So how much do you know about Mt. Kilimanjaro? Maybe you’re thinking of climbing or you’ve already booked your climb, and no doubt you are focusing on all the practical aspects of your trip. There are many reasons why you might be drawn to climbing Kilimanjaro and the more you know about the mountain you are about to tackle (or are dreaming of tackling) the more enjoyable your experience will be. So let’s jump right in and look at the interesting facts about Mt.
Located in Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s tallest mountain at about 5,895 meters (19,340 feet). At 19,340 feet there is approximately half the oxygen in the air than there is at sea-level. It is the largest free-standing mountain rise in the world, meaning it is not part of a mountain range. Also called a stratovolcano (a term for a very large volcano made of ash, lava and rock), Kilimanjaro is made up of three cones: Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira. Kibo is the summit of the mountain and the tallest of the three volcanic formations.
While Mawenzi and Shira are extinct, Kibo is considered dormant and could possibly erupt again. Scientists estimate that the last time it erupted was 360,000 years ago. The highest point on Kibo’s crater rim is called Uhuru, the Swahili word for “freedom.”
No one knows how Kilimanjaro got its name. It may come from the Swahili word Kilima (meaning “mountain”) and the KiChagga word Njaro (meaning “shining” or “whiteness”); the mountain is known for its snow-capped peak. Some local people living in the foothills of the mountain, including the Chagga and the Maasai, view it as the seat of God.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, making it one of the seven summits. Kilimanjaro is very popular with both experienced hikers and first time adventurers because it is considered to be the easiest of the seven summits. Scaling the mountain requires no technical skills or equipment, such as rope, harness, crampons or ice axe. Therefore, it is a hiking or “walk up” peak, not a mountaineering or climbing peak.
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Kilimanjaro is not only Africa’s tallest peak, but also the world’s tallest free standing mountain. The summit, named Uhuru Point, is 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level.
Many classical geographers were interested in the African continent, and the first recorded mention of Kili in history was in the second century. The Greek mathematician, Ptolemy of Alexandria referred to “a great snow mountain”. In typical style, early nineteenth-century British geographers had dismissed any idea of a snow-capped peak in Africa. That is, until William Desborough Cooley in 1844 wrote: “the most famous mountain of Eastern Africa is Kirimanjara”.
Below we have listed other Interesting Facts about Mt.
Geological Facts
Kilimanjaro actually comprises three volcanic peaks, the largest being Kibo - the summit. According to the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (2008), Shira started erupting some 2.5 million years ago, and the main activity was around 1.9 million years ago. After this time the volcanic activity moved towards Mawenzi and Kibo.
Mawenzi and Kibo on the other hand, are pretty young in comparison. They started their volcanic grumblings around a million years ago. At the top of Kibo is a large crater, formed after the volcano erupted, like Shira, it also collapsed in on itself and is now a flat area, containing glaciers (fast retreating).
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One interesting point is that both Mawenzi and Shira are extinct but Kibo is dormant. This can be seen clearly if you hike to the Ash Pit - a two hour round trip across the crater floor. From here you can smell the sulfurous gases being emitted deep inside the earth’s crust.
The glaciers on Kilimanjaro are estimated to be around 11,700 years old. To put this into numbers: in 1912 the coverage was 11.4 square kilometers. By 2011 a mere 1.76 square kilometers of glacial ice remains.
Unfortunately, the white snow that the mountain is named for may soon disappear. Over the last hundred years, all of Kilimanjaro’s glaciers have begun to retreat. Some have vanished altogether. Scientists have studied satellite images and learned that Kilimanjaro has lost more than 90 percent of its ice since 1900. Many experts are studying the causes of this catastrophic melt.
Glacier retreat on Kilimanjaro
The cap is divergent and at the edges splits into individual glaciers. Geological evidence shows five successive glacial episodes during the Quaternary period, namely First (500,000 BP), Second (greater than 360,000 years ago to 240,000 BP), Third (150,000 to 120,000 BP), Fourth (also known as "Main") (20,000 to 17,000 BP), and Little (16,000 to 14,000 BP).
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The slope glaciers retreated rapidly between 1912 and 1953, in response to a sudden shift in climate at the end of the 19th century that made them "drastically out of equilibrium", and more slowly thereafter. In contrast to the persistent slope glaciers, the glaciers on Kilimanjaro's crater plateau have appeared and disappeared repeatedly during the Holocene epoch, with each cycle lasting a few hundred years.
