Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

Climbing Outside the Country 101

(This article appears in the May/June issue of Mountaineer Magazine.)

by Donovan Pacholl, Owner, Embark Adventures

What calls the mountaineer to the mountain? For many of us, it is the thrill of the unknown. Breaking through the clouds and up into another atmosphere. Testing our gear, our stamina, our friendships, and our outermost limits and seeing how it all looks when we’ve gone as high as the mountain itself.

If you haven’t climbed outside the country yet, there’s one part of the unknown that still awaits you: not just high country but mysterious places, ancient and untouched cultures, the ultra remote settings so few ever see.

So if you’ve already bagged Mount Rainier, or trekked out into the wilderness to tackle Glacier Peak, may I suggest that you consider climbing a major mountain in another part of the world. International expeditions make for a two-in-one adventure of a lifetime, and are easier to pull off than you might think. Here’s a quick primer to help make any international big-peak dreams come true.

Pick Your Destination

If your aim is to climb a mountain, the world is your oyster, so how do you determine where do you want to go? First, consider what else you might want to do before or after the climb – or that companions might entertain themselves with while you’re climbing. Consider, for example, Africa for wildlife safaris, the Himalayas for culture and trekking, South America for its history, and Europe for its sophistication and relative ease of travel.

Based on my own travel experience, I highly recommend Mount Kilimanaro in Africa, Island Peak in Nepal, Aconcagua in South America, and Mount Blanc or the Matterhorn in the Alps. If you’ve been up Rainier, you can handle any of these peaks.

Research Your Outfitter

For all the peaks I’ve mentioned, you’ll want (and in some cases be legally bound to get) an outfitter. To pick an outfitter, make sure they “get” climbing and aren’t actually a rafting or trekking outfit. Do the research to ensure they are a trusted name, such as interviewing past clients, and make sure they are flexible in planning as well as responsive to your questions and specific needs.

Just as importantly, remember that they impact the community you’ll be visiting, so find out how they interact with the locals. Are they good to their porters? Do they respect and give back to their local communities?

Plan, plan, plan

A good rule of thumb is to plan your climb about a year and a half out to allow for conditioning, finding partners, figuring out money and logistics, and buying and testing your gear.

But remember that much of the work for this kind of trip is mental, so make a commitment to go and then stick with it. Partners can be key here – for accountability, training, companionship, and making it real.

When it comes to money, a good guideline is to expect that your gear, airfare, and the climb will total anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000 per person, depending on where you’re going and for how long. If you don’t have it, make a plan to save for it by the time all fees will come due.

Plan to buy your airfare at least three, and perhaps as many as six or seven, months ahead. Also leave plenty of time to secure your visas and get up to date on all necessary immunizations. You do not want to be worrying about such important logistics the last weeks before departure.

Start your physical training at least six months out, and remember, it’s all about elevation! If you’ve got any peaks nearby, make it a point to trek or climb at altitude as regularly as you’re able.

For a more enriching experience, research the peak and the area you’ll be visiting. Consider getting your own guide books and taking your own introductory language course or pocket dictionary.

Not only is there gear to buy, you also need to give yourself plenty of time to test it and be sure it works for you and the specific demands of your trip. Test and break in all your gear well in advance.

A final important consideration is insurance. You’ll want to think about injuries that could occur and how trip cancellations for various reasons are handled.

Remember the Dream

It’s easy to get bogged down in all the details of planning and general travel logistics. Don’t let the details deter you. A big peak in a foreign land will be a major lifetime event, and it’s one you can share with climbing and non-climbing friends alike. Imagine the bonding that will occur with your group, the winding-down you’ll have on an, say, African safari, or the adventure others can have trekking through the Himalayas as they await your return.

Mountains so often inspire some of our most powerful life experiences. In fact, I proposed to my wife on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. I can’t predict what will happen for you, but I do hope you will combine your climbing and adventure travel dreams, forge ahead, and make them both come true.

