I broke off from Cape Town, South Africa for nine days to head to Tanzania to climb the highest mountain in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro. Thanksgiving afforded a great opportunity for the adventure on account of two contiguous holidays free from work (the only time all year!) and these days abut a weekend. My friend Pete flew over from the states to join me for the climb. I chose the Lemosho route for us — 65 kilometers to the summit and down. After it was over my watch said we had walked over 136,000 steps over the 6 days – ascending from 2,100 meters to 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) at Uhuru peak and then down to 1,800 meters for departure. I had planned to do it in 8 days in order to have the best chance of assuring a successful summit – as many people are afflicted with altitude sickness on account of being unable to acclimate to the high altitude in short time frames (the classic and most popular Kilimanjaro trek route, Marangu,  is 4 days by comparison). Peter ended up being unable to accommodate eight days with his schedule so we decided to do it in seven. By the time it was over we […]
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