Kilimanjaro may be the biggest mountain in Africa – but where does it rank amongst the world’s highest mountains?

There is no doubt that one of the main attractions of climbing Kilimanjaro is that afterwards you can boast to your friends that you have stood at the highest point on an entire continent with Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro, a magnificent 5895m above sea level. Indeed, it’s pretty much the easiest of the so-called Seven Summits (the highest mountains on each of the seven continents) to conquer: Everest in Asia (8848m; 29,029ft)and Aconcagua (6980m; 22,837 ft) in South America are both at least a kilometre higher (and in Everest’s case, almost 3km taller!); Mount McKinley (aka Denali) in North America may be only slightly taller than Kili at 6168m (20,237 ft) but is more inaccessible, positioned as it is in remote Alaska, and is a more technical climb too; inaccessibility is also a major problem with The Carstenz Pyramid, in the heart of Irian Jaya, Australasia’s highest peak at 4884m/16,023 ft, and Vinson in Antarctica (4897m, 16,067ft); while Mount Elbrus – Europe’s highest peak at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft) – is a straightforward climb but is also a little remote (being in the western Caucasus mountain range) and, being in Russia, the permit situation can be a little tricky too.

But while Kilimanjaro may be the highest peak in Africa, where does it rank amongst the world’s highest mountains. The answer is, I’m afraid, not that high at all. Indeed, given that the individual peaks in the Himalayas and the neighbouring Karakoram and other central Asian ranges account for all the top 100, and that lofty Aconcagua in the Andes only comes in at a lowly 189th according to one source, you probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that Mount Kilimanjaro doesn’t even rank in the top 200(!) of the world’s highest mountains.

Given the different ways that people measure a mountain, and that people have different ideas as to what is a mountain and what is a peak (ie a second summit on the same mountain, such as Mawenzi on Kilimanjaro), it’s actually quite difficult to determine where exactly Kilimanjaro comes in the list of the world’s highest mountains; the best guess we can come up with is position 234. But this, of course, is open to debate. For example, Jill Neate’s book “High Asia: An Illustrated History of the 7,000 Metre Peaks” , lists no less than 400 peaks between 7000 and 8000 metres – which obviously means that Kilimanjaro wouldn’t even feature in the top 500 if we were to use her definitions and measurements.

So far, so bad for those of you who thought that by conquering Africa’s highest mountain you’d also conquered one of the world’s highest mountains too. But don’t despair just yet: for as we said above, there are many ways of measuring altitudes and the height of a mountain. For while Everest and co may be the highest mountains above sea level, they are not usually the highest mountains above the surrounding terrain. By this measurement, Mount McKinley, Nanga Parbat and, yes, Kilimanjaro, are said to be the highest – though with no precise definition of what the ground level should be, there is no way of accurately deciding which of these is the highest of them all.

What is more certain is Kilimanjaro claim to be the tallest free-standing mountain in the world (ie one that is not part of a mountain range: Nanga Parbat is at the western end of the Himalaya range, while McKinley is part of the Alaska range). And this, we think, is very important. For while Everest and her neighbours may be a couple of kilometres taller than Kili, because they’re surrounded by peaks that are almost as high they look somewhat less impressive because of it; while Kilimanjaro stands all by itself in the middle of the East African plain, it’s nearest neighbour, Mount Meru, over 60km away and, at 4566m, over a kilometre shorter too.

And with beautiful cloud forest bearding its lower slopes and a crown of snow at the summit, no mountain, in this author’s humble opinion, is more magnificent than the Roof of Africa.

<< Kilimanjaro statistics 

The most popular trekking routes on Kilimanjaro – the latest figures >>

As most of you will know, there are six main routes leading up to the summit of Kilimanjaro (plus one route that is for descent purposes only). The question is: which one is the most popular?

It’s an important question, of course, because few people want to trek on an over-crowded route. And indeed, on some of the more popular routes during the high season, the trail can become little more than a queue of people snaking up the mountain – which does rather detract from the whole ‘wilderness experience’.

