+255 764 006 061 Plan Your Safari
Safaris
All safaris
Safari packages
4-Day Serengeti & Ngorongoro Safari 6-Day Serengeti & Ngorongoro Safari 7-Day Tarangire, Ngorongoro & Lake Eyasi Safari 7-Day Cultural & Wildlife Safari 8-Day Serengeti Migration Safari 9-Day Best of Northern Tanzania Safari All safari packages
By park
Serengeti packages Ngorongoro packages Tarangire packages Lake Manyara packages
By style
Private Tanzania Safaris Family Safaris Honeymoon Safaris Luxury Tanzania Safaris Mid-Range Tanzania Safaris Budget & Camping Safaris Tanzania Safari & Zanzibar
Kilimanjaro
All kilimanjaro
By route
Machame route Lemosho route Marangu route Rongai route Northern Circuit route Umbwe route Shira route Western Breach Mweka route (descent) Compare them all All routes and climbs
Before you climb
Compare the routes How hard is it? For beginners Training Best time to climb Insurance for the climb Climb and safari
On the mountain
A typical day Altitude sickness Food on the mountain Porters and tipping Summit night Safety and rescue Kilimanjaro questions
Destinations
All destinations
National parks
Serengeti National Park Ngorongoro Conservation Area Tarangire National Park Lake Manyara National Park Arusha National Park Mount Kilimanjaro National Park
More places
Ndutu Lake Eyasi Zanzibar Serengeti regions The migration
Towns
Things to do in Arusha Things to do in Moshi Day trips from Arusha Arusha, our base
Experiences
All experiences
By interest
Wildlife Safaris Migration Safaris Calving Season Safaris Cultural Safaris Photographic Safaris Walking Safaris
By trip
Northern Circuit Safaris Tanzania Safari & Zanzibar Kilimanjaro Trekking Day Trips All experiences
Travel guide
All travel guide
Planning
Best Time to Visit Tanzania for a Safari What Drives the Cost of a Tanzania Safari How Many Days Do You Need for a Tanzania Safari? The Great Migration, Month by Month What to Pack for a Tanzania Safari All articles
Practical guides
Visa and entry Park fees, explained Getting to Tanzania Where you stay Tipping on safari Health and vaccinations Money and currency Safari insurance
First safari
How booking works What a safari is like Safari FAQs Packing list
About
All about
RedSoil Safaris
About us Our safari guides How we work Our safari vehicles Arusha, our base
Booking
Plan your safari Booking terms Privacy policy Contact
Contact Call +255 764 006 061 Plan Your Safari
Kilimanjaro · 6 min read

How hard is it to climb Kilimanjaro?

Kilimanjaro is a walk, not a climb. The altitude, the cold on summit night, and the length of the days make it hard. This page tells you what to expect.

People ask this before anything else, and the honest answer has two parts. Physically, Kilimanjaro is a long walk. There is no rope, no ice axe, and no technical climbing on any of the standard routes. Reasonably fit people of all ages reach the top every week.

The hard part is not the walking. The altitude affects everyone, regardless of fitness. The summit night starts around midnight in serious cold. And the tiredness of six or more days of walking and sleeping at height adds up. This page goes through each of those in turn.

Itineraries

Kilimanjaro climbs we run

Compare all routes
Kilimanjaro's summit seen from the air, rising above a thick layer of cloud.

At a glance

Summit height
5,895 metres (19,341 feet). Uhuru Peak.
Technical difficulty
None. A walk, with one short scramble on the southern routes.
Daily walking
4 to 7 hours most days. 11 to 16 hours on summit day.
The hard part
Altitude, then the cold, then tiredness. In that order.
Fitness needed
Enough to walk for several hours a day, several days in a row, carrying a small daypack.
Age
Climbers from their teens to their seventies reach the top. The park's minimum age is ten.
Trekkers crossing high, bare desert on the mountain, with a dusty ridge behind them.

The altitude is the difficulty

Above about 2,500 metres the air holds less oxygen with every step up. At the summit there is roughly half the oxygen there is at sea level. Your body can adjust to this, but it needs time, and it needs you to go up slowly.

This is why fitness is not the main predictor of who reaches the top. Marathon runners fail on five-day routes. Ordinary walkers in their sixties succeed on eight-day ones. The difference is the days, not the legs.

Almost everyone feels the altitude somewhere above 3,500 metres. A headache in the evening, poor sleep, less appetite, and being out of breath on slopes that would be easy at home. That is normal. Tell your guide about it, walk slowly, and drink a lot of water. The altitude sickness page covers the warning signs and when to turn around.

Climbers walking into a low sun across a snowy summit plateau.

Summit night

Summit night is the hardest part of the whole climb, and it helps to know what it involves before you book.

You wake at about eleven at night, after a few hours of broken sleep. You leave camp around midnight. It is dark, it is cold, and you are already at 4,600 metres or more. Then you climb for five to seven hours up a steep slope of loose scree, by head torch, at the slowest pace you have ever walked.

