Oh, the Places We'll Go

There are thousands of porters that work on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and many of them work in less-than-ideal conditions.  While in the region, we had the opportunity to meet with Karen Valenti, a woman doing amazing work to help improve porter conditions on Kili.  I wrote a World Nomads blog post on the subject, which can be found here, or copied below.

Kilimanjaro Porters – Helping Them Help You Up The Mountain

I’ve never had anybody carry my stuff for me before.

At least, not on a trekking trip.  And to be honest, I was a little bit uncomfortable about it.  See, I consider myself a fairly avid backcountry hiker, spending many weekends each summer in the Colorado wilderness.  The thought of hiring someone to carry my food, tent, clothes, sleeping bag, etc, just seems like cheating.  So, when my wife and I arrived at the Machame trailhead of Mt Kilimanjaro, I was appalled to find 12 people there to assist us up the mountain!  As it turns out, there is no way we would have made it up Kili without them (at least, not in 5 days), and I have come to highly respect Kilimanjaro porters and the often dire working conditions they face every time they set foot on the mountain.

Kili porters working too hard

“My team, they are not just porters, they are mountaineers,” boasts my guide, Goodluck (yes, that is his real name).  And he’s right – these guys are heaving heavy, awkward-shaped, poorly packaged gear up some of the most challenging non-technical trekking routes on the planet.  And, they are doing it in almost any weather condition, often with very poor equipment (I saw more remnants of old shoes and boots on the trail than I care to remember).  These guys have to be tough, but too often on Kili, they are working harder than they should be.

Why are things so rough for porters?

They are the low link on the Kilimanjaro food chain, there is lots of competition for work (over 15,000 porters work on the mountain!), and their low level of education and training has kept them from having a voice.  Here are a few of their most common challenges:

• Climbing companies sometimes fail to pay their porters on time, sufficiently, or at all

• Some porters are not provided with appropriate mountain gear, from clothing to footwear to tents

• Some porters are given insufficient food – as little as 1 meal per day

• Some porters are made to carry well over the maximum weight of 25kg (a regulation set by the park, but often ignored by the climbing companies)

• Some guides (often former porters themselves) require a bribe to be chosen to work

• Some guides fail to distribute guest tips fairly, keeping more than their own share

Fortunately, the situation is improving significantly, thanks largely to the work of Karen Valenti and the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Program (KPAP), a Tanzanian NGO.  Created by the International Mountain Explorers Connection in 2003, KPAP has been fighting for porters rights and welfare through grassroots activism, education, research, and monitoring.  The organization works directly with porters to provide complimentary gear rental, while also working with the climbing companies to ensure they are following ethical guidelines for porter treatment established by KPAP.   Karen, KPAP’s director, is a passionate individual who spends most of her time at Kili trailheads interviewing and surveying porters and climbers to ensure standards are being met.  Climbing companies who have demonstrated their adherence to KPAP standards are granted “partner” status – a label that has become a must-have for any responsible travel providers running trips to Kili.

Kili porters

Interested in climbing Kilimanjaro?

Your travel choices have the power to make a positive impact.  Here’s what you can do to ensure your porters are treated fairly:

• Visit the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Program’s website to learn more about their work

• Climb with one of KPAP’s “partner in responsible travel” companies – both Tanzanian ground operators, as well as international tour companies are listed by country

• If you’ve already selected an operator who is not on the list, KPAP has a list of suggested questions/requirements you can utilize to ensure fair treatment on your trip

• If your favorite tour operator is not on the list (and they run trips to Kilimanjaro), call them up and ask them why they have not joined, and when they plan to

• Be sure to tip well (plan it into your trip budget), and be sure to tip directly to the porters

The first 6 hours of summit day were miserable. We started hiking at midnight, it was pitch black, we were freezing cold from the wind, the trail was loose, rocky skree and it was too cold to stop and rest. We spent hour upon hour of putting one food ahead of the other and wondering if we would actually make it to the top. Our guide claimed that for part of the hike, we were actually sleepwalking! I contemplated turning around on many occasions but remembered it had taken me four days to get to this point and I wanted, I needed, to stick it out. I have no idea if Ted was thinking the same thing because at this point we were too cold, tired, and out of it to talk. The altitude was finally getting to both of us and lightheaded-ness, the mild headaches and the nausea were not fun. When you look at your watch and it’s still in the 3 o’clock hour and you have hours to go, you wonder why you pay to do stuff like this.

