Gear Overview for the Climb

Below is a brief overview. For those who trek / climb with us we will send you an Extensive Gear List.

Trekking and Climbing on Kilimanjaro
The African guides tell you - "Pole Pole Pole!" - which means slowly slowly slowly! And its true; trekking is a journey, not a race....While you should be reasonably fit - especially cardiovascularly, you do not need to be an athlete nor have any technical climbing skills to climb Kilimanjaro.

Packing
On all treks you carry a day pack with your camera, extra clothing (like rain gear), water and snacks, so ensure your day pack is comfortable and a suitable size. In general we recommend a pack with real waistband, plenty of support, and a minimum size of 25 litres, although 30-40 litres/2000-3000 cubic inches is more usual for less fanatical packers. The porters carry everything else, so pack this in a duffel/kitbag rather than backpack.

- Do not bring a roller duffel for trekking unless you plan to leave this in the hotel, frames tend to break. You can store gear to leave behind at the hotel we use, no problem.

Digital cameras
Do bring a digital camera, and the charger. We recommend an extra battery on all our trips. Some copy batteries do well but to be sure of good performance do use the original manufacturer's. For best performance buy in advance and use three times, charging and discharging them fully, and this will push the Lithium Ion battery to give the longest life on subsequent uses. It is not necessary or useful to discharge them fully after this, just charge when the opportunity arises.

Do bring plenty of memory, a couple of big cards. You will take 500 to 2000+ pictures probably, and do shoot at the highest resolution, highest image quality. It is extremely rare for cards to fail, so having one or two big capacity cards is generally better than multiple cards.

Mobile phones and Satellite phones
Your mobile phone will work on parts of the mountain. We will be carrying at least 2 working cell phones for emergencies and we may also carry a satellite phone.