Kilimanjaro

Me and some of my coworkers decided to start a kind of adventure thing at the beginning of the year were we??????ll go out and do something crazy, stupid or great depending on what the topic holds. Mainly trying to snap away from the work environment and crappy city life we??????re living in. We already did a couple of hiking expeditions and some more silly things like the Bungee swing at Oribi gorge. Not too extreme but still pretty fun. Next year September we??????re planning on climbing Kilimanjaro.

I believe that it??????ll be great as I??????ve been into mountaineering for quite a while going on all sorts of hikes, rock climbing expeditions and things. The mountain (Volcano) as most people know is one of the seven summits but is not for the expert climber. It??????s basically a steep walk to the top. 5892 m of top! This is where I??????m getting a bit concerned, out of all of the team members I??????m the only one who actually has a passion for it while the rest is just in it for the fun of telling people ??????I climbed the roof of Africa?????? I believe that they are way in over their heads and needs to do some research as to what actually happens to you when climbing one of the Meccas. After agreeing to the whole thing the one guy actually was shocked when I told him people die up there every year.

Like I mentioned I believe I??????m the only person out of this team that has even the tiniest bit of experience and that actually climbed the highest peak in South Africa and has to admit it requires a bit of endurance. The problem here is that this Kili peak thing is already way above the AMS (Acute mountain sickness) limit. This means that at 3000 the air is approximately 2 times thinner than at the base. Thinner air, exceptionally cold weather means very hard to do anything at all. The climb takes 7 days, 6 days up and 1 day to base where you would travel through 5 different climate zones basically ranging from equatorial summer temperature to the North Pole. AMS is a guarantee where most people suffer from a bad headache. Almost like a hangover making you nauseous and disorientated. The other people most likely progressed to have the risk of getting edema or Hape (High altitude pulmonary Edema) in other words. This doesn??????t matter of your fitness at all unfortunately and will kill you if you don??????t descend to a lower altitude and get treatment.

The problem with this climb is that people think its easy cause that??????s the way it is advertised but it still is above the average person??????s limits to reach the top without having problems. As for me I??????ll go for it knowing the risks and also be excited about the pro??????s.
Here??????s an interesting picture of the seven highest mountains of each continent.



Anyone here ever climbed something like that? Please share your experiences and thoughts.

i climbed to the top of ladder and got scared, hope this helps

No not really, unless it was this ladder:

I heard you could climb the Mont Blanc instead of the Elbrus for Europe's highest mountain.

Wow,this is very cool,I wish you guys good luck.

sounds like fun. Hope you guys do it safely.

Lol... poor Mount Kosciusko, Aussies don't get any credit in the summits due to their puny mountains. The Ocean got some credit but nope....not the Aussies.

Africa wouldn't have been that great on the seven if it wasn't for this mofo to pop up in the middle of nowhere either.

Today I've been told that there is even a chance of our company providing sponsership for this event. We'll need a buddy system though for in case someone needs to turn back where that person should have assistance in the descend. So our team is a bit less numbered at the moment. Only 6 people are going 4 of which works for Gijima. I believe a team of 8 would be sufficient enough.

[GavG]

I would consider having a guide or someone else that has made the accent before and also someone with decent medical training/experience just incase.

I don't believe you can go up without a guide. The guide I believe should have medical training but now that you mention it, it will be a good thing to investigate before the trip. The trail is quite a thing to see and to attempt it without a guide is not smart at all.

http://www.expeditionkilimanjaro.com/route.php

We want to take this route as it takes an extra day for climitization and is recomended for the newbies.