The cold is real. Temperatures near the top before dawn are often well below freezing, and the wind makes it worse. You will wear everything you brought.

You reach the crater rim as the sun rises, and then walk on to Uhuru Peak. You spend a short time at the top. Then you go all the way back down to your high camp, rest briefly, and carry on down to a lower camp the same day. It is a very long day, and most people describe it afterwards as the hardest thing they have done and the thing they are proudest of.

Climbers with heavy packs pausing on rocks high on the mountain.

The walking itself

Away from summit night, the days are manageable. Most are four to seven hours of walking at a slow pace, with breaks. The paths are mostly clear trails. There are steep sections, especially on Machame and Umbwe, and there is loose ground higher up. The Barranco Wall on the southern routes is a scramble of about an hour where you use your hands, but it needs no skill or equipment.

No single day tires people out. The accumulation does. Six or eight days of walking, sleeping in a tent, eating camp food, and living above 3,000 metres wears you down gradually. Good sleep, plenty of food and a steady pace keep that manageable.

The descent is harder than people expect. It is fast and steep, and it is your knees that suffer. Walking poles help a great deal on the way down.

Climbers crossing the snowfields near the summit, high above a layer of cloud.

How fit do you need to be

Fit enough to walk for five or six hours on hills, several days in a row, without being wrecked by it. That is the honest bar.

You do not need to be an athlete. You do need to be an active person, or to become one for a few months before you go. Regular walks with a daypack, building up to long days on hills, are the best preparation. Running, cycling and swimming help general fitness. Stairs help the legs.

You cannot train for the altitude. Nobody at sea level can prepare their body for 5,000 metres. That is why the days on the mountain matter more than the months in the gym. A fit person on five days is at more risk than an average person on eight.

Climbers in heavy jackets walking across snow near the summit.

The five zones you walk through

Part of the difficulty is that the mountain keeps changing under you. In six days you walk through five different climates, and each one asks something different of you.

The first is farmland, around the gates below 1,800 metres. It is warm and green, with coffee and banana plots. You barely notice it.

The second is rainforest, from about 1,800 to 2,800 metres. It is humid, muddy and often wet. Colobus monkeys sit in the trees. The path is steep in places and the air is still thick enough that the walking feels easy.

The third is moorland, from 2,800 to about 4,000 metres. The trees stop. Giant heathers and strange lobelias take over, the sun is strong, and the nights get cold. This is where most people first feel the altitude.

The fourth is alpine desert, from 4,000 to about 5,000 metres. Almost nothing grows. It is dust, rock and wind, hot in the sun and freezing in the shade. Every step is slower.

The fifth is the arctic summit zone, above 5,000 metres. Ice, scree and glaciers. You only see it on summit night and morning, and you are usually too tired to notice how strange it is until you look at the photographs afterwards.

The kit list is long because you pack for all five at once.

Two climbers in bright jackets scrambling up a steep rock face.

What makes it easier

Choosing a longer route. This is the single biggest thing you control.

Walking slowly. The guides say pole pole, which means slowly slowly, and they mean it. A pace that feels absurdly slow low down lets you keep going high up.

Drinking three to four litres of water a day, whether or not you feel thirsty.

Eating, even when the altitude takes your appetite away.

Sleeping warm. A good sleeping bag and dry clothes to sleep in change the whole trip.

Telling your guide the truth about how you feel. They have seen every symptom before, and they can only help with what they know about.

And being honest with yourself about summit night before you go. Knowing it will be hard makes it less of a shock when it is.

Questions

Do I need mountaineering experience?
No. Kilimanjaro is a walk on every standard route. There is no rope work and no technical climbing. The Barranco Wall is a short scramble where you use your hands, and it needs no skill.
Is Kilimanjaro harder than Everest Base Camp?
It is higher. Uhuru Peak is 5,895 metres and Everest Base Camp is about 5,364. Base Camp is spread over more days, so the altitude comes more gently. Kilimanjaro packs a bigger climb into less time, which is why the summit night is so hard.
How old do you have to be?
The park minimum is ten years old. In practice most operators prefer teenagers and above, because a child cannot always describe how the altitude is affecting them. There is no upper age limit. People in their seventies reach the top.
What is the hardest day?
Summit night. You leave camp around midnight, climb five to seven hours in the cold and dark to the crater rim, reach Uhuru Peak after sunrise, and then descend all the way past your high camp to a lower one. It is often fourteen hours or more.
Can an unfit person climb Kilimanjaro?
A moderately unfit person on a long route has a better chance than a very fit person on a short one, because altitude is the real obstacle. But you still need to walk five or six hours a day for a week. Build up to that before you go.
How do most people fail?
By running out of time to adjust to the altitude. Nearly everyone who turns back does so because of altitude symptoms, not because they could not walk. Longer routes are the answer.
Keep reading

Other guides

All guides

Still have a question?

Ask us directly — we answer every message ourselves.

Get in touch
Talk to a safari expert