Well, thanks to the Kilimanjaro Park Authorities, KINAPA, we have the latest figures for each route. They are as follows:

1. Machame 20,339 trekkers per year
2. Marangu 12,289 trekkers per year
3. Shira/Lemosho 9927 trekkers per year
4. Rongai 4088 trekkers per year
5. Umbwe 589 trekkers per year

The thing that leaps out at you about these figures is that Machame is still, quite significantly the most popular route, a position it has held since 2006/7 when it first knocked Marangu into second place. This won’t surprise anybody who’s trekked on this trail for the past few years – but will come as a blow to those many foreign agents who still try to hype the ‘Whiskey Route’ as a wild and untrammelled path. Remember, too, that the Marangu Route gets trekkers all year-round, because people on this route sleep in dormitories in huts rather than under canvas so it still gets trekkers during the rainy season, while the Machame Route is virtually deserted at that time; which means, of course, that during the rest of the year they must get many, many more people than the Marangu Route.

You can read our thoughts on the popularity of the Machame Route, at least at certain time of year, by following this link to our post on why we think the Machame Route is perhaps too crowded now .

Other points to note? Well, it’s interesting how much the Lemosho/Shira Route has grown in popularity to become the third busiest route (from 7807 in 2012); indeed, of all the routes it’s the only one that has seen its numbers rise since 2012. That may have something to do with our guide book, which has always sung its praises. It may also be due to an increasing awareness amongst trekkers that a longer route is better for acclimatisation. We’re pleased it’s doing so well – but there’s a part of us, of course, that doesn’t want it to get too popular – that just leads to overcrowding and a decrease in the magic that made it so special in the first place.

Finally, I do find it a little surprising to see how unpopular the Umbwe Route continues to be. It’s a beautiful route and, being close to Marangu, a convenient one for the agencies to use. But its reputation as the ‘hardest’ route seems enough to deter most people from taking it.

<< Is Kilimanjaro one of the world’s biggest mountains? 

Which nationality climbs Kilimanjaro the most? 

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 do seem to conform to my own impression of which nationalities you see most often on Kili.

The following are the figures for 2016 – the latest figures available for the mountain.

• United States 11065
• United Kingdom 5065
• Germany 3569
• Australia 2374
• Canada 1844
• France 1666
• Tanzania 1470
• China 1295
• Netherlands 1166
• Denmark 1157
• Norway 1038
• Sweden 960
• Spain 959
• Kenya 935
• British Indian Ocean 905
• Japan 792
• Swaziland 784
• Russian Federation 712
• India 645
• Poland 636
• Korea (South) 622
• Ireland 595
• South Africa 547
• Italy  505
• Belgium  461
• Israel 407
• Switzerland 355
• Austria 251
• Singapore 245
• New Zealand (Aotearoa) 228
• Other 3979

Total – 47,232

The first thing to note is that there are fewer people climbing now than five years ago when, in 2012, a total of 57,456 people attempted to reach the summit of Kili. Ever-increasing park fees, the addition of VAT to those park fees, concerns about terrorism (which is unfair on Tanzania, which has seldom been the target of terrorism, though its neighbours, and in particular Kenya, certainly have) and a downturn in the economic fortunes of several countries that usually send a lot of trekkers to Kili (such as the UK) have probably all contributed to this decline in visitor numbers. Bad news for those who make their living from the mountain, of course, though some of us will be pleased that there are fewer people climbing – the trekking companies will disagree, but over 57,000 people on the mountain in a year is, we think, just too many.

As for which countries they come from, I suppose these figures hold few surprises for those who know the mountain. In general Americans don’t travel as much as Canadians, Europeans and Antipodeans but for some reason they love Kilimanjaro, a passion that I can only ascribe, maybe, to the ‘Hemingway effect’, his books doing much to publicise the mountain in his native country. Brits, of course, have a colonial connection to East Africa and are great travellers, and the same description can be applied to the Germans.

The emergence of the new economic superpowers, in particular China, appears to be reflected in their figures, too, and is one of the few countries to have increased the number of people it sent to Kili (from 772 in 2012). It’s noticeable, too, that Russia feature for the first time, sending 712 people to Kili. This can be ascribed, we believe, both to the country’s increasing economic performance and, perhaps more importantly, the work of Altezza, the first Russian-speaking trekking agency for Kili and one that does much to advertise the mountain in that country.