A Suggested Timeline

i. Six months out:

1. Finalize your travel dates, including air travel

2. Invite friends/family you’d like to join you

3. Schedule an appointment with your doctor for immunizations

4. Organize and begin your training program

 

ii. Four months out:

1. Purchase your flights (3 to 9 months in advance)

2. Confirm your group

3. Shop for and begin testing your gear

4. Organize your visa

5. Train

 

iii. Two months out:

1. Be sure you’re up to date on all your immunizations

2. Secure travel insurance

3. Keep testing your gear

4. Keep training

 

iv. One month out:

1. Keep training

2. Make sure all logistics are in place

3. Finish purchasing all necessary gear

4. Send final payment to Outfitter

 

v. One week out:

1. Taper training

2. Pack

3. Rest

4. Say goodbye!

 

Donovan Pacholl is the owner and creator of Embark and its adventures. Pacholl has not only organized hundreds of adventure trips around the world, he has also traveled extensively and lead expeditions throughout Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and Tanzania, and a number of other countries.

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Tips for Responsible Travel

At Embark, we think of travel as an adventure. But we also want to do it right: that is, we want to visit cultures but not affect them negatively; we want to explore natural environments without contributing to their demise; and we want to see the world while leaving behind a world worth seeing.

That’s why we enjoyed this article from a Filipino newspaper (thank you, Internet!) from an Adventure and Responsible Tourism Conference in, appropriately enough, Bhutan. The article quotes the keynote speaker as offering these seven tips for moving from “gawking tourist” to responsible traveler.

1. Make careful choices about the frequency, length and location of your trip

2. Learn to explore by foot

3. Select suppliers whose actions show that they run “places that care” for the environment, the employees, the host community as well as for the guest and investor.

4. Use transport modes that run on alternative energy

5. Buy food and souvenirs that are sourced and made by local residents, preferably using skills at risk of disappearing, and the services of local guides

6. Demonstrate humble curiosity—a conscious traveler will take the time to learn more about the community, the people and issues before, during and after their trips

7. Learn and respect local customs and traditions

What a great list! We aspire to live by all of those, whether it’s trekking in the Himalayas, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, or going a cultural tour of Nepal. We also believe in paying fair wages and supporting the people and the environments where we travel. We believe in the places we travel, and invest money back into these communities, supporting local nongovernmental organizations such as the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project in Tanzania.

As we like to say, Embark is not just a company – it is a philosophy.

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Hail the Kili Porters!

We couldn’t agree more with the thrust of this article, Hail the Porters of Kilimanjaro, from an Australian newspaper.

As the article says, “For every foreigner who climbs Kilimanjaro, at least three Tanzanians, and often many more, swarm up the volcanic slope like worker ants, 50-pound bags perched precariously on their heads and baggy shirts flopping over their skinny frames.”

Embark Adventures was founded on the slopes of Africa’s highest peak, and we continue to work with some of the best porters on the mountain.

It’s also true, as the article points out, that many porters aren’t paid livable wages, and they often have to pay for their own food on the way up, meaning they often barely eat anything while hauling backbreaking loads, and refuse to turn back down the mountain when they experience altitude sickness because they cannot afford to.

So it is with great pride that we at Embark are a part of the great Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, the nonprofit that focuses on ensuring that porters make livable wages, are treated fairly, and that they actually receive the tips climbers try to give them.

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Reporting from Kili summit

Andy Schiestl has masterfully profiled his February Kili climb with Embark. Check out his step-by-step retelling here:

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Arriving in Moshi

February 14th: Everyone got to town alright, we went on a tour around Moshi in the morning. Stopped at the Kilimanjaro coffee company again, there was coffee brewing class going on and a guy from Portland was one of the instructors, amusingly enough. Toured around the market (first the big market, then the slightly smaller more spread out one. Got to be a bit overwhelming, I split off to head back to the hotel for lunch. After a briefing that evening, went through my bag with Freddie and confirmed that I had the right gear.

