Selecting an Outfitter

For many years Tanzania has required that all Kilimanjaro climbers use guides and porters. Hence, there is a thriving outfitter industry in Arusha and Moshi, the two towns closest to the mountain. To a lesser extent, there are also some Nairobi based outfitters.

Two sites that I have found useful in garnering reviews of these outfitters is the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa) and the Trip Advisor site (http://www.tripadvisor.com/). Dave has been reading trip reviews on summitpost.org, another good site.

For the last two months or more I have been reading these sites, looking at the individual outfitter sites, and more recently, directly contacting the outfitters for quotes. The amount of information was becoming so overwhelming that I resorted to creating a spreadsheet to compile the data. The sheet now has over 200 rows!

There are two general dimensions to this process. The first is to select which of the roughly half dozen routes you wish to use. The second is to select an outfitter. I have been gathering information about both dimensions simultaneously.

Additionally, you can modify just about any itinerary offered, to best suit your climbing preferences. A common modification is to add an extra acclimitization day. A less common modification is to add an extra descent day - many of the itineraries involve summit day descents of over 7,000 feet on top of the 4,000 foot ascent to the summit! Finally, there is a third modification, if you have the budget and the time, which involves sleeping the night before your summit attempt on the crater rim (18,500 feet). If you have little experience with high altitudes, this is probably not reasonable, since you might get little sleep and feel lousy, but we have both slept at 18,500 feet or higher, so it was an option for us.

After talking with an informed and experienced acquaintance, we settled on the Rongai Route, which is not the prettiest or fastest, but which seems to fit our abilities and goals. The crater rim option was attractive (due to a short summit day), but significantly more expensive - we were told by one outfitter that a portable toilet is required of all parties who use the rim - a reasonable requirement for the environment, but not for our pocketbook. Another outfitter had a standard additional $500 charge for a night on the crater.

We have identified as many as 20 different outfitters, but have narrowed it down to three finalists. Sounds like a Presidential primary, doesn't it? I will let you know when we get our final plans in place.

Later: After getting a series of quotes, we settled on kessybrotherstours.com as our outfitter. They are one of the big budget outfitters in Moshi, and responded quickly and completely to our inquiries - this is the email address that worked for us: kessyvalency@yahoo.com. We will be paying $1550 per person for the following climb. We are planning on 10 - 20% tips on top of the basic charge, for a total for the two of us of about $3600. Ouch!

We have opted to not use their hotel and transportation arrangements, but rather, get ourselves to Moshi under our own power. We are using the Riverside bus that goes daily from Nairobi to Arusha and Moshi (http://www.riverside-shuttle.com/) - the trip is $40 one way, and reservations can be made online. I will let you know how long the trip actually lasts and what the condition of the roads are in a few days - I have heard that the road is pretty bad, so the advertised trip length of 7 hours may be optimistic. Later: The trip lasted about 10 hours, over rough and dusty roads. See my reviews under the name kris051 on the ThornTree forum of the Lonely Planet website for all the gory details.

We are staying at the A&A Hill Street Hotel in Moshi, for $15 for a double per night. The contact is sajjad_omar@hotmail.com. He has been quick and cordial in his responses. The hotel is recommended as clean and quiet on the Thorn Tree. We will spend three nights in Moshi before beginning our climb, to allow ourselves to be rested and unfrazzled.

This is our climbing itinerary:

Day 1 Rongai Gate - Cave 1 altitude gain = 2,640 feet
Day 2 Cave 1 - Cave 2 altitude gain = 1,980 feet
Day 3 Cave 2 - Kikelewa altitude gain = 1,250 feet
Day 4 Kikelewa - Mawenzi Tarn altitude gain = 2,390 feet
Day 5 Mawenzi Tarn - Kibo altitude gain = 1,320 feet
Day 6 Kibo - Summit - Kibo altitude gain = + 3,779 and -3,779 feet
Day 7 Kibo - Horombo altitude gain = -3,320 feet
Day 8 Horombo - Marangu Gate altitude gain = - 6,295 feet

The ascent should be steady but not outrageous. The descent should also be fine, except for the last day, but by then we will be more rested, with the additional day after the summit.

7 August

I have been slow to finish this particular entry because of mixed feelings about our choice of outfitter. We were very happy with Kessy Brothers, but after the climb we met and talked with folks from the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, and learned that Kessy Brothers did not have a good record of fair payment to their porters.

Before choosing an outiftter, I would strongly recommend that you read the following websites very carefully: www.kiliporters.org and www.mountkilimanjaroguide.com.

The kiliporters website lists outfitters who have agreed to pay their porters fairly. The guide website gives a good overview of working conditions and issues surrounding the porters.

What we learned from our guide was that our porters were not going to be paid very much by the outfitter. As a result, we ended up tipping about 33%, rather than our initial planned 20%. We gave each porter $60, our waiter an additional $10, our tent carriers an additional $5 each, the cook $90, the assistant guide $100 and the guide $140. Since we had 11 porters, the total was $1,010 in tips. There was some question about two of the porters - they were not with us for the entire trip, but the guide insisted that they had done an equal amount of work. It is possible that we were scammed to some extent, and ended up paying for some porters who in fact were not part of our party. The whole thing left a sour taste in our mouths, but at the same time, it was a great trip and someone benefited from our largesse.

As for our itinerary, the ascent went without a hitch - one small adjustment of Simba Camp instead of Camp 1, but that was immaterial. The biggest problem was in the Summit Day. We were led to believe that we could decide whether or not to spend a second night at Kibo Hut. Not true. No one is allowed to spend more than one night at Kibo Hut. So we ended up, after a rest and a meal, descending another 2.5 hours to Horombo on Day 6. On Day 7 we went from Horombo to Mandara, and then on Day 8 we exited the park. It all turned out to be fine, but the conversations were difficult immediately after arriving back at Kibo, expecting that we could then collapse for the night before moving on, and realizing that we had more miles to go before we could sleep.

