Hike Londorossi Gate to Mti Mkubwa

Breakfast at the hotel. Meet the guide at the lobby of your hotel to begin your journey!

Three-hour drive from Arusha takes us to the Londorossi Park Gate, located on the western side of Kilimanjaro, where we should arrive by midday, to register at the gate and enter the Kilimanjaro Park, this process can take up to a couple of hours. Lunch will be at the gate and sign into the National Park. As you enter the route, you will begin to notice the flora and fauna and untouched vegetation growing across the narrow track. Our trek today will be along a less-traveled track known as Chamber's Route. In approximately 3 hours, we will reach our camp in the forest at Mti Mkubwa, otherwise known as Big Tree Camp, at 2,800m/9,186ft.

Hike Mti Mkubwa to Shira One Camp

Breakfast at the Big Tree Camp before starting the climb through the rainforest towards the giant moorland zone. Today’s trek is strenuous with a significant gain in height. We will take a lunch stop at the crest of a ridge, just below the Shira Crater at approximately 3,000m/9,850ft. After lunch, we follow the ridgeline steadily upwards towards the Shira Caldera, a high-altitude desert plateau, which is rarely visited. Shira is the third of Kilimanjaro's volcanic cones and is filled with lava flow from Kibo Peak - the central volcanic cone and literally "the Roof of Africa". Today’s walk will be approximately 6 hours before reaching the camp at 3,500m/11,480ft

Hike Shira One Camp to Shira Two Camp

Breakfast at the campsite. We continue to hike east across the Shira Plateau past the Shira Cathedral (12,470ft / 3,880 m), towards Shira Two camp. After lunch we will hike up to 4,000m/13,123 ft. for some additional acclimatization.

Hike Shira Two Camp to Baranco Camp

Breakfast at the campsite. Today is a tough 7 hour hike. We start the day before lunch in a steady uphill ascent towards the Lava Tower. Today, we will focus on a similar pace that will happen on the summit night. Once we reach the Lava Tower at 4,640m/15,223ft, we will stop for a hot lunch and rest before we slowly descend to Baranco, situated at the foot of the Kibo Peak. As we descend to Baranco, the southern icefields will come more clearly into view. Sleeping at a similar height as we did the night before, gives excellent acclimatization after reaching a new height record for the trip at the Lava Tower.

Hike Baranco Camp to Karanga Camp

After breakfast, our first challenge is to overcome the Baranco Wall, which is 300m/984ft high and takes us to an altitude of 4,244m/13,924ft. There are short sections of easy scrambling, which are fun and quickly overcome. From the top, the receding Heim Glacier on Kilimanjaro's south face is clearly visible. The route then continues eastwards underneath the Decken and Rebman Glaciers to the Karanga Camp (4050m/13,287ft), which is situated above the Karanga Valley. Today will be a 4 to 5 hour trek to the Karanga Camp at (4,050m/13,300ft).

Hike Karanga Camp to Kosovo Camp

Today is another reason that we are different from other trips! From Karanga camp, we will head steadily upward to the high camp of Kosovo, which will give our teams a better chance of reaching the summit. A 4 hour steady walk takes us to Kosovo Camp (4,900m/16,010ft) from where we will set up to make our summit attempt. This is a short day, but included to give some essential pre-summit acclimatization, without being too physically exhausting. On arrival, we begin to get ourselves ready for our summit attempt. This means preparing all our gear and water for the push up to the top, as well as getting as much to eat and drink as possible and going to bed very early. We will wake at 11/11:30pm to prepare for our summit attempt! We will get ourselves dressed in all of our warmest summit gear as we will begin walking well before dawn, and the coldest part of the day comes just before sunrise. If the weather is not in our favor, and it is too windy at the Kosovo Camp, we may have to stay a bit lower at the Barafu Camp at (15,250ft/4,650m), but our goal will always be to reach Kosovo Camp!

Hike Kosovo Camp to Uhuru Peak (19,340 ft / 5,896m) to Mweka Camp

This summit day proves to be the steepest and most demanding part of the mountain, and we will be taking it very slowly as we move up the trail. The moon may provide some light, but we'll be using head-torches for several hours until the sun rises. We will aim to reach Stella Point on the Crater Rim by sunrise after approximately 5 hours of constant up-hill walking. At dawn, from the Crater rim, rugged Mawenzi is a thrilling sight, with the Kibo saddle still in darkness beneath you, and the crater's ice-walls looming ahead. From Stella Point, we will continue along the good path for approximately 1 hour more, cresting the top of the crater, until we reach Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro! As the sun rises, light hits the crater floor, illuminating the Furtwangler Glacier and the warmth of the sun will be a welcomed feeling! This will be by far the toughest day you will have on the trek and the views from the summit will make it all worth it! After about thirty minutes on the summit, we will begin the long walk back down to the camp on the same trail we came in on. It will take us approximately 2 to 3 hours walking before we arrive back at the camp, where you will be welcomed with tea and brunch and a quick rest before we continue our way down the mountain. We will have another 4 hours of walking from Kosovo camp to reach our destination for the night, Mweka Camp.

Hike Mweka Hut to Mweka Gate to Arusha

We will wake early in the morning today to begin our final walk off Kilimanjaro. The walk today will take us approximately 3 hours to get from the Camp to the Mweka gate. When we arrive at the gate, we will say goodbye to our porters and take a short 5 minute ride in the vehicle to our final lunch spot, where you will also have a chance to do a little souvenir shopping. After that we will get back in the vehicle for the 2.5 hour journey back to Arusha. Here you will get to enjoy a well-deserved shower and bed to sleep in!

Day in Arusha

Today will be spent at your leisure in Arusha. Transfer from your hotel to the Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) for our flights back to the USA.