8 Days Lemosho Route - Mount Kilimanjaro Climb

You should aim to arrive as early as possible the day before the trek. Once you arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, you will be picked up and taken on a 50-minute transfer to your hotel in Moshi, where you will be booked on a bed and breakfast basis. You will have a group briefing in the evening with our head guide to prepare you for the journey ahead. Our head guides are WFR licensed and qualified and one among the best and experienced in the Mountain

Your day starts with breakfast and a 3 hour drive from Moshi 1,000m to Londorossi park gate 2,250m/ 7,382 feet. Our guides and porters will be preparing and packing the supplies need on the mountain. Hot Lunch will be provided at the gate along with, mineral water. After lunch we will drive to the start of the forest track and the Lemosho Route entrance at 2,300m/ 7,546 feet. Your Kilimanjaro Lemosho route climb is underway. We will walk along forest trails to Mti Mkubwa (big tree) campsite at 2,800m/ 9,186 feet, 3 hours. Our porters will arrive at the camp site before you will have your tent set up on your arrival. We use quality mountain hard wear 4 person tents for your comfort. On arrival you will have water for washing followed by tea and popcorn. In the evening the chef will prepare dinner before you retire to your tent for the night. Our kitchen staff will boil drinking water for you, so it is ready for the following morning. Night temperatures can sometimes drop to freezing point at this campsite.

You will wake up at 6am and breakfast will be served at 7am. You hike for an hour and a half before exiting the rain forest at 3,000m/ 9,842 feet. Your Kilimanjaro Lemosho route day 2 is underway. The trail moves to more open terrain. We will then go up and down a few hills before arriving at our lunch spot. Tents will be set up and lunch served. After lunch the trail steepens up along a ridge that leads to the Shira Plateau.
There are some great views off the western side of Kilimanjaro. Our goal is to stay hydrated and take our time, slowly walking toward the crest of the ridge. We will continue by traversing across the Shira Plateau. You will be rewarded with spectacular views back into the rain forest as the summit comes into view. The final section is downhill towards Shira Camp One at 3,500m/ 11,482 feet in the moorlands of Kilimanjaro for our second night’s sleep.

After an early start, your Kilimanjaro Lemosho route day 3 starts, we have a gentle walk across the Shira plateau which leads to Shira Camp Two on moorland meadows next to a beautiful stream 3,900m/ 12,795 feet. By now you will be able to see, in an easterly direction, the Western Breach Route up Kilimanjaro with its stunning glaciers. There will also be stunning sunset views across the dormant Shira volcano. The porters will boil drinking and washing water, before serving dinner. As this camp is quite exposed, it can be substantially colder than the previous night, with temperatures dropping below freezing.

The route now turns east into a semi desert and rocky landscape surrounding the Lava Tower, where you reach an altitude of 4,640m/ 15,223 feet after approximately four/five hours of walking. Lunch is served in a designated area before ascending the rocky scree path to the Lava Tower. This is definitely the toughest day so far. It is normally around this point, where for the first time, some climbers will start to feel symptoms of breathlessness, ill humor and headaches due to the high altitude.
After lunch you descend again by almost 680m/ 2,231 feet to the Barranco camping area and after reaching the high altitude of at the Lava Tower, the true acclimatization benefit of this day becomes clear. This descent to Barranco camp takes about 2 hours and offers great opportunities to take some beautiful photographs of the Western Breach and Breach Wall. The camp is situated in a valley below the Breach and Great Barranco Wall, which should provide you with a memorable sunset while you wait for your dinner.

After spending a night under the Great Barranco Wall, we make our way up this awesome looking obstacle, which in the end normally turns out to be easier than anticipated. Topping out just below the Heim Glacier at 4,200m/ 13,779 feet, you now appreciate just how beautiful Kilimanjaro really is with the spectacular views. The route then heads down through the Karanga Valley over intervening ridges and valleys, and then joins up with the Mweka route. There can be amazing panoramic sunset views from the Karanga Camp while we enjoy our evening at 4,010m/ 13,156 feet.

Today is another reason that we are different from other trips! From Karanga camp, we will head steadily upward to the high camp of Kosovo, which will give our teams a better chance of reaching the summit. A 4-hour steady walk takes us to Kosovo Camp 4,900m/ 16,010 feet from where we will set up to make our summit attempt. This is a short day, but included to give some essential pre-summit acclimatization, without being too physically exhausting. The air is noticeably thin now, and you will be running short of breath as you climb out of the Karanga Valley.
It is a slow tough hike up to the Kosovo Camp and we will be moving extremely slow as a group as we pass Barafu camp, where most other teams will be stopping for the day. On arrival, we begin to get ourselves ready for our summit attempt. This means preparing all our gear and water for the push up to the top, as well as getting as much to eat and drink as possible, and going to bed very early. We will wake at 11/ 11:30pm to prepare for our summit attempt! If the weather is not in our favor, and it is too windy at the Kosovo Camp, we may have to stay a bit lower at the Barafu Camp at 4,650m/ 15,250 feet, but our goal will always be to reach Kosovo Camp!

We get up around 11:30 pm and start preparing for the summit. After some tea, coffee and light breakfast, we will move off into the night. We head in a north-westerly direction and ascend through heavy scree towards Stella Point on the crater rim. It normally takes five hours to reach Stella point without a doubt, the most challenging part of the route. At Stella Point 5,756m/ 18,885 feet we will stop for a short rest. You will be rewarded with the most magnificent sunrise you are ever likely to see. From Stella Point we may encounter snow all the way on our 1 hour ascent to Uhuru Peak.
Once we reach the Uhuru Peak at 5,895m/ 19,341 feet we will enjoy our accomplishment and take pictures before we begin the decent back to Kosovo Camp and further down the mountain. After the two/ three hour journey back to the camp, we will have a short, well-deserved rest, collect our remaining gear, and head down to the Mweka Hut at 3,100m/ 10,171 feet. The route to the Mweka Hut is not difficult but you will be tired. This route will take us down the rock and scree path into the moorland and eventually into the forest with lots of downward steps. The camp is situated in the upper forest and mist or rain can be expected in the late afternoon. Dinner and washing water will be prepared as well as drinking water. Time to rest and sleep hard.

Finally, after an early start and well-deserved breakfast, you will have a scenic three hour trek to the Mweka gate. At Mweka gate 1,700m/ 5,577 feet, you sign out of Kilimanjaro National Park and receive your summit certificate. Those climbers who reached Stella Point are issued with green certificates. Those who reached Uhuru Peak receive gold certificate. From the Mweka Gate you will drive back to Moshi for a long overdue hot shower, dinner and celebrations!! Your Kilimanjaro Lemosho route climb is over.

Wake up and have breakfast with the team. You have options today. You can to go for a message at the hotel, sit by the pool, play golf or visit the local market before your transfer back to Kilimanjaro International for your flight home. If you have chosen one or our quality safari’s you will start the journey today.