Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Loved Whitney...Now Kili?

My partner and I hiked Mt Whitney in one day on July 24th. We loved the challenge and the satisfaction of meeting our goal. We are now researching hiking Kilimanjaro in January or February. I did a search of this forum and have seen that many members have hiked it. I am leaning towards the Machame route, but am looking for advice from those that have hiked the mountain. What route did you use? What trekking company did you go with and would you recommend them?

I bought a couple of books and have been reading about trail options, but would love to hear from people who have hiked it. Thanks in advance for any input!

gTy,

Congratulations on climbing Mt. Whitney! I try to do one splurge hike every year. In January, I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and highly recommend it. I did the 7 day Machame route, and thought it was ideal. The profile (up and down) allowed me and my fellow hikers to acclimate well, so that all 6 of us made it to Uhuru peak. It was also a very scenic route, and it allowed us to see a lot of different climate zones. I used Zara Tanzania Adventures (zaratours.com) and found them to be quite adequate. If you want a lot of hand holding and flowers on the table, Zara is not for you. But if you want decent gear, good food and someone to lead you to the top, Zara was perfect. They are also well priced and own their own hotel near Moshi. A lot of folks on this site have climbed Kili, and I am sure that they will add their experiences as well. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Umbwe Route and the Western Breach. Isolated, and has a few easy class 3 sections for interest.

The only time we saw other people--except for maybe a total of ten who were descending this more direct way because of altitude sickness--was at a couple of the camp sites. These were sites where other popular trails, like the Machame and Lemosho Glades, crossed ours. Otherwise we had the mountain to ourselves, including the summit itself.

We did descend a popular route, and saw plenty of people on that. However we camped only one night on the descent.

Kili report

Thanks for the input, Doc and Bob. And Bob, thanks for including your report. That will be really helpful. I am familiar with you through Dick M from Ridgecrest. He is my SIL's dad. We met up with him when we did Whitney last month.

I will look into both Zara and Jagged Globe. There are way too many options!

Bob R even made this months issue of Westways Magazine, seems the age is off a little

"41-year member"

Been a member of the auto club, not the age

My husband and I did Kili last Sept. We were on the Rongai route that
goes up one side (closest to Kenya) and down another. We chose
a six day trek and it was a perfect amount of time.

We used Adventures within Reach which is a CO based company who organizes the trek through EcoTours in Tanzania. They were ok...if you are not super rigid....thing will work out just fine if you use them.

Diamox was our savior. We are both super sensitive to altitude.

If you have the time, a Safari after the hike is fabulous!

We stayed at Bristol Cottages in Moshi pre & post hike. Super clean with a nice staff.
Hope that helps.