Climbing Kili in Feb

capefear

Hi Guys


Its been along time on the bucket list, so have decided to take the plunge and get up of my arse and do Kili in Feb. 17. I'm have signed up to go with a local Irish company that run trips there.


Any advice or tips would be really appreciated. Im in my 40's male and not fit but with a few months training should be grand.


Thanks in advance for any feedback

Losty Dublin

For a start, get your arse out of your chair and walk and hike the bollocks off of yourself as and from now. Walk to and from from work and shops and social outings if you can. Take off into the hills on days and evenings off work as well, ideally with a back pack. Build the distances up close to November and ensure that you don't push yourself to the point of hurting yourself; any injury will hold you back.

Get a bit of hard ass cardio exercise in as well. You will doing a weeks walk in rarefied air and it will take a lot out of your heart and lungs so they need to be prepared as well. Deal with any medical shots needed in time as well. Oh and begin to eat better as well. No need for crazy heavy diet regimes as such; just cut down on rubbish and eat healthier as a whole.

Also, even at this early stage, get into one of the decent walking shops and suss out genuinely good outdoor kit, footwear especially. As the saying goes, the old shoes for the long road.

I'm sure that the more experienced walkers here can add to or improve on my input here

Neady83

Hi capefear,

Climbing Kili is such an adventure and you're starting to prepare just in time.

Kili is a LONG walk, it’s not all about fitness, its all about acclimatization, a proper pace and stamina. The group that you climb with will set the pace so you don't have to worry about that. The mantra you will use when you're climbing each day is pole pole pronounced pole-ay pole-ay, meaning slowly slowly. Therefore, while you will be walking slowly, you will be on your feet for 7 - 10 hours every day so that is what you need to prepare yourself for. On the last day of the final push, you may be on your feet for 12 - 15 hours.

Get well fitting boots and start to break them in as soon as you can. Get out for long hill walks, they don't have to be at break neck speed but gradually increase the time you spend on your feet and judge how your legs and feet feel with the strain. As Losty Dublin said, bring a heavy backpack with 2 to 3 liters of water and all you need for a day of hiking, get used to walking up hill with this on your back. You should also get used to hiking with trekking poles as these will take some of the weight off your knees on the long days.

The altitude is another thing you will have to contend with but you won't know how your body will respond until you start to reach 3,500 meters or so. The altitude can cause headaches, shortness of breath and in extreme cases, sickness. One way to help your body cope with altitude and the toxins that build up in your body due to the lack of oxygen is to drink water. You should start getting used to drinking 2 to 3 liters of water each day, this will help to flush the toxins from your body. The reason you will be ascending so slowly is so that your body can get used to the thinning air and start to produce more red blood cells. The best chance of success is to ascend more slowly, taking more days and giving your body a better chance to acclimatise. I think most companies have a 5 days up and 2 days down policy.

Lost Dublin already pointed out that you will need vaccinations so you should start to look into these as soon as possible as you may need some a couple of months before traveling. I was well advised by the Tropical Medical Bureau on the vaccinations that I needed - though be aware, they can be quite expensive.

If you are doing the Machame route you will be doing some scrambling on the barranco wall so check out some pictures and see if you could join a local hiking group to get a head for those kind of heights. It's not very technical but it's quite high so it's no harm to know what you're letting yourself in for.

If you can, try to get a hold of the equipment list. You will need a sleeping bag that will keep you warm in -13 degree temperatures, a sleeping mat, 2ltr wide rimmed water bottles among other things. The earlier you have this list, the more you can look out for sales and grab yourself a bargain.

I can give you more tips on things to bring that will make life a little easier when you're out there so if you like, check back in closer to the time and I'll put a list together for you.

jamfer

I climbed it in 2010. I loved it. I too was your age and unfit before taking it on.

With the benefit of hindsight I can say that it is a fantastic experience and you shouldn't be fearful in anyway of undertaking the challenge. As it turned out my expectations were way off. I followed the Lemosho Route and this allows ample time to acclimatise. You walk 75klms over 8 days on this route, taking in stunning scenery and getting fantastic exposure to the mountain and the micro climates. You also have a much higher chance of summiting as there is ample time to acclimatise to the altitude on this route. The toughest day I found was the first and obviously the second last, when were were climbing from Barafu Hut at 4,600 meters to Uhuru Peak.

My expectations were set by looking at the Climb for kids programme on RTE1 and also from reading blogs and other posts on d'internet. Dangerous, but you do find yourself researching and reading.

So...

Training:

I am not a jogger, nor am I a gym goer. In fact I could characterise my training as "from couch to 5895 meters in 6 months". I made sure to spend as much time hill walking as I could, and to this end I walked the hills of Wicklow most weekends. I averaged about 3 to 4 hours per visit. Glendalough, Mullaclevaun and Djouce were regular haunts, as indeed was Croagh Patrick, Slieve Foy and The Galtees. To my shame I didn't climb Carrantuohill before I set off for Africa.

