Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

• Located in Tanzania, Africa
• Get there by flying to Nairobi and travelling by south by bus to Tanzania (alternatively, you fly to the nearby airport Kilimanjaro International Airport).
• At 19,339ft, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa
• This is an excellent first ‘big mountain’ to climb. Most of the ascent is a hike with little to no scrambling or technical climbing
• Most trips involve porter support… they carry tents, your extra gear, food, etc. You carry only a day pack, making this a pretty doable climb
• A big benefit of the climb is that it is typically coupled with a safari… so, you’re really getting two great experiences on one trip
• My climb of Kilimanjaro was pretty uneventful… everything went smoothly and I felt great nearly the entire trip. We had a super team and I was surprised how amazing the cooks were at the high altitude campsites.
• A fun part of the trip was the global composition of our climbing team. I travelled with Exodus, a travel group out of the UK (I was living in London at the time). As they were European based, my climbing colleagues were from a cross section of countries… I was the only American.
• Summit date: August 2001
• Most memorable moments…
  • Ascending the final stretch on summit day, climbing in the dark, thinking I was walking on another planet
  • Looking down into the crater once you made it to the top
  • Sunrise from the summit
  • A mild case of pulmonary edema setting in the most fit climber on our team… this was surprising to many of us … making it clear to me that mountaineering is more than simply fitness alone
  • How I felt like superman on the way down, breathing the really thick air and feeling super strong as a result
• Souvenir: a big, really heavy wooden elephant made of ebony (I think… at least that what the shop keeper told me (and charged me for!).