PREPARATION

PHYSICAL: You hear different things from different people about how or even whether one should train for Kili. Obviously you should at least check with your regular physician along with a doctor specializing in travel medicine/immunizations. You will need a number of immunizations: Yellow Fever vaccination is required by Tanzanian law while others like Hepatitis A & B are strongly recommended. In addition, there are prescription medicines you’ll need to bring along, some of which might conflict either with each other or with other medicines you take regularly. You should, of course, be in good physical health.

The Machame hikes are long and often grueling due largely to altitude, terrain, and general climatic conditions.

Some outfitters recommend a specific physical <regimen> for the Machame Route. Cameron Burns in his Guide to Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya (Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1998) feels no real training is necessary other than being in general good health.

I joined a gym in late February of 2001. My "regime" consisted mainly of cardiovascular conditioning on a cross-training machine. On average, I went there 3 times a week for 30-minute sessions of cardio-aerobic workouts. The machine also helped build up my leg muscles, especially the hamstrings and quadriceps—good help for hiking the mountain. Nik runs and rides a bicycle. In the past he has run marathons. Andrea is a veteran alpine hiker and rock climber. Ianko excels in all his endeavors—just ask him.

Many sources recommended getting some hiking in before attempting Kili. 2 weeks prior to arriving in Tanzania, a friend and I visited the High Peaks region of New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. We took an arduous 9-hour hike over some trails (Avalanche Pass, Opalescent River, and Lake Arnold Trails) that the guidebook of choice seriously underrates in terms of difficulty. On the bright side, the scenery was magnificent. I finished breaking in my Kili boots, and got to field-test other Africa gear as well.

Altitude Sickness/Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) was a big question. I read up on it and discussed it with both my travel doctor and a paramedic who climbs. It has long been a given that different individuals acclimatize at different rates regardless of their degree of physical fitness. Individuals with considerable athletic backgrounds have died on Kili from one or more components of altitude sickness.While we were en route to Africa, a 47-year-old Israeli cardiologist died of a heart attack brought on by altitude sickness. He was only at an intermediate altitude for Kili (Mawenzi Tarn Hut at 4330m/14,202 ft). Godlisten, our guide, informed us that August 2001 saw an unusually high number of deaths on Kili, most if not all altitude sickness-related. Except for an occasional nosebleed, Andrea was the only one of our group of four unaffected by altitude sickness in any form. Many of the veteran porters continue to feel ill at the high camps like Barafu and Arrow Glacier from what we were told. Trekker emptor! (see the Links page for good AMS resources)

OUTFITTER: Nik and I checked out more than a few companies and even got to speak with some of their clients. Many of the high-end companies like Mountain Travel-Sobek, Wilderness Expeditions, and Alpine Ascents charge exorbitant prices because they throw in a safari and have one or two Great White Hunters tag along to provide color commentary along the route. Sometimes they bring along a portable hyperbaric oxygen chamber or a Gamow Bag, which is nice to have for cases of severe altitude sickness. And yes, the food that they provide on the mountain is reported to be considerably better than the fare offered by the "regular" climb companies.

We settled on ZARA, the largest outfitter on Kilimanjaro. They had good-to-outstanding recommendations from a wide range of sources plus we saved several thousand dollars over employing a premium U.S. expedition company. Peakware (see Links page) was a tremendous resource for researching the trip. It contains message boards where climbers post brief summit logs. ZARA is mentioned prominently throughout the Kilimanjaro page. I contacted several people listed on the Kili page. The vast majority of them gave generously of their time and experience for which I am extremely grateful. Many of these people provided suggestions about medications and gear, which we would not otherwise have known about. The equipment lists many of the outfitters supply are minimal at best. We arranged our trip with ZARA via EWP a Wales-based international mountaineering outfit that acts as one of ZARA’s agents in Europe. While there was a surcharge for using EWP, we felt it was not an exorbitant one. There were some problems communicating with EWP, most of them time-zone related, but we would probably not hesitate from hiring them again. ZARA provided us with damaged tents and mediocre food, but were otherwise a good outfit.

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