Almost 85 percent of the ice cover on Kilimanjaro disappeared between October 1912 and June 2011, with coverage decreasing from 11.40 km2 (4.40 sq mi) to <1 km2 (0.39 sq mi). The glaciers are thinning in addition to losing areal coverage, and do not have active accumulation zones; retreat occurs on all glacier surfaces.
A complete disappearance of the ice would be of only "negligible importance" to the water budget of the area around the mountain. Kilimanjaro is drained by a network of rivers and streams, especially on the wetter and more heavily eroded southern side and primarily above 1,200 m (3,900 ft). Below that altitude, increased evaporation and human water usage reduce the water flows.
Historical Facts
The first recorded attempts by European explorers to climb Kili started in the mid-late nineteenth century. Together they took the dangerous journey to Kilimanjaro. They surveyed the area, apparently climbing to around 8,200 feet. They estimated that the mountain was around 20,000 feet high.
Hans Meyer claimed the first actual summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Not without some difficulty though. Not to be deterred, Meyer enlisted the help of Ludwig Purscheller - a very experienced Alpine climber - and returned to Tanzania in 1889. On 6th October 1889, they stood on the summit for the first time. In 1989, the organizing committee of the 100-year celebration of the first ascent decided to award posthumous certificates to the African porter-guides who had accompanied Meyer and Purtscheller.
The first woman to get to the summit was a Scottish lady who had spent a lot of time in her childhood scaling Scottish peaks with her father. She joined a group of adventurers and embarked on her expedition up Kili.
Richard Reusch was the 7th person to sign the register on the summit and reportedly the first person to see the Ash Pit - it is named the Reusch Crater after him. Together, they built the first huts on Kilimanjaro, at strategic points to allow climbers to rest and acclimatize before continuing their journey. The East African Mountain Club ran all the expeditions up Kilimanjaro until the Tanzanian Government took over in 1973.
The people who live in the vicinity of Kilimanjaro are an important part of the mountain’s history. In 1889, local climber Yohani Kinyala Lauwo (also known as Mzee Lauwo) guided German geographer Hans Meyer and Austrian mountaineer Ludwig Purtscheller to the Kilimanjaro summit. Lauwo then became the first Tanzanian to reach the peak at the age of 18. Purtscheller and Meyer were the first Europeans to summit. Lauwo was a member of the Chagga tribe. The Chagga have lived on Kilimanjaro’s slopes for centuries. Lauwo went on to guide climbers to Kilimanjaro’s summit for more than 50 years, dying at the age of 125.
The mountain was incorporated into Kilimanjaro National Park in 1973.
The East African Mountain Club, founded in the 1920s, was in charge of all Kilimanjaro expeditions until the Tanzanian government seized control in 1973.
In 1973, the mountain and its six surrounding forest corridors were named Kilimanjaro National Park. The park was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in 1987. These measures can help protect the area’s unique environment.
Climbing Kilimanjaro
Being the tallest mountain in Africa gives Mt. Kilimanjaro the status of being one of the “Seven Summits” - the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that at 5,895 meters high, Kilimanjaro is the fourth largest of these Seven Summits.
Moving on from history to more modern times, there are currently seven official routes up the mountain to the summit.
Each year, at least 30,000 people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro. That’s a lot, right? So you’d think the summit would be pretty crowded. It is hard to get actual statistics about what percentage of people who set out to climb actually make it to the summit. What we do know, is that the longer routes have the greatest success rates. This is because by far the biggest reason for people not making the summit is due to complications with the altitude.
Climbers can experience altitude sickness if they ascend too quickly, and it can be deadly if not treated right away.
Once again, these statistics are not published by the National Parks Authority. It’s estimated that between 3-6 people die on the mountain every year - although some sources put that figure quite a bit higher. The main reason for these deaths is complications arising from the altitude. There have also been rock slides at the base of the Western Breach which in 2006-2007 caused the death of four climbers.
It is important that all climbers - guides, porters as well as tourists - have their health monitored every day while on the mountain.