Incidentally, you’ll notice that, apparently, 905 people came from ‘British Indian Ocean’. These are a tiny huddle of islands in the middle of the sea halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The only inhabitants these days are US and British military personnel and associated contractors – a total population of about 2500; as such, we believe that – unless a third of the the population moved en masse to Tanzania to try to conquer Africa’s highest mountain – that this is a mistake, and the people who declared that they are from British Indian Ocean are actually just British. It doesn’t alter the UK’s position in the above table either way.

<< The most popular trekking routes on Kilimanjaro – the latest figures

Deaths on Kilimanjaro – the true statistics >>

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 the mountain each year, resulting in a loss of revenue. Similarly, the companies are understandably reluctant to advertise when a client dies on one of their climbs.

Luckily, a few years ago a study by Markus Hauser addressed precisely this topic. In the paper, Deaths due to High Altitude Illness among Tourists Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Hauser studied autopsies from 1996 to 2003 and found that over those eight years only 25 people died. Ranging in age from 29 to 74, with 17 male and 8 female, the reports tell us that 14 of the deceased were victims of High Altitude Illness (HAI), of which five had HAPO, one HACO, while eight had symptoms of both. Causes of death amongst the other 11 victims include two who died of pneumonia, three to trauma (ie a fall) and one from appendicitis.

Extrapolating from these figures, given that there are over twice as many people who climb the mountain each year now, so we estimate the number of people who die on Kili each year to be about six or seven.

It should be noted that the study does not include the death of porters, for whom a post-mortem is not compulsory and thus the number of fatalities they suffer is more difficult to quantify with any degree of accuracy. Remember that more porters climb Kili than tourists, at a ratio of about three to one on every trek – so you would think perhaps there would be three times as many deaths amongst them. They also put their bodies under extra stress because of the heavy loads they are carrying, and the fact that the food they eat and the conditions in which they sleep are far inferior. Many of them also still turn up on Kili with insufficiently warm clothing. But of course they seldom climb up Kibo to the summit unless the trek includes a night at Crater Camp, so the highest altitude they reach is usually about 4600m. So given all these factors, the best educated guess we have is that about the name number of porters and other mountain crew die on the mountain each year too.

The conclusion that one can draw from all these statistics is that climbing Kilimanjaro, as with any ascent of a seriously big mountain, is inherently a risky undertaking; one that is made all the more dangerous by the rapidity with which one is expected to reach the summit (as we mention elsewhere in the book, if the standard guidelines for ascending a mountain were followed on Kilimanjaro, people would take twelve days to reach the summit from 12,000ft, (3658m) not the usual 24 hours that is taken on Kili!). Problems are exacerbated by the fact that it is possibly the easiest mountain of such a size to scale, with no actual climbing involved – which attracts more people of all levels of fitness, whether they are of a suitable physicality to climb such a large mountain or not.

And yes, for sure, measures such as making sure your trek is equipped with supplementary oxygen, carrying Diamox (acetazolamide), drinking plenty, going slowly, taking as many days as you can afford on the mountain….all of these can help to mitigate your chances of something serious or fatal happening to you on Kili. But they can’t modify the biggest risk factor of them all: the fact you chose to put yourself on the mountain in the first place.

A senior member of staff at KCMC had a rather neat analogy for it, comparing it to someone standing on a motorway reciting poetry. That person can put on a hi-vis jacket, can position himself between the lanes rather than in the middle of one, and maybe choose to stand on the motorway at a time when it’s not so busy. All of which can help to reduce his or her chances of being killed; but the bottom line is that by standing on the motorway in the first place, that person has put himself or herself in danger. And so it is when you decide to climb Africa’s highest mountain. Because it is estimated that about 50% of people will get mountain sickness of some sort or another on Kili; and of those, about one in fifty will go on to develop something serious.

Further investigation suggests that KCMC, the hospital at the foot of Kilimanjaro, sees a trekker every two to three weeks – and more in the rainy season when hypothermia, an injury from slipping or altitude sickness are all, according to the statistics, more likely.