Tree Camp / Miti Mikubwa

February 15th: Off we go! Stopped for a bathroom break on the drive up along dirt roads, had a couple of Masai come up and ask if they could get a ride (they weren’t going to the same place we were). It was kind of amusing to see one of them in traditional Masai garb chatting on a cell phone. Stopped to pick up porters (37 of them!) and get gear distributed at check-in station, then proceeded to the trailhead along a road that started out sketchy and quickly escalated to hair-raising (banged into a tree a couple of times trying to get past it on muddy ruts). We began climbing through the jungle from about 6000 feet at about 2 in the afternoon (with monkeys hooting in the background). Got to Big Tree camp just before it started pouring, thankfullly the mess tent and our tents were situated already. Dinner was amazing, much better than any of us expected. The whole scope of the group was pretty amazing, 58 people in total (cooks, porters, guides, “juice machine” operators, and the 12 climbers) heading up the mountain.

Tree Camp to Shira One

February 16th: Woke up at Big Tree camp at 9000 feet, and it was raining. It rained pretty much all of the previous night, and I was looking forward to a rather wet trip, but by breakfast it was only misting, and it cleared up about an hour into our hike. We had some of the crew come by with tea or coffee for us in our tents, by the end of our trip we had gotten use to the “Good morning! How did you sleep?” that they would greet us with. Cleared out of the jungle at around 10,000 feet, it was very noticable and happened within minutes on the trail. Got our first good view of Kilimanjaro coming over a ridge line onto the Shira plateau. It looked big, far away, and very snow covered. Stopped at Shira 1 at about 11500 feet, nice little river running nearby and great view of the mountain when it was clear. I started taking Diamox this evening, since I was getting close to the edge of the altitudes I was used to going to.

Shira One to Shira Two

February 17th: Got up and began trekking across the Shira plateau to Shira 2 camp. Got a mild headache while ascending to the next camp (at 13000 feet), but went away shortly after we got there. Fairly easy day, not much elevation gain and into next camp not long after noon. Had some time to explore the area, there was a very interesting creek with several waterfalls right near camp. Shortly before dinner, several people from our group ran into another group who was heading down without attempting to summit, they had multiple horror stories about icy conditions, other groups turning back, and groups of porters that had gotten snow blindness. Many people in our group were concerned, but Freddie (our lead guide) said not to worry and that we’d see what things looked like at lava tower when we climb there the next day.

Shira Two to Lava Tower

February 18th: Up in the morning and began hiking to Lava Tower at 15,000 feet. We start encountering snow at a little shy of 14,000 I would guess. The weather throughout the day was ridiculous, went from sunny and warm to mild hail and back to sunny again within 10 minutes. The temperature difference when the sun was out was incredible, at one point after we arrived at Lava tower, I was lying in my tent in just shorts (at 15,000 feet) and was almost too warm. We also had the incredible experience of looking down at the top of thunderheads. I felt fine when we got into camp (on the border of a headache again, a lot of people experienced that), but started feeling really tired just before dinner, and just crashed afterwards (on the plus side, got 11 hours of sleep). Jenny in our group had a pretty serious stomach bug as well, thankfully we had the rest day on the 19th.

Lava Tower

February 19th: When I get up in the morning, I try walking on the snow, it’s pretty solid after multiple warm days, but the surface is excellent, not slick at all. As part of the rest day, we hike up to Arrow glacier (about a 2 hour hike up) and get our first good view of the route up through the western breach. It’s looking pretty promising, and other groups are heading up ahead of us as well. I’m feeling pretty good about the climb at this point, the snow level appears to be receding and the forecast looks positive.

Arrow Glacier

February 20th: In the middle of the night when I get up to go to the batroom (drinking 5 liters of water a day will do that), I start developing a stomachache. Which gets pretty bad, takes me about 2.5 hours to get back to sleep, and when I’m waking up still not feeling too great, not much of an appetite. Jenny is better, but now her husband Eric seems to have the same thing. Just before we get started I’ve got some minor nausea, Amy, Bridget, and Christy hit me with a variety of remedies (Tums, pepto, acid reducers, ginger stuff) and the combination of everything seems to help quite a bit, still feel a little off but not bad. We head up to Arrow glacier and go through a safety talk, then after dinner everyone tries to get some sleep.

