The first time I saw 19,341-foot Mount Kilimanjaro was on our second day in Moshi, Tanzania, this past August. The clouds parted in the afternoon, revealing the top of the ethereal peak. It hardly seemed real, hanging there ghostly gray in the clouds, like it was more a part of the atmosphere than a part of the ground.
Seven days later, dawn gathered in a pink line over my right shoulder, spilling light over the tops of the clouds, thousands of feet below us. The air on the mountain was clear, very cold, and thin — my watch altimeter said we were near 18,000 feet elevation. The porters accompanying our hiking group sang softly and hypnotically in Swahili. Hiking at this altitude is as much mental as physical. I imagined myself a machine designed only for ascending the steep switchbacks up the summit cone, toward Kilimanjaro’s peak. In that incredible moment, I knew two things: I was going to make it. And I was never going to forget this.
After three years of delays for COVID, my wife and I finally accomplished our Kilimanjaro hike this summer, and in doing so learned some things that I have assembled into this guide for a life-changing adventure.
1. Decide why you want to do it.
Kilimanjaro is too hard to climb without a reason. We met climbers for whom Kilimanjaro was a bucket list item, or the next level in an escalating series of adventures. One used the climb to mark a milestone birthday. My wife and I chose this hike because it’s hard and there was no guarantee we’d succeed. Sometimes it’s necessary to try big things that might fail.
2. Choose a route.
We attacked from the west, over the Lemosho Route, which we chose because of its reputation for scenery. Longer trails, such as Lemosho, are also better for acclimating. Our hike totaled eight days. I consulted several guidebooks in making this choice, the best of which was “Kilimanjaro, The Trekking Guide to Africa’s Highest Mountain,” by Henry Stedman.
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3. Choose an outfitting company.
Many companies are licensed to bring tourists up Kilimanjaro. We chose Peak Planet, and found the company excellent. We signed up for a group climb, and ended up paired with seven other Americans and one Australian. For the 10 of us, Peak Planet assigned 35 guides, porters, cooks, and waiters. It was like Four Seasons service in the alpine desert, though nobody from the Four Seasons ever beat volcanic dust off my boots with a rag.
The porters are mostly young men, though there are a few women, too. They’re all incredible climbers. Each day after we left camp, they’d break down all the tents, tables, chairs, and equipment, pack it into giant rucksacks, which they’d carry to the next camp on their heads or cradled behind their necks, on top of their backpacks.
Our trip cost $2,999 each for the climb, and another $1,800 each for three days of safari drives in Tanzanian national parks, including the stunning Ngorongoro Crater. Flying to Kilimanjaro Airport is straightforward from Boston through Amsterdam.
4. Train for hiking.
Nearly everyone’s first question about the trek is, “How hard is the hiking?” It is a week-long hike over rough terrain. Our group of 10 ranged in age from 14 to 74, and we all made the summit, though we saw people in other groups overcome with altitude sickness who did not.
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The guides set a generally slow hiking pace. Most of the time I could have hiked faster, but rarely wanted to. Conquering Kilimanjaro is about two things: acclimating to the high altitude and conserving your body. The daily hikes building up to summit day were not all-out efforts, but hard enough that I was relieved to reach camp every day. Imagine climbing one of the White Mountains of New Hampshire every day for a week, except at high altitude. Some days it’s a tough one, like, say, Mount Madison. Other days are a little easier. That comparison works until summit day, which is its own beast.
Summit day went like this:
The day before, around midday, we pulled into our basecamp at nearly 15,000 feet. After dinner we went to sleep for a few hours, until the porters woke us at 11 p.m.
By midnight we were geared up and on the trail, hiking by headlamp. The lights from groups ahead of us were white pinpricks snaking up the dark summit cone. It was cold, maybe 20 degrees. We hiked methodically, resting for 3-4 minutes every half-hour. At about 16,500 feet, we saw two porters escorting — or nearly dragging — a young woman down the mountain. She looked dazed with altitude sickness. None of our group mentioned it at the time. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. As we climbed higher, some in our group fought altitude headaches and vomiting in the thin air. One time, around 4 a.m., I forgot to go slow, and hastily jumped up over a couple of boulders. My heart hammered frantically against my ribcage, its message unmistakable: Easy, dude! I’m working with half the normal oxygen!
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We summited at 8:44 a.m., after hiking all night. The feeling of triumph and relief was overwhelming. We stood upon the highest point in Africa, looking down on clouds and blinding white glaciers. After 30 minutes for pictures, we started down. At base camp we rested an hour or so, and then kept going to a lower camp for the night. Summit day was about 15 hours of hard, steep hiking, most of it at very high altitude.
5. Start early to get good gear.
The gear list for Kilimanjaro is extensive. You have to prep for weather between 0 and 80 degrees. On summit night, I wore five layers: a grid-fleece base layer, a wool-poly sweater, a polartec fleece pullover, a light down jacket, and a synthetic-fill puffy coat. On my legs: merino wool long underwear, mid-layer fleece pants, and a Gore-tex wind shell. Gear that is light, packable, warm, breathable, and stink-resistant is also expensive. After paying a lot for the trip it is tempting to cut corners, but at no point during the hike did I ever say, “I wish I had inferior gear.”
Top brands such as The North Face and Rab can be had at substantial discounts on outlet sites, such as campsaver.com, steepandcheap.com, or even eBay. It just takes persistence and patience. I started hunting for deals nearly a year before the trip and methodically filled out our checklists with top items at way below retail prices.
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6. Save money and go with a group.
You can pay extra for a private climb, but the better experience is with a group. Our group began as strangers, ate every meal together for a week, passed together through a mighty trial, and cemented friendships that will last the rest of our lives. Climbing Kilimanjaro is not for everybody, but if it is for you, it’s more fun with like-minded people.
Mark Arsenault can be reached at mark.arsenault@globe.com. Follow him @bostonglobemark.