We followed what we call a modified Rongai Route in climbing the mountain. We took five days to ascend and three days to descend. The guide made a few changes before we started, and one major one after we started. This is our final, actual itinerary:
Rongai Gate - Simba 3+ hours
Simba - Cave 2 4 hours
Cave 2 - Kikelewa 3 hours
Kikelewa - Mawenzi Tarn 3+ hours
Mawenzi Tarn - Kibo Hut 4.5 hours
Kibo Hut - Summit - Horombo 6 hours to Uhuru summit, 3.5 hours back to Kibo, 2.5 hours to Horombo
Horombo - Mandara Hut 4 hours
Mandara - Marangu Gate 2 hours
We had originally planned to spend a second night at Kibo, after summiting, but the guide nixed that, and we later learned that no one is allowed to spend a second night at Kibo. It is a water-less site, which means that porters have to carry all water up from a lower camp. Also, it is a heavily used site, and there is not enough room for parties to linger - there are always new groups arriving. Unfortunately the outfitter led us to believe that a second night was possible, so we had an uncomfortable conversation with our guide after descending from the summit. It turns out that the Marangu trail is well graded and well maintained, so descending was not as hard on our legs and knees as we had expected. Nonetheless, we were not happy to have an unexpected additional 2.5 hours of hiking at the end of a long day.
The record of a middle aged US woman, only moderately fit, who will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2010. The intent of the blog is both to share details of the climb, and to provide some inspiration to others who are contemplating a life challenge.
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