This post is many months late. I actually set out on this journey in January, 2025. It was a very unexpected adventure. At the time I was in the process of trying to sell the company I owned with my friends, and at the same time looking for what it was that I would do next. I saw that one of my friends I met through a startup accelerator had posted on their Instagram story saying they would be attempting to ascend Mt Kilimanjaro, wondering if anyone wanted to join them. I though “why not? I don’t have any other plans yet for January” and decided to reach out. Thats how it happened, that two founders, two ethical hackers and one British doctor ended up climbing Kilimanjaro together.

Day 1 - Jan 21st/22nd

This trip started off with 32 hours of travelling as I was flying from Vancouver to Frankfurt, then Addis Ababa, and then finally Moshi. My time during my 10h layover in Frankfurt mainly consisted of figuring out if my battery pack could charge my camera battery, and as a result finding one that could, as well as exchanging CAD for USD to pay for the remainder of the trip. I also started taking Acetazolamide (similar to Diamox) against altitude sickness today. From everything I have read in preperation for this trip, altitude sickness is the number 1 reason why people have to turn around or drop out. The toughest part is, that it is not correlated to fitness levels. It can hit anyone and you don’t know untill you’ve been at that elevation.

Day 2 - Jan 23rd

Finally arrived in Moshi today after another quick pit-stop in Addis Ababa, a city that houses 5.2 million people! We landed at 5am and seeing the city lights during our approach made me feel weirdly touched and excited for the adventure ahead. I think this is when it truly sank in, what I was about to attempt. Upon arriving at the airport I met William (the British doctor) who I learned would be joining our adventuring party. Once we arrived at the “Bristol Cottages” I checked into my room, which I would be sharing with Wesley (my startup friend) and then headed to the bar area to meet sam and Kiernan (the ethical hackers). Seeing the room and the having to use my social battery, which had been very drained from the 32 hours of travelling, made me feel quite intimidated and almost nervous about the next 5 days ahead. Luckily seeing the view of Mt Kilimanjaro we had from the hotel an having dinner with my new friends brought back all of that excitement I had felt earlier.

Day 3 - Jan 24th (6km)

We made it to Mti Mkubwa Camp! We set off at 9:30am today in a bus that had our luggage on the roof included us and all of our porters. Our luggage consisted of a big duffle that the porters would be carrying for us, as well as a personal backpack that would stay with us. During our drive to the start of the Lemosho route we had to wait for 1.5 hours in a town along the way because we had forgotten to pick up one of the porters. All was well though, apart from the fact that my duffle as almost lost as we got closer to the gates that marked the start of the route, and the porters had to spend some time getting all the luggage secured again. Once we got started the pace was slower than expected (“Pole, Pole!”) but that allowed me to take more pictures along the way. All of today was spent hiking through the rainforest ecosystem with luscious vegetation and beautiful flowers, including the elephant trunk flower. Camp here is massive with probably over 100 tents, as multiple tour groups and routes have not separated yet. All of us were very glad that we got the private toilet tents as well. Big recommendation. Every night the porters and guides do a health check-up for each of us. This included asking some qualitative questions as well as taking our temperature, blood pressure, heart-rate and blood oxygen content readings. Today my measurements were good and I was also feeling great! The only thing I need to keep in mind is to drink more water. The porters reminded us that we should be aiming for at least 3L a day. At sea-level we usually operate at 98% blood oxygen content and if you hit 94% they would hook you up to oxygen in the hospital. 80 -75% would soon become the norm for us.

Day 4 - Jan 25th (9km)

Today we had lunch at Shira camp 1. The food consists of rather bland and very carb heavy meals, such as past with rice for lunch/dinner, and toast and pancakes for breakfast. Shira 1 actually used to be the original peak until an additional eruption happened and multiple new peaks were formed. After that the new peak became Kibo. Heading out from Mti Mkubwa Camp this morning we saw a blue monkey extremely close up, as well as multiple ravens later on closer to Shira camp 2, as we made our way out of the jungle and into the moorland ecosystem. This was the the day with the most ascent (apart form summit night). Even though we only traveled 9km we had to ascend over the Shira ridge at 3,500m. My health chek-up tonight was great again. Still feeling good and taking two Diamox every day.

