Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro

This is a post about my experience climbing. If you're interested in a practical how to guide click here.

The anticipation of climbing Kilimanjaro was exciting. I had little idea of what I was getting myself into. The online blogs and tour companies generally recommended an exercise regimen involving workouts 3 times per week for three months to prepare for the climb plus some hiking. I signed up less than two weeks before the climb. I was hoping I was in good enough shape to handle this thing. I also read about an average of 9 people dying each year while climbing and all sorts of horrible things about the dangers of altitude sickness. I read about the possibility of investing in emergency oxygen tanks and portable hyperbaric chambers and all this other equipment you need for the climb. I was confident that I was fine but had a mild concern that I was in over my head.

It turns out that climbing Kilimanjaro is not that big a deal. It was more an issue of worrying about the unknown. Let me start by explaining the extent of the challenge. Avoiding altitude sickness is a much bigger issue for successfully climbing Kilimanjaro than being in good shape. My guide told me that only a small percentage of failed efforts to reach the top are due to poor physical fitness. The top of the mountain is 5,900 Meters above sea level (19,360 Feet). To put that in perspective, I think the highest point on the Inca trail is about 4,200 meters and the top of Everest is around 8,300 Meters. I didn’t have any issues with altitude whatsoever on the Inca trail because Cusco, the city you hang out at before beginning the trek has a comparable altitude so I was acclimatized before I even began. Plus I was in Le Paz before that which has an even higher elevation. Unfortunately with Kilimanjaro there is no equivalent opportunity. You’re exposed to the higher elevations for the first time while you’re climbing. Also, there aren’t risk factors or personal traits that predict susceptibility to altitude sickness. Some exceptional athletes have real problems with it and other people who are grossly out of shape are just fine. It seems to be somewhat arbitrary.

I did everything in my power to mitigate the risk of altitude sickness. I walked at a ridiculously slow pace to give myself more time to acclimatize, I drank an obscene amount of water and I went on acclimatization hikes. Acclimatization hikes are when you ascend an extra 100 meters or so past your camp site and then come back down so you’re sleeping at a lower elevation than the highest point of your day. It takes real discipline to do these hikes because you don’t feel like hiking for an extra 40 minutes to an hour at the end of the day after you’ve already reached your camp site. I think I was the only one doing these hikes. I just really didn’t like that there was a variable outside of my control threatening my success so I was insistent that I was doing everything possible to help myself.

In terms of the physical demands of the climb, I found everything really easy except for the day when you actually summit the mountain. Day-1 though day-3 are each 13 km per day or less. However on day-4 you hike for 13 km, and finish at around 4 PM. You try your best to sleep because you’re woken up at about 11 PM to hike 8 steep kilometers in -20 degree weather to the summit over the course of about 7 hours in time to catch sunrise. Then you have 17 km back down. So basically over the course of 30 hours you hike for 38 km. That’s a bit much and you’re doing it all with very limited sleep.

I’ve read all sorts of different articles about the success rate of people attempting to reach the top. As far as I can tell about 30,000 people try to climb Kilimanjaro each year, about 18,000 succeed (60%) and 9 die trying (usually the result of stubbornly not descending when confronted with severe altitude sickness). With a 60% percent success rate it seems like an impressive accomplishment but to put it in perspective I saw a 65 year old Swiss man at the summit and met a 69 year old man from Singapore on my way back down who also succeeded. In short, it’s a challenge but with some determination and a little luck it’s a very manageable feet.

The 65 year old Swiss man was climbing with his 22 year-old son. I think that’s amazing. Dad anytime you feel like climbing a mountain, just name the time and place and I promise I’ll be there. I set as a goal for myself to still be climbing mountains when I’m 65 and I’ll conquer a mountain or two with my children (you know after I get a date first).

The 69 year old, Tim (name changed), was an interesting character. He looked like an older guy. He told me that he made it to the top and then needed to be half carried on the way back down. He didn’t care. He had only promised himself to reach the top he never committed anything about making it back down. He confirmed my dad’s theory that it’s wise to work until the day you die. He’s enjoying his retirement but says he preferred working. He says both with body and mind, use it or lose it.

Tim’s wife passed away 7 years earlier but he is with a companion who he’s been with for 20 years. He asked that I not ask about the curious overlap in time. I couldn’t help myself. He says he has been best friends with his companion for 20 years but remained faithful to his wife while she was alive. I really liked Tim. He was generally content with his life and seemed to have a great, light hearted perspective on everything.

Incidentally, these two older guys were the exception not the rule. Most people on the mountain were in their twenties or early thirties.

I actually had a really easy time all the way to the top of the mountain. My worst problem was a very minor headache. Cardio wise I was golden. Most people who fail to reach the top sadly fail within the last 200-300 meters. That seems so tragic to me. I decided early on that altitude sickness is beyond my control and could stop me but there was no way I would ever give in to being out of shape or general fatigue. I couldn’t understand people who got so close only to give up.

The first time I experienced problems was about 10 minutes into my decent back down the mountain. I think I ran into two problems. One, I foolishly stayed at the top of the mountain for about 40 minutes. It’s advisable to not spend more than 10 minutes. I was there for so long because my camera was giving me trouble because the -20 degree weather was affecting the battery. You need to be quick about getting back down from the top because you never really acclimatize to the highest altitude. All the other heights you reach relatively gradually. The last 1,200 meters of elevation you cover quickly with the knowledge that you’re going to descend right back down. The second issue is that I was horribly sleep deprived. I had only slept for a couple hours in the afternoon before the final climb. Also I had only slept for 2-3 hours each night for the preceding two nights. It was generally -8 degrees at night and I would be up shivering in my tent. I got really badly sick on my way back. I had a headache, my muscles were tired and I was very lethargic. The best way I can describe it, is that it was similar to how you feel when you’re sick and you lack the energy or motivation to do anything but mope around your bed. I so desperately wanted to go to sleep.

