I’ve been seeing a lot of Kilimanjaro content in the beginning of this year. That might be because it’s New Year’s Resolution season and people are seriously considering ticking off a travel bucket list item, or hikers might be starting to worry about missing their chance to see glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro, or it might simply be because ascending Kili is a rad thing to do. In any case, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania had been my No. 1 bucket list item since I was 10 years old. I was super proud and excited to complete my goal in January 2023! Here are your questions about climbing Kilimanjaro with our answers to help you plan your dream trek.
Have more questions? Just ask in the comments at the bottom of this post and we’ll be sure to respond!
Prefer Instagram? Most of this information is also saved in a Kili Q&A highlight on Megan’s page. Also check out the Kilimanjaro highlight for more detailed information about our personal experience.
What do I need to pack for Mount Kilimanjaro?
This was probably my most-researched topic before our trek, so don’t worry. I have you covered with a very detailed Kilimanjaro packing list including notes from our personal experience climbing Kili and a downloadable PDF checklist.
How far in advance did you plan this trip?
We decided (for sure) we were going to do this trip the spring before we did it, about nine months in advance. While researching, we saw the best climbing times are winter and summer, so we picked January. We started shopping for gear in May and started looking at trekking companies and flights in June. We didn’t book our company until September (about four months in advance).
Did you have to do any specific training to prepare?
We received lots of Kilimanjaro training questions! Kili is a non-technical hike, so you don’t need any specific skills. But, we think being accustomed to hiking (especially over elevation) will go a long way in making sure you’re comfortable!
The biggest risk while climbing Kilimanjaro is altitude sickness, and unfortunately you can’t really prepare for that. (Unless you live at a high altitude already.) We actually had a porter who got sick and had to be evacuated on day 2, so it really can happen to anyone.
We already hiked pretty regularly, but once we decided we were going to climb Kilimanjaro, we set a goal to hike once a week in preparation. We did pretty well until October, and then life got busy. But we did manage to complete some bigger hikes, like Convict Lake to Mildred Lake in the Eastern Sierras that took us from 7,000 to 10,000 feet.
We also backpacked quite a bit (including the Mildred Lake trip), so we were used to carrying a lot more weight than a day pack when we hike! (For our backpacking trips, we usually carry at least twice as much weight as we did on Kilimanjaro, where we had the benefit of porters to carry most of our gear.) We think this helped a lot while hiking Kilimanjaro. I never felt like my day pack was heavy or that I wanted to take it off until summit night.
Any suggestions for Kilimanjaro prep?
Speaking of packs: You don’t need to go out and buy a bunch of expensive gear to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. You can rent everything you need in Moshi. The most important items you should buy and break in before your trek (IMHO) are your day pack and your hiking boots. Get those early and use them often! We loved our Gregory backpacks for the hike: Jade 28 for Megan and Zulu 30 for Jonathan (newer versions linked).
Which Kilimanjaro tour group did you use?
A local guide is required to hike Mount Kilimanjaro. We used Gladys Adventure and we absolutely recommend them! We had a great experience. There are a lot of companies to choose from, so here’s how we narrowed it down according to our priorities. (Yours may differ.)
1. We started researching which outfitter to use for Kilimanjaro with this list of KPAP-approved companies. (KPAP is the official porters association to ensure fair wages and working conditions for porters on Kilimanjaro.)
2. We filtered the list by Tanzanian-owned companies. (Although the guides are required to be Tanzanian, the company owners are not. We wanted to support locally as much as we could.)
3. After narrowing it down to a few companies, we looked at their websites and customer reviews.
4. During this research, I was intrigued by Gladys because it was woman-founded and had its own gear rental shop. When I contacted them for information, they were quick and thorough in their responses, so we moved forward!
Can you climb Kilimanjaro without porters?
Honestly, I think a lot of people ask this because they don’t consider a supported hike to be a “real” hike. I do understand that (kind of), but that’s also just not how climbing Kilimanjaro works. We are definitely not hardcore enough to carry our own shelter, fuel, food and water to nearly 20,000 feet in sub-freezing temperatures. But, out of curiosity, I did look into hiking Kilimanjaro without porters!
