Before I leave Africa, I’m going to write down some final thoughts on the two mountains.
When I think back on Kilimanjaro, the first thing that pops into my head is that I was surprised as to how crowded the mountain was. I’ve never seen anything like it. Each camp was as busy as a Himalayan base camp in high season, but the difference is that on Kili, the entire base camp moves with you up the mountain, only to be replaced by another base camp coming up behind you, and of course, you’re replacing the base camp that has moved on ahead of you.
According to the guides, Christmas is the busiest week. Our guides liked January. They said that was a great time to climb the mountain… maybe even the best time. However, they admitted that the weather is better June through September, and that sometimes the crowds perhaps potentially maybe might possibly be dispersed a bit… on certain subjects they were sometimes reluctant to give hard opinions, so I don’t really know. Since I’ve now been on the mountain in January, if I were to return to climb Kilimanjaro and Kilimanjaro only, I would aim for June – September, if only to see something different.
I chose January because that reportedly is the best time to climb Mt Kenya, and from what I saw, that proved accurate. I would have had good weather and good conditions on the mountain.
The second thing that pops into my head when I think of our ascent of Kilimanjaro is how much trash was at high camp and on the summit day trail. It might have been the dirtiest trail I’ve ever been on. I’ve had a week to stew on this and I can’t think of anything that even comes close. It would be so easy to clean it all up. They’ve already figured out the poop situation at the camps. They merely need to issue everybody a trash bag… one that is sanitary enough to hold toilet paper. Just like in Nepal and Grand Teton National Park, everybody should be issued a wag bag for pooping on the trail and on summit day. The only way this works is if the guides buy into this, but that’s an attainable goal. Remember that guides are mandatory by law for all trekking on both Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya. The mechanism is there to clean the place up. It’s cheap and easy. All that’s required is the will to do so.
Third thing is the food. My guidebook states that “a food gourmand will likely be disappointed” and that’s an accurate statement. When I came back from Nepal the first time, within a few days I was cooking Dal Baht at home. Not all Nepalese food is that great, but some of it has become a staple in my life ever since. There is no such analog here in East Africa. The native food is very bland. I was expecting hot sauce and spices, but that was not the case. It was very interesting eating my meals with a native Kenyan on Mt Kenya, as we discussed what he normally eats, and I reciprocated, of course. Protein is a small part of their diet. They eat a lot of carbs.
And I still don’t understand the quantities that they serve. They don’t eat like that themselves. This is something that maybe they think we westerners want? I don’t know, but it seems to be ubiquitous.
The fruit was amazing. Especially early in each expedition. Maybe I was hungry but those were the best mangos I’ve ever had. The passion fruit and the tree tomatoes were amazing. The only thing I didn’t eat were the apples because I loaned my knife out and never got it back.
Neither of us had any intestinal issues. Their handwashing and food handling seemed to be excellent. Thank you.
I was never bitten by any insects. That one surprised me. I didn’t take malaria pills in Tanzania, but I did take them in Kenya. Again, nothing bit me. I only wore deet at the first campsite on Kenya. I didn’t bring shorts because I was nervous about the bugs, but I may have been the only westerner on the mountain without them.
The altitude:
Neither Dan nor I had any problems with the altitude. Going up too fast can make your days feel pretty miserable and I was wondering if 7 days was long enough to actually enjoy being up there. To my surprise, I was fine. When I was younger, I never took any altitude drugs… ever. I was too much of a purist back then. I’m older and wiser now: for this trip, I started on Diamox (Acetazolamide) on day 2. I woke up gasping a couple of times on night 3 (13,000’), which is normal for me, but that was it. After night 3, I slept relatively well and the altitude just wasn’t an issue for the rest of the trip. I should also mention that for the first time in my life I took Dexamethazone for summit day. Dex is a steroid that has long been known to help suppress some of the body’s negative responses to altitude. I’ve carried it in my first aid kit since my Denali days back in the 80s, but it was always kept in reserve for an emergency. I had never taken it. Nowadays, people regularly take Dex as a PED for summit days. It’s become the normal thing to do. We did, and both of us felt great. Would we have felt great without it? Well, life isn’t a controlled experiment so we’ll never know.