Perhaps even more disconcerting than the deaths, however, are the cases of those who survived their climb but were never quite the same again: of the ship’s captain who climbed Kilimanjaro, got into trouble, came down unconscious and, though he pulled through, was not able to continue working due to the permanent effect climbing the mountain had had on his cognitive powers. Or the people who end up blind in one or even both eyes following a Kili climb (it is estimated that 1-2% of people who climb Kili will get some sort of bleeding at the back of the eye). As we’ve already written, deaths on Kilimanjaro are seldom publicised; but those who suffer some sort of permanent injury or disability following their climb never receive any attention, and it is concerning to think how many of them there may be…

We never want to put anyone off climbing Kilimanjaro. We have seen how happy people are after a successful climb, and we’ve received many letters and emails from people over the years saying how it has completely changed their life, giving them a confidence and self-assurance that was previously lacking. Getting to the top of Africa’s highest mountain is a wonderful experience. But in order to climb safely, you need to be fully aware of the risks – and do everything you can to make sure you minimise them as much as possible.

Because the last thing we want is for you to end up as just another statistic.

<< Which nationality has climbed Kilimanjaro the most?

Which person has climbed Kilimanjaro the most? >>

Last year I was contacted by a well-known US-based trekking company who wanted to know which person had climbed Kilimanjaro the greatest number of times.

I replied that the holder of this record would undoubtedly be one of the the guides who make their living from climbing Kilimanjaro. One of our guides, Freddie Achedo, for example, says he has climbed over 600 times now and I know there are many others like him.

That prompted the agency to rephrase their question, and ask which Westerner/non-Tanzanian has reached the summit of Africa’s highest mountain the most. It transpired that their boss was due to make his fiftieth climb (which he has since completed) and were wondering if he could claim some kind of record for this.

Fifty is undoubtedly an impressive number, and we extend our congratulations to Eddie Frank, of Tusker, for reaching this milestone. But when it comes to holding the record, we think he’s got some way to go before he reaches the mark set by Rev. Dr. Richard Gustavovich Reusch (1891-1975).

Most of you who have climbed Kilimanjaro or know a bit about the mountain will be familiar with the good doctor (pictured above), for he gives his name to the inner crater on Kilimanjaro’s highest peak, Kibo.

But until now I had no idea just what a full life Pastor Reusch led, or why he deserved to have the Reusch Crater named after him. His life before he rocked up on the shores of East Africa sounds like the wilder stories of Kipling or Lawrence of Arabia; indeed, one source on the internet described him as an “Imperial Russian Cavalry Officer, Lutheran Pastor, Anti-Bolshevik, East African Leipzig and Augustana Missionary, Mountaineer, Ethnographer, Builder, British Spy, Linguist, Historian, Honorary Masai, College Professor and LCA Pastor” – which sums him up pretty neatly.

But it was his exploits on Africa’s highest mountain for which he is duly remembered. He arrived in Arusha in 1923, and made his first ascent of Kilimanjaro three years later in 1926.

It was on that trip that he found the mummified corpse of a leopard that had been discovered by Dr Donald Latham in the Kibo crater the previous year. Indeed, Pastor Reusch cut off one of the ears of the leopard to keep as a souvenir.

(The leopard subsequently earns a level of fame it could only dream about when it was alive by featuring in the opening paragraph of Ernest Hemingway’s semi-authobiographical work, The Snows of Kilimanjaro.)

On a subsequent trek a year later Reusch discovered the inner crater that bears his name.

In 1929 he also went on to found the Mountain Club of East Africa along with Clement Gillman – who also, as many of you will know, has a spot on Kibo’s crater rim named after him. (Incidentally Reusch’s wife, Elveda, is also immortalised on the mountain, with one of the minor ‘summits’ between Stella Point and Uhuru Peak, on the southern crater rim, named after her.) In all, Richard Reusch is said to have summited somewhere between 65 and 75 times in all.

Yet as we said at the start of this article, even this impressive achievement pails into insignificance when compared to the guides for whom leading Kilimanjaro climbs is a way of life, and who bounce up and down the mountain like a yo-yo.

Freddie Achedo, a man who has led many, many climbs for us over the years, thinks he has now climbed 687 times. And there are said to be two guides from the long-standing Marangu Hotel that have climbed over a thousand times. Of course, it’s difficult to verify such figures – but over the coming weeks and months I will endeavour to find out which guide holds the record for the highest number of climbs – and just how many times they have stood at the summit of Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro.

<< Deaths on Kilimanjaro: the true statistics 

Record climbs on Kilimanjaro and other amazing feats: the current list >>