice", a Kathmandu pizza joint was anther favourite.

We also did an 8 day overland jeep trip to Lhasa. This was $725. Our air china flight back from Lhasa to Kathmandu was about ~200e, but I don't remember exactly.

We also spent 4 nights in Bardia national park with "Forest Hideaway", which was EXCEPTIONALLY good value. It was $130 for a 4 day / 5 night trip, which included guided wildlife excursions, meals and accommodation. We were looked after very well and Mohan and his staff were super super nice. The return flight to Nepalgunj was probably around $200.

When I did EBC, I wasn't

1) An experienced mountaineer (not that you need to be for EBC, but nowadays I'm very comfortable sleeping and navigating in foreign mountains)
2) As practiced a traveler as I am now.
3) and I didn't know much about Nepal.

If I were to go again (which is quite likely for climbing), I would do it all as independently as possible. I'd just buy the Lukla flight, arrive and start hiking out to EBC on my own with a good map. I'd expect to stay at the guest houses along the way (of which there are many). I would hazard a complete guess that it would cost less than $20 a night to sleep and eat at any one of these little guest houses.

The trail is very well trodden, you could find your way there without a map! The only thing that would worry me is arriving at a guesthouse in, say, Namche Bazaar or Tengboche and it being full (Gorak shep is the one I'd be most worried about being full). I don't know how you could book these things in advance if you're not a Kathmandu travel agent or in the know, so I would bring a -10 rated sleeping bag and a lightweight tent or bivvy bag too just in case. I would also probably time my trip to coincide with the Mani Rimdu festival (but this is probably also the peak of the high season).