Custom Trips on Kilimanjaro

This sum­mer has been the sea­son of small Kil­i­man­jaro climbs! We com­plet­ed three suc­cess­ful trips up the moun­tain in July, two on the Shi­ra Plateau and one up the Machame Route, and they all had an air of cus­tom, small-par­ty quaint­ness. One group added a lux­u­ry beach­side fin­ish to their Shi­ra Plateau climb on the beau­ti­ful white sand beach­es of Zanz­ibar. What a won­der­ful way to reward your­selves after a sum­mit accom­plish­ment! Check out sto­ries from the oth­er two climbs below:

Climbers Mark J. and Neil W. joined us on July 7^th with our lead guide Bonaven­ture for our clas­sic Shi­ra Plateau climb. To intro­duce the guys to the spec­tac­u­lar coun­try, the team hiked up a hill close to camp to watch the sun set over the back of Kil­i­man­jaro. As the group start­ed out on towards the moun­tain, they passed through grass­lands, to the mon­tane for­est, the Hage­nia zone and up into the upper Heath zone. Mark and Neil were in pho­to­graph­ic heav­en with great views of the Shi­ra ridge and clear skies.

(all pho­tos from pre­vi­ous treks)

Trekking through the mon­tane for­est. David Bates photo

As the team start­ed to gain ele­va­tion after pass­ing the Lava Tow­er, they began to prac­tice the tech­nique of the rest­ing step. Luck­i­ly, this tech­nique allowed them to con­tin­ue their enter­tain­ing con­ver­sa­tion even as the air thinned with the gain­ing elevation. 

The night at the Crater Camp was a bit rough for Neil. Alti­tude was not agree­ing with him and our guides treat­ed his alti­tude sick­ness symp­toms and mon­i­tored him care­ful­ly well into the night. Luck­i­ly the treat­ment and close care from our lead guide made his symp­toms sub­side and he got a cou­ple hours of unin­ter­rupt­ed sleep before the next morn­ing. Thanks to Bonaven­ture’s expe­ri­ence with alti­tude relat­ed ill­ness­es, Neil was able to con­tin­ue up with Mark the next day and stand on the top of Africa!! You nev­er would have thought he had been sick the night before; he was so excit­ed with his accom­plish­ment he prac­ti­cal­ly ran the whole way back down the moun­tain! Con­grat­u­la­tions to both men for over­com­ing the chal­lenges and reach­ing their goal!

The glac­i­er on Kil­i­man­jaro. David Bates photo

On July 14^th, new­ly-weds Fabio S. and Shaa­di S. cel­e­brat­ed the first half of their hon­ey­moon on the sum­mit of Kil­i­man­jaro as well! This team decid­ed to do our short­er Machame Route.

The trip start­ed out with a pre­view of the great cui­sine they would be expe­ri­enc­ing as Fabio and Shaa­di enjoyed break­fast with their guide, staff and a cou­ple colobus mon­keys lin­ger­ing near camp! The great game view­ing con­tin­ued through­out the day as they shared their sun­down­er with a cou­ple buf­fa­lo and start­ed off din­ner with a near­by leop­ard roar. What a way to start the trip!

Climb­ing on the Machame Route. MM Collection

As the team made their way up the moun­tain, they enjoyed tak­ing pic­tures of the sur­round­ing spec­tac­u­lar scenery and even got snowed on a bit. (That night called for some hot water bot­tles in sleep­ing bags to stay warm.) On July 20^th, Fabio and Shaa­di topped off their hon­ey­moon by stand­ing on the sum­mit of Kil­i­man­jaro! As they descend­ed to Mwe­ka camp, they cel­e­brat­ed their accom­plish­ment with a deli­cious din­ner of fresh sal­ad and leg of lamb. 

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the hap­py couple! 

There are still plen­ty of Kil­i­man­jaro climbs to join this year. Our Sep­tem­ber 21 trip is reach­ing 9 climbers so far. Call to get your spot on this climb!