I remember while dragging my ass back down the mountain I had an inner dialogue with my body. My body was screaming to me saying, “Hey Rob I need to go to sleep and shut down, I’m really tired, you certainly can’t keep exerting yourself.” I said we need to keep going. “Rob, I’m warning you if you don’t stop I’m going to give you a slap.” “Don’t give me a slap, I have to keep going, and get us off the mountain, the only other alternative is to lie here and die in the freezing cold atop the mountain.” Then my body gave me a slap in the form of making me feel just awful. “What did you slap me for? You understand we have no choice.” “That’s for getting us in this fix in the first place.”

The first 3 hours down the mountain were really rough. However once I got back down to the previous night’s campsite at a lower elevation and was able to nap for an hour and half I was back to feeling good again. It was still rough to have to get up an hour and half later and hike for another 9 km. After hiking all night, and finally getting a little rest the last thing you feel like doing is going on for another 9 km. It was a very long day. I slept like a baby that night.

I was actually happy that I experienced some illness on the mountain. Like I said before I couldn’t rap my head around people getting so close to the top only to give up. It’s easy to keep pressing forward when your body is cooperating with you and you feel fine. Every step is grueling once you start to feel sick. It’s only then that your resolve is really tested. And of course, independent of determination you need to descend for the sake of your health if you’re experiencing real problems. Experiencing sickness gave me a better appreciation of all the factors at play on the mountain.

Climbing the mountain is definitely the type of thing you enjoy more in retrospect than while you’re actually doing it but it was enjoyable during the climb as well. I generally felt great about myself while doing it. I revelled in being in such great shape and feeling so healthy and had great clarity of thought.

I was with another Canadian couple for the first 3.5 days before splitting off on my own. I was doing a 6-day climb and they were doing a 7-day climb. The difference is that my day-4 is split up into 2 days for them so they have more time to acclimatize and don’t need to work as hard the day preceding the summit attempt. They were nice enough but relatively boring people. In actuality, I only climbed with them for the first day. After that, I was largely on my own because while I was moving slowly to allow for acclimatization they were moving horrifically slow. I typically got to camp a good hour before them. At camp, there were always lots of people to hang out with, but everyone looks to go to sleep by 9:30-10:00 to get ready for the next day. I enjoyed myself socially but also had a lot of solitary time during the 6 days. I actually quite enjoyed the solitary time. My thoughts were very clear while walking in beautiful surroundings for several hours. That’s one thing about a mountain is that it just keeps on going, you walk and walk and walk and there is always more distance to cover. It’s kind of anticlimactic when you actually reach the top.

In general on my trip when I have solitary time I often write but you obviously can’t write while walking and I didn’t have my laptop on the mountain. So I actually spent a lot time thinking about what I wanted to write about. I was thinking about the narrative I would tell of my climb and the narrative of other parts of my Africa trip that I haven’t written about yet. The fact that I was spending so much time thinking about how I would recount the story caused me to confront the question of whether I was climbing the mountain because it was something I wanted to do or because it was something I thought others would find interesting and impressive. What about my whole trip? What about my life in general?

Here’s the conclusion I came to on that one: I’m definitely not completely free of a desire to impress others. It’s part of what drives me, as much as I try to live my life for myself. However I think I’m much better than most in that regard. I largely do what I do because it makes me happy. I think I’m driven to write so much and in such detail on this trip because I’m experiencing all these amazing things but I don’t have any of the mainstays in my life to share them with. This causes two problems. One I fear losing much of the experience due to failed memory. More importantly, I’m an overwhelmingly social being and want those I care about to know and understand my experiences and how they impact me. The writing is my way of addressing this. Also, I’ve discovered on this trip that I really enjoy writing for the sake of writing.

I noticed that I haven’t written much since I got to Africa. This is because in Africa, unlike in Europe I’ve mostly been with people who’ve traveled with me for extended stretches rather than just 2 days at a time. This has caused two things: one, there is less down time for writing and two, this has given me more of a sense of a shared experience.

Anyway, I largely enjoyed the climb while I was doing it. I actually enjoyed living like a pig for 6 days without the ability to shower and sweating and generally being gross outdoors. It was also really enjoyable when I got back and had a shower and a shave and a clean bed. It was a bit frustrating to walk so slowly. It’s weird to hold yourself back when your cardio abilities allow you to go faster. We really walked at an unnaturally slow speed. It’s also tough psychologically because generally when doing this type of thing I like to motivate myself saying I’ll push myself to go faster to get to the next destination sooner and then I can rest. When dealing with altitude you can’t do that. It takes the time that it takes and you just need to be patient. So it was boring sometimes walking for so many hours. That being said, again I really enjoyed the time I had with my thoughts and a clear head amid beautiful scenery. I also felt great about myself for being able to beat the mountain with ease. I’m in fucking great shape these days by the way. It’s amazing the impact of replacing time in an office with a 15 km hike each day.

I feel weird now having completed the climb because on one hand I’m very proud of myself but on the other hand I question whether it’s really that challenging or demanding. That’s why I try to be honest about the difficulty of it. It is what it is. I’m pleased I’m in good enough shape to comfortably conquer the mountain and am grateful for the experience of having done it. I’m not done with this type of thing. Having had a taste I want to find new real and metaphoric mountains to climb.

If you are looking to book a trip to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. You can click here for a practical how to guide.