Arrow Glacier to Crater Rim to Uhuru Peak

February 21st: Summit day part 1. They start waking everyone up at 11:00pm, I woke up at 10:30pm (due to cold) finished packing and gearing up (3 insulating layers and 2 wind shells on legs, 3 insulating layers and a shell on my body, 2 glove liners and a shell on hands. From the sound of it I got more sleep than just about anyone else, went to sleep right at sunset so I got 3.5 hours. Unfortunately the wind has come up a bit, pretty cold out. We head out at midnight. The wind and cold are a little nasty (my fingers are occasionally getting numb until I warm them up, other layers holding up okay), but other than that conditions are pretty good, snow solid and good steps kicked in. Everyone is starting to feel the altitude after the first couple of hours, about 2-3 hours in Christy starts getting really dizzy and passes out, Celia ahead of me starts picking up a cough, I hear Alex is starting to get a little dizzy as well. Route is turning out to be more exposed than I expected, pretty narrow as well (really glad for the steps). About 2 hours in I stop looking up because it’s too disheartening. About 3 hours in, I stop looking down because the exposure is starting to get disturbing. About 4 hours in I stop looking at anything immediately in front of me, it looked like we were almost there, but someone asked and it was another 2 hours up. My camelback freezes up about an hour and a half in, my nalgenes freeze up to the point I can’t drink from them about 5 hours in, all my snacks are too cold to eat (except for the GU, it’s an extremely thick paste). “The only way out is up” becomes a mantra to me. We clear the crater lip a little before 6:00am, the wind starts blasting us (I’d guess sustained 25-30mph with gusts substantially higher), but I can already see the sky lightening.

Uhuru Peak to Mweka Camp

February 21st: Summit day part 2. As we clear the crater rim, we stop briefly but begin moving almost immediately to get to crater camp and out of the wind. Things are lightening up and we start moving out of the wind, I start laughing with tears in my eyes, from some combination of watching the sunrise and relief at making it to the crater rim. Christy starts heading down after they get to camp, she’s showing a lot of symptoms of rather serious altitude issues. Peter (her fiance) goes with her, as do Alex (he feels better a bit later, but we’re already making the last push for the summit) and Eric and Jenny. The remaining 7 of us and two guides continue. The last run up (even though it’s only about 500 feet up) is in a few ways harder than the climb up to the crater rim, we’re barely moving and I feel like I’m running, and I can tell I don’t have much left. We finally get to the top and congratulate each other, spend about 20 minutes taking pictures. The altitude is really having some interesting effects, standing still I’m taking more than a breath a second, and the side of my hand facing the sun in just a liner glove feels warm the instant it’s in the sun. I start bonking not long after we leave the summit, and about an hour later I actually start getting altitude sickness on the descent. We’re still at about 17000 feet, and I’m dehydrated, have barely eaten anything, and I’m 3 hours past when I should have taken my last diamox. I fix all three issues and continue descending, within 15 minutes I feel fine (although tired). We stop at 15000 feet for lunch, unforunately there was a miscommunication and our lunch is down at 12500. We take a half hour break to recover, then continue. After lunch, we continue descending to camp at 10000 feet, and arrive a little after 3pm (that’s a 15 hour day for those keeping track, almost all of it in motion). I’m so tired I sleep through dinner, wake up to brush my teeth, than go back to sleep.

Mweka Camp to Park Gate

February 22nd. Finish the descent down, goes pretty quickly. Almost feels anti-climatic, it took almost a week to ascend and only a day and a half down. Head back to town and clean up, turn in some laundry since heading out on safari the next day, and hang out at the pool for about an hour (have a couple of beers, local beer Tusker is an excellent lager) go out for dinner with the whole gang. I break out the schnapps from Pension Christina and share with everyone (turns out quite smooth and tasty). Back to the hotel and finish packing up for safari, ready to go.

