KiliTrekker.Com

Summit Expeditions and Nomadic Experience (SENE) leads climbs of the highest quality and safety on Kilimanjaro. SENE was founded and run by Tanzanian Simon Mtuy, born and raised in the foothills of Kilimanjaro. Simon has been climbing the mountain since he was a teenager and holds two world records for the fastest round-trip climbs on Kilimanjaro. But he knows that speed is not what makes a good climb. A slow and steady pace, healthy and nutritious food, top quality equipment, conscientious guides, and committed porters produce an enjoyable and successful adventure.

Kilimanjaro Adventures team has been safely guiding people up Mt. Kilimanjaro since 1990. They are a mid-level company providing everything needed to have the adventure of a lifetime without all the extras. They provide lots of good information prior to the climb and the local set-up is very comfortable. They also have a gear donation program to help out porters on the mountain.

www.kiliadventures.com

Kilimanjaro Adventures: www.kiliadventures.com

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project is a non-governmental organization (NGO) set up in Tanzania to improve the working conditions for porters on Kilimanjaro. The project is an initiative of the International Mountain Explorers Connection, a US based non-profit dedicated to promoting responsible tourism in mountain ranges across the world.

The objectives of the KPAP project are:

The romantic, exotic island of Zanzibar lies just 37 km’s (23 miles) off Tanzania’s coast and is easily accessible from the mainland by ferry, dhow fishing boat or ‘plane. I have spent some time in Zanzibar and it really is a beautiful island.

I wanted to tell you about the beautiful Maasai beadwork which we get here in Tanzania.

The Maasai are a tribe of people found here, who are these days mostly semi nomadic. If you have ever seen photographs of the Maasai, you will know which tribe I am talking about, because they are known for the beautiful red “Shuka’s” or blankets which they wear, the spears which they carry and of course, the beautiful beaded jewellery which adorns the bodies of both the men and women (click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images).

Maasai necklace

My Maasai friend Sawe in traditional dress

The Kilimanjaro fitness training plan officially endorsed by KiliTrekker.Com is a pretty simple one: Walk. Lots. Preferably hills. However we realize that some (many?) people find exercise and training distasteful, and will find all kinds of creative reasons to avoid or delay doing it. In these cases, a more structured training plan is called for. In this post I'm going to outline what I did to prepare for Kilimanjaro, as well as reviewing some of the other training schedules out there on the web.

One of the images I remember most strongly from Kilimanjaro is the descent into Barranco camp with a light drizzle of rain, through a forest of giant groundsel plants. The mist moving in and out amongst these bizarre looking plants made for a scene that seemed surreal and almost alien.

The giant groundsel, dendrosenecio kilimanjari (formerly known as senecio kilimanjari), is one of the most recognizable plants in the moorland vegetation zone on Kilimanjaro. This vegetation zone extends from elevations of about 3200 m to 4000 m on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Giant groundsels on Kilimanjaro can grow to heights of 4-5 m (12-15 feet), and they look kind of like a candelabra of woody stems with a rosette of leaves atop each stem (click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it).

Giant groundsel on Kilimanjaro

Thanks for the great start everybody! The KiliTrekker.Com website has been up and running for a little less than a month, and we've recorded over 100 unique visitors. Most visitors manage to find the site on their own, either by following links from another website, or through search engines. We've also had well over 1000 pageviews (not including me!), which means that the average visitor is staying on the site and spending some time browsing through our content.

Hint: if you register and login, you can see a counter at the bottom of each item that lists the number of times it has been read.

Michael Pollan, author of the bestselling book In Defense of Food, famously simplified the topic of healthy eating down to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." In that spirit, we present you the KiliTrekker.Com training plan for climbing Kilimanjaro: "Walk. Lots. Preferably hills."

Climbing Kilimanjaro is a challenge within reach for most people with normal fitness levels, but the more physically fit and prepared you are, the more you're likely to enjoy the climb (instead of being totally focused on your sore legs and feet). You'll hardly ever hear a returning Kili climber say "I wish I had trained less for that."

People planning a Kilimanjaro trek often want to know "am I fit enough for the climb?" Plenty of people with only average fitness levels make it to the top of Uhuru Peak, but on the other hand lots of marathon runners and other super-fit people have to turn back before reaching the summit. Success or failure depends more on how well your body adjusts to the altitude than on your fitness level (and the two are not so closely related). However, being in decent physical shape is still highly recommended, so that you will be able to enjoy the trek instead of suffering from exhaustion and sore muscles for 7 or so days!

If you're unsure about your fitness, we've done a survey of some of the fitness guidelines suggested by various Kilimanjaro tour operators below.