Lemosho Route — 8-Day Kilimanjaro Trek

The drive to the Londorossi gate on the western side takes about three to four hours from Moshi, through farmland and then plantation forest. Registration at the gate is slower than on the southern routes, because far fewer groups pass through. From the trailhead the walk is short. About three to four hours and roughly six kilometres, climbing gently through real rainforest to Forest Camp at about 2,800 metres. This is the wildest forest on any Kilimanjaro route, and the one approach where seeing game is a realistic possibility. Buffalo, elephant and colobus all use it. Walk quietly, and ask your guide what to look for.

• Full board at Forest camp Know as {Big tree Camp}.

A steeper day out of the forest and up onto the western edge of the Shira Plateau. The canopy thins to heather and then to open moorland. The change happens over a couple of hours, not gradually. Shira One Camp sits at about 3,500 metres in open country, with Kibo ahead and the plateau spread out in front of you. It is a five to seven hour day with a real height gain, and the first night that is properly cold. The plateau is the collapsed remains of Kilimanjaro's oldest cone. Camping on it is one of the things that makes Lemosho the route people call the most scenic on the mountain.

A long, gradual crossing of the Shira Plateau. About fourteen kilometres and five to seven hours, from roughly 3,500 metres to Moir Hut at about 4,200. This is close to ideal walking for acclimatisation: high, gentle and sustained, with Kibo directly ahead the whole way. The plateau is open, wide and quiet, and the feeling of walking across the top of something instead of up the side of it is unlike any other stretch on the mountain. Moir Hut sits in a valley off the main trail and sees very few groups. Most itineraries take a short acclimatisation walk up towards Lent Hills in the afternoon. Make the effort.

• Full Board at Shira 2 camp.

The Lava Tower day. The path climbs east to Lava Tower at about 4,600 metres, a plug of volcanic rock standing clear of the rubble around it, and then drops to Barranco Camp at about 3,900. Seven kilometres, four to six hours, and the most valuable acclimatisation day on the route. You visit a height well above where you will sleep, then descend to recover. Feeling poor at Lava Tower and much better by Barranco is the normal pattern, and the intended one. Barranco Camp sits directly under the Barranco Wall, with the Southern Icefields hanging above. Most people agree it is the best campsite on Kilimanjaro.

• Full Board at Shira 2 or Moir Hut camp.

The Barranco Wall in the morning. It is a 250-metre face that looks impossible from the camp below, and turns out to be a scramble on a well-worn path with good handholds. It takes about an hour, uses your hands but no equipment, and is the single most enjoyable stretch of the whole route. Beyond it the path drops into the Karanga valley and climbs the far side to Karanga Camp at about 3,950 metres. Five kilometres, four to five hours, and an early arrival that leaves a long afternoon at altitude. Rest properly. This afternoon is part of what the eight-day schedule is buying you.

• Full Board at Karanga Camp.

A short day up to Barafu Camp at about 4,600 metres. Four kilometres and four to five hours across alpine desert, where the last lichen gives out and nothing grows at all. Barafu means ice, and the camp sits on an exposed rocky ridge with no shelter from the wind. You arrive around midday, and that is deliberate. The whole afternoon is for eating, drinking, laying out your summit kit and sleeping from early evening. Get everything you will need in the dark ready before you lie down. Doing it at eleven at night, in the cold, at this altitude, is far harder than it sounds.

• Full Board at Barafu Hut Camp.

Summit day, and the longest of the trek. Up around eleven, walking by midnight, climbing scree and rock by head torch toward Stella Point on the crater rim at about 5,750 metres. Seven to eight hours of climbing in the cold and the thin air, at a pace that shrinks to one slow step and one deliberate breath. From Stella Point the rim path rises gently to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 metres, arriving near sunrise with the glaciers alongside and the crater below. Then a fast, punishing descent on scree to Barafu for food and a short rest, and on down to Mweka Hut at about 3,100 metres. Twelve to sixteen hours on your feet in total.

• Full Board at Mweka hut Camp.

The final descent from Mweka Hut to the Mweka gate at about 1,640 metres. It is ten kilometres and takes three to four hours, steep in places and often slippery. After summit day your legs have very little in them, and poles earn their keep. The path drops back down through heather into rainforest. You can physically feel the oxygen returning over those hours. Certificates are handed out at the gate, gold for Uhuru Peak and green for Stella Point. The drive back to Moshi takes under an hour. The tipping ceremony with the crew is usually at the last camp. Have the cash counted beforehand.

• Half Board.