A Typical Day on Kilimanjaro

Schedule for normal days

Waking up

You will be awakened by a porter or a guide around 6:30 AM; you will then be presented with warm clean water to use for freshening up.  NB: You will mostly just wash your face and your hands since there are no shower facilities on the mountain.

Breakfast

Breakfast is served in a tent in spacious dining tents equipped with tables, chairs, dinnerware, and silverware.

Trekking

After breakfast, you will assemble your day pack and start trekking at around 8:00 AM; your porters will stay behind to clean the campsite, pack equipment, tents and then trek ahead of you to prepare food, water and set up the next camp. Trekking hours vary depending on the route and the day but on most days you will trek between 4 and 7 hours.

Lunch

A hot lunch or on some days a boxed lunch is served midway through your trek; after lunch, you rest before commencing the trek towards your next camp.

Arrival at camp

Upon arrival at the next camp, light snacks are served and the after some rest, warm water is passed again, so you can clean up.

Dinner

Dinner is usually served at 6:00 PM.

Brief about the next day

After dinner, the guide will brief the group about the next day’s activities. After the brief, the remaining time before bed is spent socializing with your fellow climbers, guides, and porters; you can also spend the time reading or just relaxing after a long day.   

Schedule for summit day

This is the day you will ascend to the peak; everything is just like any regular day until you arrive at camp. After arriving at camp, you will be served an early dinner, will get briefed about the next climb and then you are expected to go to bed at least at 7:00 PM because you will be awoken just before midnight to start the trek to the summit. The trek to the summit is done in the darkness under torchlight, cold and wind; the climb is difficult because you will have to through a steep path covered by loose rocks and then, later on, go through glaciers before reaching the peak.

Once at the summit (Uhuru Peak), you will spend a short while taking photos and celebrating the achievement before beginning your descent to the next camp. It is advised not to spend too much time at Uhuru Peak as it will be hard to start moving again due to fatigue, lack of enough oxygen and cold. The descent immediately after reaching the summit is exhausting due to the amount of energy spent during the climb, the limited amount of sleep the previous night and the long distance covered on the descent. The descent to the next camp lasts about 5-8 hours.

During the summit stage, it is a normal thing for some hikers to turn around and descend due to altitude sickness, exhaustion or other medical conditions. Each hiker that opts to turn and descend will be escorted back by a guide to ensure their safety; the other climbers will continue climbing with the other guides.