CLIMB MOUNT KILIMANJARO

There are various estimates as to how high it is. But most people use the figure of 5895m, or 19,341ft. This is the height you will find printed on the certificates handed out to those who successfully reach the summit. You can find out more about the mountain’s appearance by following this link: What does Kilimanjaro look like>>

Kilimanjaro’s main claim to fame is that it is the highest Mountain in Africa. It is also said to be the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. In other words, it’s not part of a mountain range but stands all by itself in the heart of the East African plains. 

Kilimanjaro is in northern Tanzania, right against the border with Kenya, in East Africa. 

For details on how to travel to the mountain, please visit our Getting to Kilimanjaro section.

The latest figures that have been released by the park authorities show that there were 44,403 people who tried to climb it in 2016. This is down from over 50,000 in 2014 & 2015.

The percentage of people getting to the summit varies according to the route, the duration of the climb and the trekking company that they used, but we reckon that, as a rough guide, about 75% of people make it to the summit. Though many companies will claim a success rate well above 90% for some routes.

Figures are never released by the authorities for fear of generating bad publicity. But extrapolating from the only academic study done on this subject, we estimate that there are approximately 6-7 deaths every year.

You can read our post on this subject here: Deaths on Kilimanjaro>>

The first person to climb to the summit is believed to be Hans Meyer, a geology professor from Leipzig in Germany. You can read about his exploits on our Kilimanjaro conquered page , part of the Kilimanjaro History section of this website.

You need to be at least ten years old to climb Africa’s highest mountain. (Incidentally, there are huge discounts on the park fees for under 16s – amounting, for example, to over US$700 for a six-day Machame trek. Make sure these are passed onto you. Many companies, even expensive ones, don’t pass on all of the discount. If you want to know how much your discount should be, just contact us.) There are currently three seven-year-olds who have climbed it to the top (all of whom had to get special permission for doing so.) At the other extreme,  the oldest person ever to make it was 88 when he made it to the top. More>>

The minimum number of days is 5. The park authorities, KINAPA, won’t allow you on any of the routes for less than this minimum (unless you are on a day-trip, in which case you aren’t allowed to go very high on the mountain). Many agencies will not sell you a trek for five days as it doesn’t really give you enough time to acclimatise safely. We don’t recommend you take just five days either – it is simply too dangerous. At the other extreme some groups trek for 9-10 days. Most treks, however, are 6-8 days in length. The Golden Rule to remember is this: the longer you spend on the mountain, the greater your chances of getting to the summit.

There’s plenty of wildlife on the mountain, though your chances of seeing much are slim. This is largely because the animals prefer to avoid those parts of the mountain where more than 40,000 people tread every year. For this reason, you’ll be lucky to see anything larger than a monkey or a mouse. That said, every so often a reader will write in to say that they saw a buffalo, eland, leopard or elephant on the trail. Wildlife>>

The national language is Swahili. But the local language is Kichagga, spoken by the Chagga people, which has several dialects. English is widely spoken, at least amongst the guides and more educated members of the mountain crews. The Chagga people>>