The Lemosho Route

Alpine desert

DAY
05

Your hike today takes you towards Kibo cone steadily climbing up and over the edges of the alpine desert to your first high altitude at the lava tower (4630m). Today helps you to acclimatise and is also a great indicator to see how your body can handle the higher altitude. From the Lava Tower you begin your steep descent anti clockwise around Kibo and into the Barranco Valley. The day ends around the same elevation as you started on the edge of the heather and moorland

Barranco wall

DAY
06

This morning you will leave the camp and ascend the Barranco wall. This is an impressive non-technical scramble and gives a feeling of mountain climbing (without any previous experience or advanced equipment required) and is rewarded with a superb view from the top back into the camp and the Heim glacier on the peak. The remainder of the hike will be through the alpine desertslowly winding around the mountain till the Karanga valley which you descend into and again up to Karanga camp

Kibo cone

DAY
07

Today you climb almost casually through the empty landscape of the alpine desert where you keep a slow pace even though the path is not extremely steep. Kibo cone will start to appear and you may finally glimpse the Mawenzi peak (Kilimanjaro’s second peak) in the east. The short distance means you have plenty of time at your summit camp (Barafu Camp) to rest and prepare for the summit attempt tonight

reach the summit

DAY
08

Around midnight, you begin your final ascent to the summit of Uhuru peak through the arctic zone. The trek is a steep hike over loose volcanic scree through the dark and cold night and takes a slow pace in a zig-zag pattern towards Stella point which is your first stop on the Kibo crater rim. From here a short but difficult hike remains to take you to Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa. Descent through the alpine desert, heather and moorland in the rain forest zone for a well-deserved rest

back to moshi

DAY
09

Your final day on Kilimanjaro is a descent through the southern rain forest until Mweka gate where our vehicle will be waiting to take you back to Moshitown. Usually, the crew will leave you at Mweka gate and it’s a perfect opportunity to say goodbye to your crew who all generally head directly home from the end gate.