Once again I am very grateful to the Kilimanjaro National Park Authorities, KINAPA, for supplying the most up-to-date statistics available for which nationalities climb Africa's highest mountain the most. I’m not sure how reliable they are, but they are the best we can get; plus, to be fair, on this matter at least they [...]
Top tips for getting to the top of Kilimanjaro There's no doubt about it: getting to the top of Kilimanjaro is largely a matter of luck. After all, the main reason why people fail to get to the top is due to altitude sickness. And whether you contract this or not is largely down to [...]
It's finally been officially confirmed that Dr Fred Distelhorst, a retired orthodontist from Vail, Colorado, has become, at 88, the oldest person ever to climb Kilimanjaro. Dr Distelhorst climbed with his grand-daughter, Ellen Edgerton, who was already in Tanzania volunteering for a charity project. The duo took six days to climb Africa's highest mountain, finally reaching [...]
It is almost impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the number of people who die on Kilimanjaro each year. The one organisation that knows the exact body count, KINAPA, the park authorities, doesn’t want to release this figure, for fear that it would impact negatively on the number of people who climb [...]
An eight-year-old girl from Florida, US, has become the youngest ever female to climb Kilimanjaro all the way to its 5895m summit. Roxy Getter, from Punta Gorda, reached the summit with her family earlier this month. Also in their party was her dad Bob and mother Sarah, as well as ten-year-old brother, Ben - thus surely setting [...]
Kilimanjaro has picked up yet another record. Last month thirty women from across the world played a full ninety-minute football game (that's soccer to our American friends) in the Crater of Mount Kilimanjaro. The game, between Volcano FC and Glacier FC, ended in a nil-nil draw but the result wasn't really the point. The [...]
One other interesting nugget emerged from my interview with Betty Lobooiki, the current boss of the Kilimanjaro Park Authorities (KINAPA) last month. The old Kidia Route, which was last open about ten years ago, is to be reopened as a special route for those who want a bit more privacy on their Kilimanjaro climb. [...]
Mawenzi Peak, Kilimanjaro's second summit, opens to climbers once more After more than a decade, the authorities have decided to allow climbers back onto Kili’s hazardous Mawenzi Peak. The peak sits to the east of the main Kilimanjaro's main summit, known as Kibo. Between them lies the high alpine desert known as the Saddle. [...]
KINAPA promotes paragliding on Kilimanjaro Following on from last week's bulletin about cycling on Kilimanjaro, the park authorities, KINAPA, also announced that they have made plans to allow and promote paragliding on Kilimanjaro. Like all these special activities, it's not particularly cheap. For the princely sum of US$500, paragliders can jump from various points on the [...]
Cycling up Kilimanjaro! The park authorities of Kilimanjaro, KINAPA, are hoping to promote cycling on Kilimanjaro. The news came to light in an interview I did with the boss of KINAPA, Betty Lobooiki, for the next edition of our guide book. Cycling on Kilimanjaro is not without precedent. The occasional cyclist has, in the past, [...]