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Kilimanjaro Summit Picture

Friends Bridget Martin, Amy Mendenhall, and Andy Schiestl faced heavy snow and freezing wind, and watched other groups turn back, but they managed to conquer the summit of Kilimanjaro, and it turned out to be beautiful. Bridget weighs in with the following account, which proves that the right climbing partner can make all the difference:

“Summit night was a challenge mainly due to two things:  the incredible cold temperature/wind and the fact the air is so thin. Each step was incredibly taxing on my breathing, especially when we had to do a couple quick moves in succession on the rock scrambles. And the fact that I was shivering for about 7 hours that night didn’t make matters any easier. When we got to the crater I was so excited I thought we were on the summit (I was ignoring the fact that there was another bit of ascending trail  to my left, the mind can play tricks when there is little oxygen). Amy said, ‘Come on, lets go,’ and I said, ‘Where?’ I was pretty happy just being on the crater. But she reminded me I didn’t come all that way not to summit so up we went the last stretch to the summit. . . pole, pole. Reaching the summit was a dream of mine for about 10 years and I am so excited I made it. What a spectacular sight to behold and sense of accomplishment to be standing on the highest peak in Africa!”

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Embark climbers tough the weather on Kili

Stephen and Cindy Koester just sent us this photo from their Kilimanjaro climb at the Furtwängler Glacier near Crater Camp just 1,000 feet from their summit of Kilimanjaro. They came up the Lemosho Route and through the Western Breach. A couple people had to descend due to altitude sickness, and although they had bad weather much of the trip, it looks as though near the summit, the weather started to improve for these determined partners.

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Cameras of Kilimanjaro: See the mountain from the porters’ perspective

Kilimanjaro has a few dirty little secrets. We’ve talked before about one of them—that the most popular routes can be absurdly crowded.

A far darker secret no on likes to talk about is that many porters aren’t paid livable wages, often have to pay for their own food on the way up and therefore barely eat anything while hauling backbreaking loads, and refuse to turn back down the mountain when they experience altitude sickness because they cannot afford to.

So it is with great pride that we at Embark are a part of the great Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, the nonprofit that focuses on ensuring that porters make livable wages, are treated fairly, and that they actually receive the tips climbers try to give them.

We sat down this week to Skype with Australia-based photographer Helen Osler, who became involved with the porters project when she climbed the mountain back in 2008. She tells us one thing that really struck her about the porters that helped her reach the summit was how interested they were in her camera, and how skilled so many of them were as photographers.

She began to wonder how she could get porters on the mountain to take photos, given they couldn’t afford the equipment. So she launched the Porters of Kilimanjaro Photographic Project, through which she had people all around the world who were traveling to Tanzania bring disposable cameras and then get them back to her weeks later.

Out of the 75 cameras delivered to Mt. Kilimanjaro, 55 came back, giving Helen more than 1,000 photos to sift through. She says she was struck by how thoughtful so many of the images are, and was inspired to develop a book, even though the resolution isn’t large enough for a truly large, coffee-table, glossy book.

Called Cameras of Kilimanjaro, the 104-page color book costs roughly $48, but money raised through the photographic project will be used to improve the porters’ working conditions. Helen’s drive to help the porters is truly admirable. Among her observations:

“There are incredible risks, the same as everyone who climbs there, yet they can’t afford to go down. Their families won’t be eating if they lose their job that day, so they keep going. When I climbed, we gave medication to two or three of the porters, but they refused to go down. And there was nothing we could do about that; it was their choice.”

Helen says the average wage each porter earns per day should be 8,000 Tanzanian shillings, but the porters association has found it goes as low as 6,000. This converts to $4 a day instead of $5, “which is well under what they should be paid,” Helen says. “Which in our terms is just nothing.”

Check out the book, and if you can’t afford it, spread the word about it and about the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, too. But the best thing you can do if you’re going to climb Kilimanjaro is to make sure that you find an outfit that works with the project and to do what you can to deliver tips to porters yourself. And remember: When you pay as little as possible to climb, the porters are the first to take that hit.

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