This is what our final climb looked like:

Day 1 Rongai Gate - Simba 3+ hours
Day 2 Simba - Cave 2 4 hours
Day 3 Cave 2 - Kikelewa 3 hours
Day 4 Kikelewa - Mawenzi Tarn 3+ hours
Day 5 Mawenzi Tarn - Kibo Hut 4.5 hours
Day 6 Kibo - Gilman's Point 4 hours
Gilman's Point - Uhuru 2 hours
Uhuru - Kibo Hut 3.5 hours
Kibo - Horombo 2.5 hours
Day 7 Horombo - Mandara 4 hours
DAy 8 Mandara - Marangu Gate 2 hours

Middle aged foot and leg issues

My feet are the most important part of getting up a mountain. Early this summer, I bruised both big toes to the point that the nails are both turning black and will eventually fall off. I met with a podiatrist, who assured me that nothing serious had occurred, and then I went to a good outdoor store and purchased new, better fitting boots. It turned out that my original boots were too small (middle aged foot spread) and were also wearing out - a boot that is 8 or 9 years old is too old in this era of lightweight materials. Yet another reason to do lots of training hikes before an undertaking like this.

At the end of a day of hiking, my legs often ache - I have found that taking one or two tablets of Aleve (or its generic equivalent) mid way during the descent helps to forestall the discomfort.

Finally, due to varicose veins, I wear thigh-high white support stockings when hiking. They are a little weird looking if I am in shorts, but they keep my circulation healthy and provide extra warmth on the cold mornings. During the long back-to-back airline flights from the US to Europe and then to Nairobi, I plan to wear these stockings to minimize swelling and possible blood clots forming.

All these issues are signs that I am not as young as I used to be, but are not reasons to sit back and vegetate!

Diabetes

In 1993 , seventeen years ago, I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. Within six months we took a seven week backpacking trip to Alaska. I quickly learned that managing the increasingly complicated medical regime (now up to three different insulins and assorted oral medications) is quite possible in the context of extended outdoor and international adventures. I try not to let the disease dictate my life's possibilities. Contrary to the manufacturer's advice, I do not worry about keeping the insulin chilled - and so far, my blood glucose numbers have been reasonable.

I hope that others may take heart from my experience, and not give up or close doors when opportunities knock.

10 August 2010 During the climb, especially on summit day, I cut back on my insulin, to avoid any unexpected episodes of low blood glucose. During this entire African trip of seven weeks, I am fairly sure that I have been losing weight, due mostly to the uninteresting food - lots of grease and chicken and rice - and the sanitation issues mean that we choose our food carefully, but do not eat excessively. As a result of less food consumption, I am also cutting back on my insulin. The challenge will be once I return to the US - to maintain whatever weight loss has occurred!

Colorado

June 2010


We are in Colorado, climbing as many mountains over 14,000 feet high as possible in the next five weeks. So far we have climbed one (Mt. Sherman) on June 10 - I am on the summit in the photo on the left - and attempted a second (Belford) on June 12. The attempt was thwarted by heavy snow at 13,000 feet - the photo on the right shows the early snow fog before it really started coming down! We had to turn back when we could no longer see the trail and the rocks were becoming dangerously slippery. Even while camping at 10,000 feet, we regularly are pelted by snow and sleet. Summer comes late to the high mountains!

We are recognizing the frustration of trying to prepare for a 19,000+ foot mountain (Kilimanjaro) in a country where the the highest mountains are only 14,000 feet. But we are doing our best, climbing one day and resting the next two.

Success on June 15! The weather cleared and we summited Belford. We rise at 4 am, start hiking at 5 am, and are done anywhere from 3 to 7 pm. The days get long and sleep feels pretty good!

On June 18 we summited Huron Peak, making it our third fourteener and fourth attempt in 9 days. The weather has cleared and the days are cloud free. The early starts mean that we do a lot of our heavy climbing before the sun becomes too blazing.

On June 21 we backpacked 7 miles into South Pine Creek valley, to attempt to climb Oxford from a seldom used side. The high valley was beautiful, but the trail was almost nonexistent - after 5 hours of thrashing through aspen thickets and scrambling over boulder fields, we turned around. I was quite cranky and scared that we would not be able to find our way back, but my wonderful husband with his strong sense of direction found us a much better descent route that we had in ascending. On June 23 we hiked back out of the valley, with Oxford yet to be climbed.

I am re-examining my commitment to climb Kilimanjaro, given my reaction to the failed Oxford attempt. I am still planning to do Kili, but this has been a good reminder to me that for a goal to be strongest, it has to come from within myself. The Kilimanjaro climb is mostly my husband's dream, not mine. I am welcoming the increased fitness that I am experiencing in preparation for the climb, but if it weren't for Dave, I would not be doing this. We shall see if my motivation is sufficient for me to ultimately summit.

July 2010

I ended up, after six weeks in Colorado, summiting on three mountains (Sherman, Belford and Huron) over 14,000 feet high. Dave summited six mountains. On some of the days when I did not summit, I did significant climbing (on Princeton I went over 3,000 feet), so I feel that I continue to be reasonably ready for Kilimanjaro. However, the novelty of mountains always wears off sooner for me than for my husband, Dave. We slept for most of the six weeks at 8,500 - 10,000 feet, in national forest sites. It's not the 15,520 of the high site at Kibo, but it's not bad for the continental US.