tl;dr: we’re doing the Lemosho route & Crater Camp
One of the first decisions we had to make when deciding to hike Kilimanjaro was what route to take. There are quite a few routes up the mountain & multiple considerations to weigh:
- Private tour or public?
- How many days?
- Have you been at altitude before? (if not, longer routes are better)
- What climate zones to you want to trek through?
- Do you want to stay at Crater Camp?
- Then, of course, all of those decisions will affect final cost
We ending up choosing the Lemosho route, with a stop at Crater camp. This route is one of the longest ones, which helps with acclimatization and has somewhere around a 90% success rate.
And anyone who knows me, knows I was absolutely picking a private tour! (the thought of sharing a portable toilet tent with 15 randos was too much.)
From everything I’ve read, the stop at Crater Camp is an amazing addition to the standard Lemosho route, for a couple reasons:
- Summit night: Typical summit night begins at 11pm. The team wakes you up, you have a quick ‘breakfast’ and then trudge for 8 hours or so to reach summit somewhere around sunrise. oh. and it’s -20F the whole way with terrible wind. You get there with dozens of other people and have about 10 minutes to take your summit photos. THEN YOU KEEP HIKING 8-9 MORE HOURS DOWN THE MOUNTAIN! Crater Camp is 18,865 feet above sea level, only 475 feet below the summit. Since you don’t have the 8 hour hike down the mountain, you trek up during the day and have much more time alone at the top.
- Unique views: From Crater Camp, there is a hike to Reusch Crater & areas around Furtwangler Glacier. Reusch Crater is a magnificent sight. It is almost perfectly circular and the ash pit measures 400 feet deep and 1,300 feet wide.
The Lemosho route will definitely put more miles on the boots than other routes, but altitude sickness sounds terrible! I’d rather hike a bit longer and mitigate as much of that risk as possible. Our full itinerary is below!