Of the 5 others in my group I'd have been the least "fit" although I was the best prepared for the task, what with all the hill walking. There appears to be a huge difference between running fit and hill walking fit. I did many walks with a friend who runs and he'd be stiff and sore after our hill walks whereas I'd fell nothing.

My main tip is get comfortable walking on loose rock and scree - Croagh Patrick was invaluable here.

Prep work:

I spent 2 nights in a tent out my back garden just to re-familiarise myself with life outdoors. It was a worthwhile task as it brought home the need for earplugs and also just how cold it can be to sleep under canvas.

I took Diamox (anti altitude med) for a few days to ensure I wouldn't have any reactions to it on the mountain. I took it on the mountain with no ill effects even though my experience of it in Ireland wasn't great. Diamox is a huge area of conjecture in the will I won't I lead up to the climb.

Gear:

You could go crazy looking at gear lists of what you need or don't need. Buy good, well fitting boots, do all your training in them. Buy good socks. Buy merino tops, they are expensive but can be worn for days on end and not honk. I used a pair of Scarpa ZG65 boots, Bridgedale light hiker and trekker socks lower down and Teko Summit socks on the top. I used Icebreaker baselayers. I rented poles and sleeping bag, but bought a silk liner. I appropriated a pillow from the airplane.

On the mountain:

Embrace dirt: give yourself over to the mountain, forget about home, email and life outside and you will fare well. Yes there is mobile coverage in some places, but it is patchy and not reliable. Embrace dirt, for it will be the bane of your life otherwise. I adopted the clean hands, balls and feet approach to life and it kept me in good spirits, that is new socks and jocks each morning along with litres of hand sanitising gel. Our tour operator provided a bowl of hot water each morning and evening for washing. The climbing season coincides with the dry season so the mountain is bone dry, and so you get dust, lots and lots of fine dust which gets everywhere. Trying to stay clean, or being concerned about not being clean seemed to be the biggest issue facing many of my fellow team mates. We were limited to 18kgs of luggage on the mountain so packing light is a virtue - I had 12 kgs and a medium sized bag which allowed me enough changes of clothes to get through the trek comfortably and allowing me be fastidious about cleanliness where it matters.

Forget about time: take each day, and the changing landscapes as you find them. Bring a camera and take lots of photos. It takes as long as it takes for you to get from one camp site to the next. Most days will see long treks, your guides are a huge resource on these walks and you we had great fun with our Masai Warrior guide with his two wives and love of uisce beatha! where you can of course - sometimes the terrain is so steep that you'd do well to keep your breath just stood still).

Take in the scenery: I spent much of my time on the mountain standing looking out over the views, it really is a stunning place. I regret not taking more photographs.

Look after yourself: pole pole (poley poley they pronounce it) means slowly slowly, and it is the key to succeeding. You need to acclimatise and ensure that you keep yourself in as good a shape as you can. At altitude you will not eat right, you won't sleep well and you end up in trouble as a result. I took my time each day and made sure to drink the 5 litres of water and ate as much food as possible at every meal. Some on the team lost appetite, or didn't drink enough and struggled as a result. I aimed to have my fluids onboard early in the day so that I didn't end up needing to pee at night. Tents and sleeping bags not being conducive to such activities. Oh and the pitch black and freezing temperatures.

Coeus

I actually did Kili in February a few years back. The advice given above is spot on.

For me training I mostly walked and walked with some days in the hills (Dublin and Wicklow trails). For fitness/cardio I went off on my bike couple times a week which is how I keep fit normally. Now I had experience hiking at altitude previously having hiked first in South America and then Nepal so knew what it was like to acclimatise, the only difference is on Kili you have less time and you have to climb higher.

The advice of going slowly is probably the most important bit of advice you will get on this thread. On the early days you might feel you can walk faster but your body is not used of the lower oxygen levels so you need the time to allow the adjustment to take place without over doing it. In Nepal I had walked a bit too quickly the first few days and felt fine but then had a bad day or 2. Luckily those days the walk was only a couple of kms and a few hundreds metres altitude gain so I was able to recover but I learn't my lesson. The local guides are great and normally do 1-2 ascents a month so know how to pace people. Follow their lead and you are off to a good start and I feel their pacing negates the need for Diamox. I know for sure in our group 5 out 7 of our group weren't using it and all got to the summit. 4 of those had never had hiked at altitude.

Weather wise, it was mostly dry. We had a thunderstorm, one evening evening midway through the trek. On the summit night it was cold, the wind was up which made it worse, I could have done with a balaclava to be honest. Otherwise my not overly expensive gear stood up.

One other thing I don't use hiking poles normally. However before the trek started I was advised that it was a good idea to have them for the summit day. Not to help on the ascent but for the descending scree slopes which will have thawed out by the time you are coming back down from the summit. If you have them bring them