Before I move on to Mt Kenya, I want to say that despite the negatives outlined above, I enjoyed our ascent of Kilimanjaro. The mountain is big enough to demand one’s attention. Interesting enough that each day brought something new, and yet the climb was short enough not to overstay its welcome. It was a fun adventure that I would do again.
Mt Kenya:
I wish I had come here in my 30s with a good partner and week of supplies. Like many great mountains, it’s far more than just a summit. This is a climbing area. There are spectacular routes to explore. Now that might be easy for me to say since I haven’t yet climbed anything on the mountain, but from what I saw, the climbing looked good… maybe not as good as climbing on granite, but way better than limestone.
The crowds may have biased this appraisal, but I found Mt Kenya to be much prettier than Kili. It was certainly more quiet and intimate. After the approach day, we were always in side canyons with the mountain rising above us. Small lakes were common… something completely lacking on Kili. It felt natural and peaceful.
Mt Kenya is only 200 miles north of Kili, but those 200 miles make a difference. The vegetation was significantly different. They are building – and I’m not making this up – a 450 kilometer solar powered electric fence around the entire mountain at roughly the 7500’ elevation level. The intent is to keep the wildlife inside the park. That’s awesome. The land below appears to be all inhabited. Just like in America, there’s no place for the wildlife to go.
Another nice thing about Mt Kenya is that the trailheads are at 10,000’ as opposed to between 5 and 6 thousand feet on Kili. That means one less day of approach in both directions. Yes, you miss a bit of the rain forest, which is special, but I had plenty of that on Kili.
As opposed to Kili, where we hardly saw any signs of wildlife at all beyond camp robbers, this place is thriving. Down low there were even some dangerous animals in our neighborhood like African Buffalo (which we never saw but their fresh scat was everywhere). In my photo essay I’ll post what pictures I have.
The plan:
Bewarned: There is a bit of “live and learn” in the following paragraph. I’m writing this while still in Africa and while I’m trying to be diplomatic, I’m still a little emotional about it. I do wonder what my opinion will be 6 months from now. However, here are my current thoughts:
In theory, acclimatizing on Kilimanjaro and then blitzing Mt Kenya is a good one. Would this illness have sabotaged the plan no matter what? We’ll never know. As it was, I’m a little disappointed in how it was planned and felt that I was given some false information. My itinerary didn’t allow me time to recover from Kili. This was mentioned in the planning stages but I was told that I had to go up on the mountain as quickly as possible in order to have a chance at making the summit. Specifically, the choice was presented as: do you want to rest? or do you want to get to the summit? There isn’t time to do both. That turns out not to be true. I was also told that I would have two nights in hotels during the transition before going up on the mountain which also wasn’t true (I only had one night in Moshi). As I wrote in the blog, it was suspicious that the Mt Kenya outfitter ignored my multiple requests for an itinerary. I only found out at the trailhead on day 1 that he had planned this grand 9 day tour of the mountain. Remember that Kilimanjaro was only 7 days. I neither needed nor asked for a grand 9 day tour. What I wanted to do was climb the mountain. I stated that very clearly right from the start. Had I stayed healthy and pulled off the whole enchilada, I’m sure it would have been memorable, but it’s pretty obvious in hindsight that the itinerary wasn’t realistic for a 62 year old climber. The outfitter did get a lot of money from me… Mt Kenya was far more expensive than Kilimanjaro. That, no doubt, is the ultimate answer. Live and learn.
I had set aside 20 days to climb both mountains. Now that I know the approaches, I’m confident that’s plenty of time to do both: Climb Kili first. Rest up for 3 or 4 nights in hotels as you move from Moshi in Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya, and then blitz the mountain in 4 days: 2 day approach, 1 day climb, and 1 day egress. Add another day or two for weather and putzing around, and we’re still easily within the 20 day window. A grand 9 day tour of Mt Kenya is likely prettier and more interesting that Kilimanjaro, so if you didn’t go to Kili first, then such a long tour makes sense, but after spending 7 days on Kili, enough with the walking… let’s go climbing!
- Tom Bennett 1/18/26