Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Introduction
For the past two months, I’ve been meaning to write a post about my recent trip to Tanzania in East Africa back in January of this year. When I returned to the States, I immediately hit the ground running with the start of the new semester at Hopkins and I’ve only now received a moment to catch my breath and reflect on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Here’s that story.
A Spur-of-the-Moment Decision
In-between the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters at JHU, I spent the holidays visiting my family in Tennessee (where I grew up). My flight back to the DMV was scheduled for January 6th, so extended family was visiting for dinner on the fourth, including my uncle who was nearing a trip later that month to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He half-jokingly invited me on the trip, to which I not-so-half-jokingly accepted his invitation. After discussing the logistics, especially with the generous offer of financial support from my grandparents, I reserved a spot and purchased an airline ticket the following day in what might be the most spur-of-the-moment decision I’ve ever made. With absolutely no gear or training, I would be climbing Kilimanjaro just two weeks later.
Climbing Kilimanjaro
At over 19,000 ft. in elevation (or 5,895 m), Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest peak and one of the Seven Summits of the world. It’s also the largest free-standing mountain in the world (i.e., not part of a mountain range), because in reality it’s a very old, dormant volcano. It contains five major ecological zones based on elevation: (1) Cultivation Zone; (2) Rain Forest Zone; (3) Heath and Moorland Zone; (4) Highland Alpine Desert; and (5) Arctic Summit. The temperature ranges from over 90 degrees Fahrenheit at the bottom to -20 degrees at the top, and the flora and fauna vary depending on the ecological zone.
I departed from IAD on January 15th and landed at JRO the next day. To my dismay, my bags (including most of the gear I had purchased in preparation for the trip) were delayed in Zurich. (Ironically, this also happened to my uncle who was on a completely different flight.) Fortunately, we had the good sense to arrive a couple days before the trek in case of delays or emergencies. We spent the day before the climb hustling around Arusha in search for the necessary equipment and gear.
The climb itself took six days to the top and two days back down. My team consisted of eight people as well as 20+ employees (guides, chefs, porters, etc.) of Climbing Kilimanjaro, our climbing guide company. We ascended via the Lemosho Route with the goal of summiting Uruhu Peak on the morning of the seventh day. We ended up, however, making good time and rescheduled the summit for the afternoon of day six. Of my group of eight, five summited Uruhu Peak and one more made it atop Stella Peak, Kilimanjaro’s penultimate highest peak. Although we mostly hiked as a group, three of us traveled ahead toward the end due to an impending blizzard atop the mountain. On January 24, 2024, I summited Uruhu Peak at 1:08pm local time.
After Kilimanjaro: Safaris and Arusha
After two more days of climbing down the mountain, our international crew went our separate ways. Some returned to the states, one to Rwanda, one to Zanzibar, and so forth. My uncle and I, however, remained in Tanzania and continued the adventure with a two-day safari which included Tarangire National Park and the Serengeti (especially the Ngorongoro Crater). It goes without saying that seeing all the diversity of the wildlife was amazing. After the safari, I spent a couple more days in Arusha, including a local tour learning about Tanzanite mining and trade as well as Tanzanian coffee production and export.
Conclusion
To say that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is an understatement. Personally, I’m not much into hiking or mountaineering, so I’m not sure I’ll ever do anything like this again. But I’m extremely grateful to my uncle and grandparents who made this possible.
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