Kilimanjaro 6 : Tips and Considerations

• Find a good reason to climb Kili. You may need it as a push factor to train and to overcome the summit. I regret not having one. I am those type of people who need one. 

• Choose your agency and route wisely – do lots of research on this! Also enquire about the summiting (such as when it will take place – at midnight or in the morning, what sort of equipment and clothes are required in the month you climb). When we were descending from Uhuru Peak, we met a group who were just beginning their ascent. We were all secretly thinking how lucky we were to have summited at night instead of during the day while others would have preferred to do so during the day. You may also want to enquire the size of the group – I saw a group with more than 12 people and there were people lagging behind taking pictures and videos and it looked pretty disorganised.

• Train for the trek by climbing a lower mountain to acclimatise/ get used to walking up a hill. It is only “a walk in the park” if you are fit for ascending.

• Be prepared for the cold and windy weather (bring balaclava, hand warmers, thermal lining socks etc etc) and tip the poor porters generously for carrying them up the mountain.

• Be responsible and take care of yourself. We heard of a woman (not on our trip) who was taking a picture and kept walking backwards and fell off a hill. She did not die but had to be carried down the hill. That would have hurt a lot for her and a pain in the a*** for everyone who had to carry her down.

• Bring energy gel and sweets for summit day (according to my guide, they give instant energy on summit day without too much digestion required). For other days, consume dried fruits and nuts as they will sustain you better than chocolates. Bring chocolates as treats.

• Apply sun block diligently to every part of your body including the back of your legs and your ears and use a lip balm with SPF protection (your lips get burnt too!)

• Learn to sleep and wake up early, especially if you are one of those people who usually go to bed at 3am.

• Get a lasik done? It will be impossible to wear contact lenses as your fingers will be too dirty to pop the lenses in. Geoff climbed with spectacles. Mine would have fogged up on summit day.

• Avoid wearing black clothes. I wore black track pants and the dust really showed on my clothes. Alternatively, wear gaiters. I saw other teams wearing gaiters every day – that would keep the dust off the pants (I did not care too much about the dust since there was really no way to avoid the dust, no matter how hard one tries). I wore gaiters on summit day but the snow was not deep enough to warrant the gaiters.