Mt Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world. There are several routes to the summit and several options as to how many days you want to do it in ranging from 5-8. I chose the 7 day Machame route and talked my great friend and occasional travel buddy, Rachel, into flying out here to climb it with me. Our week on the mountain is a story of extremes.

Days one through three were absolutely miserable! It rained every single day. Every article of clothing I had was either wet from the rain or wet from me sweating in the lower rain forest humidity. Plus it was cold. Bad combination. It’s probably the most miserable I’ve ever been on a backpacking/trekking trip.

Day four, however, the rain finally stopped. After reaching our camp around 11:00am, we laid out all the clothes and our packs in the sun to dry and had wonderful weather the rest of the trip. It was cold, it’s always cold up there, and my clothes and my body didn’t smell very good, but at least the rain was gone.

Day 5 we reached Barafu Camp, Kilimanjaro base camp, at a little over 15,000ft and spent the late afternoon resting and eating. At 11:30pm we are woken up, bundle up under four layers of clothes, get some snacks and start heading up to the summit a little after midnight, now it’s day 6. 

In Swahili they have an expression, pole pole, which means slowly slowly. I heard it all the way up Mt Meru last week and I hear it all the way up Kilimanjaro. Even pole pole is beyond difficult when it’s single digits Fahrenheit and your climbing from roughly 15,000ft up to the 19,341ft summit above you in the middle of the night. There were several times I wanted to stop. It was cold, the altitude was starting to affect me, oh and did I mention I picked up some kind of bronchial infection last week, but pole pole. Am I the first person to climb Kilimanjaro with bronchitis? It doesn’t matter, that’s how I’m gonna sell it.

Our guides tell us before we start the summit climb that it takes six to seven hours. Rachel and I make it in five and a half. We make it to Stella point at the top of the ridge, then the extra 0.7km to the summit exactly at sunrise. Just awesome! I’m exhausted, breathing is difficult and I’m coughing up both lungs, but I made it!

Once again, the summit is only the half way point, so we start our descent. Back down to Barafu camp in just under three hours for a couple of hours of rest and lunch, then down to Mweka Camp at about 9,000ft for our last night on the mountain. I am tired! This is without a doubt the most physically challenging thing I’ve done in my life to date.

Nobody goes up Kilimanjaro unsupported. You already know about our wonderful guides, Yona and Paul, but we also had a cook, Pascal, and nine porters carrying all the gear and food. As accomplished as I feel for doing this, it pales in comparison to these guys. They climb up and down this mountain carrying anywhere from 60-80lbs of gear each, and they do it 2-3 times a month in the high season, which comes out to roughly 8-12 times per year. Wow! Their strength, stamina, warmth and kindness were absolutely overwhelming!

Our last morning on Kilimanjaro, day 7, we woke up at 7:00am for breakfast and to pack up camp for the last time. Before heading down though, our crew of 12 sang the Kilimanjaro song to us and one at a time came around to give congratulations and hugs to Rachel and I. There just aren’t enough positive words to describe these guys. Seriously! Finally, a 10km hike down to Mweka Gate to sign out with the rangers and gulp down a victory coke, then drive back to Arusha for a well deserved shower, some laundry, and of course, sleep.

See all the pics from Mt Kilimanjaro here.