And finally, oh finally, that beautiful sun started to come up. I was more excited about the sun rising for the warmth than I was for any other reason. However the side benefit was that we could see the top and we were close. The end was in sight. The pink sky was just the encouragement I needed to finish what we started. When you see the crescent of first sunlight on the horizon from the roof of Africa, everything at that moment gets a whole lot better, and man does it feel good!

Never been happier to see the sun rise!

The final few steps to the summit

Too tired to appreciate the beautiful sunrise

Summit Reached!!

Views from the summit

Views from the summit

Kilimanjaro? Bagged it!!

We owe another huge thank you to our friends at Adventures Within Reach for making it possible (and affordable!) for us to experience this opportunity of a lifetime.  If you’re going to Africa, be sure to check out their awesome itineraries.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is no joke. Many people discredit its difficulty because it is a mountain you can hike all the way to the top of without the need of technical rock-climbing gear. However, it is indeed a tough undertaking and the mountain deserves loads of respect.

We climbed the Machame Route, where the starting elevation for the hike is 5800 ft, roughly the altitude of Boulder. That means that throughout our 4 days of ascent, we would be climbing a total of 13,500 vertical feet. That is pretty badass. Luckily we had a LOT of help.

We assumed we would be in a group with other hikers going to the top, but that was not the case. It was just me, Ted, our guide named Goodluck (seriously), our assistant guide named Peter and 10, yes 10, porters to carry the food, tents, gear, etc. for our group. The fact that it was 2 of us and 12 of them was a little overwhelming and uncomfortable however, we were incredibly thankful for their assistance as it was quite nice to arrive at camp each day with the tent already set-up and warm food being prepared.

Our guides and porters, welcoming us to camp with a song. Hiking mountains is WAY easier with their help

Sarah and Goodluck

Though everyone who sets out to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro ultimately wants to get to the top, I’m pleased to report that the 4 days of hiking leading up to summit day are more-than-incredible in their own right: Walking through lush rainforests, seeing silhouette views of nearby Mt. Meru at sunset, camping on cliff edges overlooking spectacular valleys, walking through clouds and catching rewarding glimpses of Kili all along the way. The hiking alone is world class and THEN you get the opportunity to bag a peak.

Amazing views along the trek up

Nearby Mt. Meru in the background

Awesome views from camp

Still a ways to the top

Sunset above the clouds

Our guide was experienced and good. The motto on Kili is ‘pole pole’ (pronounced po-lay po-lay) – which simply means slowly slowly in Kiswahili. You walk slower than you want to (in fact, slower than we’ve ever walked before), but it keeps you from ascending too quickly and it allows you to keep a steady pace with minimal stopping. We’d walk about 6 or 7 hours a day with the maximum we went in one day being 12-13 km (~8 miles). We were both feeling really good, with no negative effects from the altitude – we were ready to conquer this beast.

Our 4^th day of walking got us to Barafu camp (elevation 15,088 ft) around 3pm. Our job was to rest, eat an early dinner, and try to sleep as we’d be getting up at 11pm for our summit attempt. When we left camp around midnight, we were sore, we were tired (we had barely slept) and we were cold. Summit day had begun.

Let me start with the fact that climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak at 19,340 feet, was the hardest physical thing we have ever done in our lives. Ted and I do a fair bit of hiking in Colorado, including several 14ers (14,000+ foot peaks) the past few summers. We even did a 15er in Peru on our hike to Machu Picchu. However, Kili is a 19er and that extra 4000 ft in altitude makes all the difference in the world.

Gonna bag that peak

Many people prepare for weeks/months/their lives for this particular undertaking. However, we had spent the last few days lying on the beach (at sea level, obviously) in Zanzibar drinking cocktails. Prior to that we had been on and off safari for the previous 2 months which includes ridiculous amounts of eating and hours upon hours of sitting in a jeep. What I’m getting at here is that we were not in the best hiking shape of our lives, yet we were about to take on our biggest physical challenge to date.

Before our climb, Ted reached out to a few friends that had climbed Kili to ask them about the hike and to hear their experiences. He got a few intimidating responses ranging from miserable altitude headaches to incredibly grueling hard work. After hearing these reviews, he decided that there was no good reason to share this information with me until after the climb, and to this day I thank him for that.

With ignorant bliss, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the mountain for the first time on the drive from Kilimanjaro airport to Moshi, the access town. Glowing in the evening sunset, Africa’s biggest peak dominates the skyline, literally popping out of nowhere. It is nothing less than breathtaking.

Kilimanjaro at sunset

We got our hotel just as it got dark. We carbo-loaded on some pasta for dinner, repacked our bags for 6 days and 5 nights of mountain climbing, and did our best to get some sleep before the big trip.