In the beginning of 2017 I was trying to find a trip that pushed my limits and something I have never done before. I started looking at countries I haven't been to before and how many weeks I could backpack around and enjoy the culture. I reached out to a good friend of mine I grew up with and he turned me down because him and his wife already have a trip planned to hike Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Before we got off the phone he said, "Do you want to come?" and without hesitation I said, "I'm in."
And that's how it all started. I had little to no hiking experience at all and this would be the first time in my adult life to do something like this. I'm an avid snowboarder but reaching summit from a chair lift is not like hiking from 6,889ft to 19,341ft. I immediately started training and doing some "elevation" hikes around Los Angeles. I attempted to train every weekend but to be honest there were multiple weekends throughout the summer I did not train (I still needed a social life!). Everything was booked and August was around the corner, so nothing I could do now except take the plunge.
It took 29 hours of traveling to get from Los Angeles, USA to Tanzania, Africa. After 1 day of rest in Tanzania we were off to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. There were 5 total in our group doing the hike (best friend, best friend's wife, best friend wife's friend who lives in Kenya, and random Australian med student traveling in Africa). We were greeted by our guides at the hotel and began the 1 hour drive over to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.
We stopped at the main gate to have lunch and to have all of our equipment weighed. Porters are only allowed to carry 33lb weight limit by rules. The porters were absolutely amazing and champs to carry our food/water/tents etc. We could not have done it without them!
The route our group chose was specifically Lemosho Route via Western Breach which is supposed to take 7 days. None of us questioned what the Western Breach was, we only Google'd Lemosho route and found out that it generally meant a "longer to acclimatize and more scenic route". Within a few days we would realize what the Western Breach is...more on that later! After lunch and the weighing session it took another hour to arrive at the Lemosho gate. This was our official entry way into our journey. Pictured below is the group + one of our amazing guides Peter!
Mount Kilimanjaro is unique because it actually takes you through 5 different climate zones. On our drive up we passed the farmland zone and as we enter Mount Kilimanjaro it takes us directly into the Forest zone.
The 5 of us set off and started walking through a dirt path with fairly steep steps at certain points. Our porters were unloading the vehicle and quickly began to pass all of us. It was clear that we were physically inferior and out of shape compared to the rest of our team! One of the frequent mantras was "Pole Pole" (pronounced Po-Lay Po-Lay), which means "Slowly Slowly". This is something I would learn throughout this hike.
It took us about 6 hours to ascend to the middle of the forest to our first camp (Mkubwa). It started to get dark since we had a later than planned started. As we got to the camp we were greeted by our porters who had the camp set up and a friendly monkey. This would be our first stop on Mount Kilimanjaro!
Follow along the adventure as I attempt my ascend to the roof of Africa! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments about this trip and if you are thinking about doing something like this.
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