Day 5 - Jan 26th (10km)

Today we woke up to some beautiful fog rolling in over the hills by Shira camp 2. The morning and last night were a bit rough as I had gotten a headache from sleeping the night before. This night was not great either as I had had cold feet thoroughout most of it and also started to develop some rather strong bowel movement, something Wesley had complained about since the day before. Sam was so kind and offered me feet-warmers for the upcoming night, whihc as it turns out did help a lot. After having a painkiller and a Honeystinger gel in the morning I felt a lot better and made it to Lava Tower for lunch. We arrived there right before heavy snow started to fall. From Lava Tower onwards it was just downhill all the way to Barranco Camp. We played “I spy with my little eye” and I felt the best I did all trip, as we wandered through streams and over hills. I was still not using my poles at this point as I often find that they get in my way. We arrived at Barranco Camp just before heavy rain started to set in. Health checkup up was good again today, except for the bowel movements that, as it turns out, would catch up to all of us by the end of the trip. Today we completed the longest day of hiking but also the one with the least amount of elevation gained (apart form summit night).

Day 6 - Jan 27th (5km)

Today was the toughest day yet, mentally and physically. We set out at roughly 8am to scramble over Barranco wall. Just hearing those words made me tense up as I do not love a scramble, given my fear of heights. It honestly was not as bad as I had imagined. The porters were absolutely incredible, as I watched some climb up a short wall with baggage on their heads and necks, without using any hands. Absolutely superhuman! There was one short section I tensed up at and the guides had to give me confidence. After a short couple-second internal panic-attack everything was good and we were on our way again. Shortly after that we came up to the “Kissing rock”. A rock that protrudes out of the wall and which you need to swing yourself to the other side of, by keeping your body and face extremely close to it, to maintain your balance. I managed t get past that without much trouble and even kissed the rock! We then spent some time at the top of Barranco wall during our lunch stop, where Kiernan tried to befriend a raven. On our way to Karanga camp, down the other side of the wall it started to hail and rain extremely heavily. That definitely put a damper on our mood as we got completely drenched, despite our rain-gear. Fires are not allowed on the mountain and at this point we were out of the nice warm sections of the ascent, so we were all hoping our gear would dry at least a little bit, especially our shoes. Today Sam got extremely cold, as she found out her rain gear was not actually waterproof, Kiernan got a very strong headache, and Wesley was still fighting strong stomach issues. Will and I felt pretty good, however our bowels were also in motion. Tonight the guides gave us a pep-talk and told us that we were in really good shape regardless. Later that night we heard a chopper coming to camp, likely to pick someone up, but I do not know the full details. Our head-guide later told us that it was not uncommon to hear 10 of these a night as people were getting evacuated due to altitude sickness.

Day 7 - Jan 28th (4km)

Today and summit night all mesh into one. Basically after arriving at Basecamp (Barafu Camp) we had lunch and right after received the briefing for summit night, before heading to sleep so we could wake-up at 10pm for our summit attempt. During the briefing the guides and porters reminded us that we will not have a lot of time on the summit due to severe danger of AMS (altitude sickness). The plan was to set out at 10pm, a little earlier than initially planned, as Sam and Kiernan, as well as Wesley weren’t doing great, and to reach the summit in time for sunrise. They mentioned that it is extremely important that we always blow out all of the water from our drinking straws of our water bladders, so that the straw would not freeze. As mentioned Sam, Kiernan and Wesley were not doing great, so Sele, our head-guide asked them to decide whether they felt ready to summit or whether they would rather stay behind. Kiernan was the only one that decided to stay at this point due to severe headaches and nausia. Our shoes were still damp from the heavy rain yesterday, and you could tell that that thought was looming in everyones mind.

