KILIMANJARO
1993/2007
Close to the western summit there is a dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.
Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro

The world’s highest cricket field

A new world record was set on 26 September, 2014 when a group of international cricketers played a match on the flat crater of Kilimanjaro at 5 730m/18 000ft.

Elephants, zebras and warthogs

Another thing that makes Kilimanjaro different to the other summits is the wildlife. It is Africa after all. The lower slopes are occasionally home to elephants, Cape buffaloes, bushbucks, mongooses. Zebra, warthogs and hyenas have also been seen.

The beauty of the cloud forest

The foggy, southern slopes of Kilimanjaro are covered in montane and cloud forests where ferns, camphor smelling evergreen trees, yellowwoods, African redwoods, the beautiful pink-flowered Wax heath and fog-dependant mosses. It’s unlike any of the other seven summits.

The highest peak in Africa

Uhuru peak, the highest point on the African continent rising to 5 895m. Kilimanjaro, a massive stratovolcano has three volcanic cones – Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira. Uhuru is the highest summit on Kibo’s crater. Of the three, Kibo is the only one that could still erupt.

I liked it so much I climbed it twice

The first time I climbed Kilimanjaro was in my gap-year between high school and university in September 1992. I went up the Marangu route on my own, in jeans and running shoes. I knew so little about climbing that I knew very little about acclimatising as I went up. Needless to say, I felt terrible when I reached the summit.

Kilimanjaro one of the most beautiful summits to climb. Wild animals glimpsed through the thick foliage of the cloud forests, the thick mosses and flowering trees, the different climatic zones make for an amazing experience.

It was when I was training for Everest that I climbed Kilimanjaro for the second time in 2007. The climb was just as magical as the first time. This time I went up the Machame Route and climbed with Tori James and Ben Stephens.

Climbing is as close as we can come to flying.

Margaret Young