Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in the world.
The entire climb took one week from the gate (at ~2100 metres) to the summit. We slept in tents for 7 consecutive days (at altitudes 2600-4600 metres). You can climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in fewer days but as you have to slowly acclimatize your body on the attitude for maximizing your chances for a summit attempt, we had decided on the longest route (The Lemosho route) in advance.
One of my mates unfortunately suffered from pulmonary edema and had to abort his quest one day prior the summit. I still feel sorry for him. However, we later heard that one male from another group had died the same day we reached the peak for not treating his lungs/walking down to a lower altitude in time. Afterall, the altitude is pretty high (5895 metres/19341 ft) and a climb attempt is certainly not free from danger/should not be underestimated, and mountain climbers end up dying on the mountain every once in a while. As for myself, I "only" developed moderate headache and took three aspirins on the hike altogether. Of course, we had to drink a lot of water on that altitude but neither of us really suffered from diarrhea which was surprising. I've done much more physically demanding stuff in my life, but another mate (who is in better shape than me) said afterwards that the climb was the toughest thing he's ever done in his life (he reached the summit 30 minutes after me). It's all individually and how well your body adapt to the high altitude.
It was windy as **** at the summit so I didn't take that many pictures/videos as I had hoped for and overall the temperature in Africa (granted, we were never below 1600 metres) was much colder than I had anticipated.
The summit attempt itself took almost 8 hours from ~4600 metres and the last camp to 5895 metres. We started walking 11:50 PM in the dark and the sun had rised once we reached Uhuru Peak at approximately 7:45 AM. It was quite a beautiful sight seeing the peak, the glaciers and the crater in the morning light.
Here's a short video from the summit (it gives you an idea of how windy/cold it was):
http://thengamer.com/AxZ/Kili/MOV_0534.mp4We also went on safari in Kenya (Amboseli National Park) on 5 different occasions after the climb were we saw a lot of wild animals including giraffes, zebras, hippos, elephants, hyenas, baboons, water buffalos, gnus, antelopes, flamingoes and other birds, and one lion. You could see Mt. Kilimanjaro from the safari and also from our hotel in Kenya which was pretty cool.
The Tanzanian/Kenyan border was a mess and three in our group almost didn't make it because they had "invalid visas" according to the guy in the reception.
We paid roughly $3000 for the entire package which include plane tickets (Stockholm > Paris > Nairobi), vaccines and pills, visas, guides, carriers and porters, bus transfers to hotels/gates, six hotel nights, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and tipping. Quite reasonable imo. We arrived in Africa on the 9th September and landed back home in Sweden on the 22nd.
More pictures from the trip will probably be posted later.
1/7 of the
Seven Summits done! Wonder which summit I will attempt next!