Although I couldn’t find any specific rules that say you have to have porters (like the rule that you must have a guide), I also couldn’t find any companies that would allow you to only hire a guide. On our trek, I asked our head guide out of curiosity if it was possible. He was confused by the question: “But why would you want to do that?” From our conversation, I don’t think the guides would be interested in an unsupported hike! I also don’t think anyone had asked him this question before haha. So though it might technically be possible to climb Kilimanjaro without porters, I don’t think you’d realistically be able to find a guide for an unsupported hike.
How did the altitude treat you?
Honestly, we were very lucky! The altitude was the thing that worried me the most about the trip, because as I mentioned before, it can affect anyone. We took Diamox (available by prescription in the U.S. or over-the-counter in Moshi) to help prevent altitude sickness, and I never had any symptoms. I did experience decreased appetite, but I’m not sure if it was actually decreased or if the amount of food they wanted us to eat was just excessive! We also had our oxygen checked twice a day, and I never dropped below 90.
If somebody has problems with the altitude, what happens?
We had trekkers experience symptoms from headache to nausea to diarrhea to dizziness. The guides are trained in wilderness first aid and have pretty much seen it all, so they made suggestions for treatment. Everyone in our group made it to the top!
But if you do get severe symptoms, the only cure is to descend immediately. If your oxygen drops below 70, you get evacuated. There is also a limit to your allowable body temperature before you are evacuated. This is why you have multiple guides depending on the size of your group: if someone needs to be escorted down, the rest of the group can continue.
Did you like the people you trekked with?
Genuinely, yes! We had five climbers from the U.S. and one from Lithuania ranging from around 30 to around 50 years old. Everyone was well traveled and it was fun to exchange stories.
Did you have private places to poop on Kilimanjaro?
This is a very important question! Our company included a private toilet tent at our campsite, which was “clutch” (as a friend who had climbed Kili the year before advised). Most companies allow you to rent toilet tents for an additional cost if they’re not included. I definitely think it’s worth the extra cost! The public toilets are pretty disgusting and could be located far from your tent. And if you’re taking Diamox – you’re going to have to pee in the middle of the night!
How do bathroom breaks work? Where does all the toilet paper go?
When you’re hiking during the day, you simply go off the trail and find a rock or shrub to do your business. Remember to carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer in your day pack!
Also, I’m glad this person asked about the toilet paper. I am used to practicing “Leave No Trace” principles in the wilderness, so I was kind of appalled at the amount of toilet paper strewn about the off-trail “bathrooms.” Personally, I carried a resealable bag (a Ziploc would work fine, or choose an opaque bag if you prefer) and put my used toilet paper in there, then emptied the bag at camp each day.
Did you take any wipes or anything to substitute showers?
We packed Wilderness Wipes to wipe down our bodies every few days, but we were pleasantly surprised to learn we got warm basins of water once or twice a day to wash! We weren’t expecting this luxury. Sometimes I used it to wash my face and hands, and sometimes I just used it as a foot soak. Jonathan is much more hygienic than I am and usually used the warm water with a small bar of soap and his quick-dry camp towel to actually “bathe.”
Did you feel adequately hydrated? How did you procure water?
We carried 4 liters of water each day (3 in our water bladders and 1 in a wide-mouth water bottle). The expectation was that we would finish our water by the time we got to camp each afternoon or evening. We also had lots of soup and tea at camp. We were really encouraged to drink water; any time someone was feeling sick, the first advice was, “Please try to drink more water tomorrow.”
As for procuring water, our porters were amazing (can’t say this enough) and would procure and filter liters and liters of water every day. Toward the summit, they would hike up to our next overnight stop, set up camp, then hike back down to the nearest water source to fill jugs for purifying! The real heroes on Kilimanjaro.
Was there power to charge phones and such?