Day 8 (Summit night) - Jan 29th (17km)

We woke up at 10pm, had some lemon and ginger tea with biscuits and started to mentally and physically prepare for the night ahead. All of the porters stayed in camp as we would not need any of the gear on the summit, so we started our trek with Sele and Kingu, our second guide. The beginning was not as awful as expected but we were moving extremely slowly (“Pole, pole!”). I started to get a stronger headache and also felt a little bit dizzy, mainly due to a blocked nostril that made breathing harder, on top of all the other elevation related fatigue I was already feeling. Our fingers and toes started to get very cold, as we often had to take breaks and wait for Sam to catch up. After askign Sele multiple times whether we could split up the group because we were starting to feel very col, he finally agreed, and so the four of us continued on to the summit with Kingu at the helm, while Sele and Sam would continue at a slower pace. The worst moments during the ascent were when you saw an extremely steep section in front of you, roughly 200m long and it took all your mental will-power to get yourself half-way up that section, only to then see the headlamp light of other climbers hundreds of meeter above you, up another steep section that had previously been hidden from your view. Like I had mentioned, our shoes had never fully dried and as a result of this my shoe started to freeze and the two layers of wool socks I was wearing started to freeze onto the shoe as well. Luckily my foot was fine, it just made walking extremely difficult as my shoe became incredibly stiff. Speaking of shoes… one cool trick the guides would use, instead of wearing expensive spikes is to put on a pair of large wool socks over their hiking boots, for extra grip! And yes, even though the guides had warned us, the straw to my drinking bladder did end up freezing. Luckily I had one other water bottle on me that I used for the rest of the night. So things were not going super well, but I was so thankful we decided to split up the group! On our way up we often came across groups where some individuals were sitting on the side of the path hooked up to an oxygen tank, as they were feeling extreme symptoms of AMS. I knew that we had to limit the amount of time at this elevation and had to keep moving.

We arrived at the summit at 7am Jan 29th. As mentiond we did not have long up here. We say a hand-full of people that had to be assisted, almost carried down the summit because they were experiencing acute AMS. They looked like they were extremely intoxicated. I will never forget seeing the sunrise as we made it up the last couple of hundred meters to the summit, as well as the incredible glaciers at the top. We spent a couple of minutes taking photos and taking it all in, before it was time to head back down.

The descent was not any better than the ascent and very unexpected for me. Most of it was extremely loose scree and we were basically sliding down the side of the mountain. This side was 90% rocks and 10% snow that had turned into slush as the sun had now come out. On our way down we met Sam. She was moving very slowly but was too determined to give up. Little did we know that the next time we would see her would be the next day at 8am. We made it back to Basecamp at 11am, as we neared the camp porters came towards us to welcome us back with mango juice, and congratulate us. After a couple of minuted of heated conversation the decision was made they some of them would have to make their way up the summit to help Sele and Sam get down safe. While we waited for Sam to return we took some naps, and had some lunch. At this point the decision was made that rather than waiting for Sam and hiking all the way down to Mweka camp before dinner, we would leave now and complete the 2h hike to a camp that was a little higher up than Mweka camp, in the hope of meeting Sam there tonight.

Sam arrived at our camp at around 11pm that night, after 18 continuous hours of hiking. I would not see her unitl 8am the next morning. While not everyone on the crew was happy with Seles decision of letting her complete the ascent, that is a truly incredible feat that she pulled off!

Day 9 - Jan 30th

The next morning we completed our ascent to Mweka Gate, through the remnants of the 2022 wildfire and back into the jungle ecosystem. It rained, we were tired but we walked down filled with joy, knowing that we had completed what we had came for.

Completing the summit of Kilimanjaro still feels like a fever dream.

Takeaways

Grit and mental fortitude can overpower most physical limitations
Social media and so much of the online world is just noise. I was so much happier being unplugged. It allowed me to be present in the moment
Going back to the online world after caused a lot of anxiety
If you are present and you share a unique experience together it is very easy to become close friends with someone in only seven days
Happiness truly comes from within
Stay relaxed and give-up constant control. You will be happier. “Hakuna matata!”

Ascending Kilimanjaro - Lemosho Route