The Mountain

Kilimanjaro is a massive stratovolcano rising up from the Great Rift Valley to 19,340 ft above sea level. It is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world (above water), rising 15,000 ft from its base in northeastern Tanzania.

There are actually three volcanoes - Shiro, Kibo, and Mawenzi. The highest point on Kilimanjaro is Uhuru Peak on Kibo.

Kilimanjaro is very unique because it sits near the equator, and a hike from the base to summit brings the trekker through just about every climate zone on earth, topped by a glaciated summit. The "snows of Kilimanjaro" have been retreating at an alarming rate. There is strong consensus that the snow will vanish in the near future, most predictions have the icecap completely gone by 2020.

The climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro is a trek, not a technical climb. However, there are big challenges faced when climbing Kilimanjaro. The climb takes you from a relatively warm equatorial climate to potentially subzero temperatures on the summit. The biggest challenge for any hiker is altitude. Guides recommend that climbers ascend no more than 1,000 feet per day when above 8,000 ft amsl to avoid acute mountain sickness (AMS). More on that later.

The trek will take about seven days to climb to the summit, and a day and a half to descend. There's a lot of talk about AMS and going slow to climb this mountain, but do the math - descending 15,000 ft in two days - that's going to be a big challenge too.

Mt. Townsend - The Training Begins

Deciding to climb Kilimanjaro is one thing. The training for it is another. We did not get a lot of hiking in this summer for several reasons. For one thing, Doreen was training for a couple of triathlons, and apparently you can't hike when you are trying to get as much running, biking and swimming in as possible. for another thing, we had the summer that never was summer this year.

So, our first real "training" hike was October 18 - four months before the trip. We are having great fall weather this year, bringing us the summer conditions that we did not get in the summer.

We started our "training hikes" by climbing Mt. Townsend in the Olympic Mts. Most years, we can't climb this mountain after September, but there's no snow yet so we're off. Our group was me, Doreen, and our best hiking buddy Lucy (photo). The hike is 3.8 miles one way, climbing consistently through a rhododendron forest and finally out on an open ridge, reaching the top at 6280 ft, with 2900 ft of ascent. One of my favorite mountains to climb anywhere.

The views on top are tremendous. The entire layout of Puget Sound is at our feet from the Straight of Juan de Fuca and Straight of Georgia, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands, Seattle, and Southern Puget Sound. The Cascade Mt. range is seen behind all that. Mt. Baker in all its glory tops the view to the north, and Mt. Rainier can be seen to the south. Then- turn around and all of the Olympic Mountains are sitting there going on and on and on...

The Kilimanjaro Adventure

My partner (Doreen) and I turned 50 last year, and decided to go and do something about it. We tossed around a few ideas like floating the Grand Canyon, going to Carnival in Rio, but decided that we wanted to do something that required some physical training and was somewhat more adventurous.

I tossed some past-read National Geographic articles around in my head and Kilimanjaro popped up. Once it was brought up, we both knew that it was the ideal adventure to take on, so an expedition was born.

Unfortunately, we could not get away during our 50th year. So, this adventure is going to happen this year.

So, once the climb was decided upon, the next obvious thought was - if we are going all the way to Tanzania to climb a dumb mountain, we better go see some of the great wildlife there too. Some of the most amazing game reserves and national parks are in the close vicinity of Kilimanjaro. A short list includes Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater (worth going to for the name alone), Lake Manyara, and Tarangire.

We decided the ideal time to climb Kilimanjaro was in February because that is the wet season there, and the Great Migration is at its southernmost reaches. More on the great Migration later.

OK- expedition location decided, dates set, sounds good right? No way- there is tons of planning, training, equipping, vaccinating, and researching to be done.

This site is for friends, family, and colleagues who are interested in our progress on this expedition. I hope to keep this up through the training phase, and also keep it going via Blackberry during the trip. I plan to post updates on our progress all the way up the mountain and down again. Thanks for reading!