Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain in the world at 5985m. It is also one of the most attainable of the 7 Summits challenge and many aspiring mountaineers undertake this challenge, myself included.
I had climbed Kilimanjaro once in 2015 and then in 2018, I decided to lead an expedition to the beautiful country of Tanzania to bring 6 team members to the roof of Africa!
All the photos in the gallery is a mix of both expeditions. We ascended the mountain via the machame route for both expeditions and all team members had reached the summit.
One of the things that was really amazing was the standard of service of the expedition. We had a very good guide for both expedition and his name was Babalu. He was genuine, spoke great english and an excellent liason between me and my porters and kitchen staff. The food was wonderful as well as we had a very experienced chef who prepared 3 course dinners for some of the days. This was more so for the 2018 expedition.
For both expeditions, members slept in twin-sharing tents and thus was very useful that the team members knew each other before hand. On both our expeditions, we made sure that training was done prior to the expedition and that they were trained hard to climb the HDBs in Singapore.
Climbing days were very reasonable with about 5-6 hour days from camp to camp and there was one main big acclimitisation day where we had to ascend up over the high pass (4000m) before heading down into the valley for camp.
Summit day would actually be the hardest day since it starts from about 4800m and we climb about 1000m in ascent. This is tough for a newbie trekker and can be a difficult challenge to overcome espacially if one has not climbed to 5000m before. The summut day starts from around 1am and we climb to the Stella Point (5765m) which is about 1 hour gradual climb to the summit. At Stella Point, it is a huge wall where people usually seek refuge and rest abit before pushing for the summit.
At this point on both expeditions, team members were seen to have some headaches and giddyness but that was manageable with encouragement and a slow and steady pace.
Overall, Kilimanjaro remains as a very attainable goal for people who want to experience a beautiful part of Africa and also challenge themselves. To end of Kilimanjaro, a 3D2N Safari in the Ngorongoro crater and a visit to the local Masai tribe is a must-do after climbing this beautiful marvelous peak!
Official Website of Jeremy Tong 