This is embarrassing to admit, but I was pretty concerned about not being able to take photos in the later days of the trip if my phone died. There is no power on the mountain, but we brought portable battery packs to recharge our phones. (We find Anker products to be very reliable for charging on the go!) A friend also lent us a solar charger, which was great for peace of mind. (But it turns out the small battery pack would have been enough.) I also left my phone on airplane mode the whole time and kept it close to my body (zipped in an internal chest pocket) so the cold wouldn’t zap the battery.
That being said, I charged my phone up completely before summit night, wrapped it in a sock, put it in a chest pocket inside two jackets, didn’t take it out of my coat until we got to the summit, and I still got an error message at the top (“This iPhone has experienced an unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power”) and it turned off. Luckily Jonathan’s phone was working, so we still got plenty of summit photos!
What is it like hiking at night on Kilimanjaro?
Summit night for Kilimanjaro usually begins around midnight so that you can be at the top around sunrise. Hiking in the middle of the night was not too bad! The cold was worse for me than the darkness. (I think I dressed well for the summit and my body was warm, but my fingers and toes were SO cold, even with little warmer packs. I definitely should have invested in better gloves!)
I was so focused on following the person’s steps in front of me, the night went by in a (very long) blur. Every now and then, I would look up and see other groups’ head lamps bobbing along on the switchbacks ahead of us. I would think, “Oh, that’s so pretty,” and then I would realize how far UP they were and stop looking. Our guides joked that we summit at night because if we did it during the day, everyone would give up when they saw how far up it was! (For reference, the one-way hike to the summit is only 5 kilometers long but climbs about 4,000 feet!)
What were the temperatures at the summit of Kilimanjaro?
I don’t know the exact temperature for our summit night (January 17, 2023), but I checked the forecast two weeks later for Uhuru Peak when I got this question, and it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight and felt like 4 degrees with windchill. By 6 a.m., it had warmed up to 20 degrees with a real feel of 13 degrees.
Kilimanjaro is close to the equator, so though the temperatures don’t drastically change throughout the year, January is technically their summer. It’s a bit colder in the June – August dry season (the other popular time to climb Kili). We did have some snow at the top and around the rim when we summited!
How long was your trip? I have to allocate vacation days!
We took 2.5 weeks in total, but we also visited Zanzibar and did a stopover in Qatar on our way home. At minimum, you likely need:
+ 2 days to travel there (from Western USA)
+ Arrive 1 day early for gear check (we planned to arrive 2 days early just in case, and I’m glad we built in an extra day because we missed our flight connection on the way there!)
+ Length of trek (5-9 days, but remember the shorter your hike, the more likely you are to get altitude sickness. We chose 8 days)
+ A few days for fun activities in other areas of Tanzania after! Popular choices are a safari and/or beach time in Zanzibar
+ 1 day to travel home
Do any outfitters offer small-size group tours for Kilimanjaro?
Yes! We joined an “open climb” that didn’t limit the number of people and we had six, which was a nice number. Our company said they averaged 5 people per open climb, and the biggest group they’d ever had was 16.
You can choose to book a private tour for a little more money. Or, you can meet in the middle and book a private climb but tell the operator you’re willing to accept X amount of additional people. This is a good option if you want to meet other trekkers but don’t want to risk climbing in a huge group.
What’s something you wish you would have known before you climbed Kilimanjaro?
With complete honesty, I can say I was thrilled with our trip and wouldn’t change a thing. Except for one small thing (which was more of a mindset). You can only spend about 20 minutes at the summit before your guides will ask you to descend, to help prevent altitude sickness. I knew this going in, but I didn’t truly realize how quickly that 20 minutes was going to pass. I mentioned this to a friend after the trip and she asked, “What would you have done differently?”
I realized it wasn’t that I would have done anything differently – I feel like I did truly appreciate the view of the glaciers and celebrate with Jonathan and recognize how special the moment was and get the coveted summit photo – but I would have had a slightly different mindset. I would have been more intentional about how fleeting that moment was and held on to it a bit more. And that’s truly all! (Oh, and I would have bought warmer gloves!!)
Feature image: Baranco Camp with the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in the background (January 2023)
Such a great overview! Thank you for your amazing blog posts.