We often get asked ‘am I too old to climb Kilimanjaro’? That is a question that didn’t worry Anne Lorimor, a great grandmother from Arizona when she set out to conquer the record held by Angela Vorobeva (Russia) of the oldest person to climb Kilimanjaro. On July 18th, 2019 Anne Lorimor reached the summit at the remarkable age of 89 years and 37 days. She climbed unassisted with a team on the Rongai route.
The official minimum age to be allowed to climb the mountain (by the National Parks Authority) is 10. The current record holder is a young man from Albuquerque called Coaltan Tanner. Ever since his parents read him a book about mountains he was obsessed with climbing Everest. At the tender age of 6 years old, he stood at Uhuru Peak with his parents in October 2018.
We mostly talk about how ‘slow and steady’ is the best way to the summit. The current record holder is Karl Egloff, a Swiss ultra marathon runner and all-round tough man, who in August 2014 ran the Umbwe route and reached the summit in 4 hours and 56 minutes.
The title of fastest ascent by a woman is held by Kristina Shou Madson from Denmark. It’s not everyone that can even think about running for over 6 hours, at home, at sea level, and on a flat surface. I know I can’t. But some folk like to make and break records. It’s in their blood.
Take, for example, one Sanjay Pandit from Nepal. An experienced mountaineer who decided to tackle Kilimanjaro - backwards. He walked up to the summit and down again, backwards the whole way. If walking backwards doesn’t appeal to you, as it didn’t to Douglas Adams - famous author of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” - perhaps climbing in a rhino suit seems like a good idea? Well, it did to him, because in 1994, with the founders of Save the Rhino Foundation, he did just that.
How to PREPARE for Kilimanjaro | TRAINING & what you NEED to KNOW!
You might be surprised to learn that you can climb Mount Kilimanjaro without any specialized equipment or even prior mountaineering knowledge. Most people are surprised to find that you can hike up one of the tallest mountains in the world without hiking gear, but it’s true.
Ecological Zones
The humid rain forest receives the most rainfall and was once home to a variety of wildlife. Due to the increase in tourism, you’d be hard-pressed to see anything other than the odd antelope and some monkeys. The temperatures are cooler here and it is much drier than in the forest. The vegetation is a mixture of heather’s and large grasses. As you climb higher, out of the heath and moorland zone it gets a lot bleaker.
Much colder at night, and baking hot during the day, it is an inhospitable place. This area comprises mostly rocks and volcanic scree with glaciers higher up. There is very little water, as most precipitation falls as snow and is absorbed by porous rock. It is bleak and very cold.
Andreas Hemp from the University of Bayreuth in Germany has been studying the trees in some of Kilimanjaro’s remote valleys - well away from the climbing routes - for over 20 years. However, with laser tools, it’s been revealed that Africa’s tallest tree, an Entandrophragma excelsum actually measures a whopping 81.5 meters in height. Hemp estimates that the tree is approximately 600 years old.
Ecological zones of Kilimanjaro
While climbing Kilimanjaro, trekkers will experience five distinct ecological zones on their way to the top. Weather conditions near the base of the mountain tend to be tropical to semi-temperate and are relatively stable all year round. The lower plains are hot and dry. Each zone gets colder and drier as the elevation increases. The summit is in the arctic zone, characterized by ice and rock.
Large animals are rare on Kilimanjaro and are more frequent in the forests and lower parts of the mountain. Elephants and Cape buffaloes are among the animals that can be potentially hazardous to trekkers. Bushbucks, chameleons, dik-diks, duikers, mongooses, sunbirds, and warthogs have also been reported.
Natural forests cover about 1,000 km2 (250,000 acres) on Kilimanjaro. In the foothill area, maize, beans, sunflowers and, on the western side, wheat are cultivated. There are remnants of the former savanna vegetation with Acacia, Combretum, Terminalia and Grewia. Between 1,000 m (3,300 ft) and 1,800 m (5,900 ft), coffee appears as part of the "Chagga home gardens" agroforestry.
On the southern slope, montane forests first contain Ocotea usambarensis as well as ferns and epiphytes; farther up in cloud forests Podocarpus latifolius, Hagenia abyssinica and Erica excelsa grow, as well as fog-dependent mosses. On the drier northern slopes olive, Croton-Calodendrum, Cassipourea, and Juniperus form forests in order of increasing altitude.
| Ecological Zone | Elevation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Lower Slopes | Below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) | Cultivated land with maize, beans, sunflowers, and wheat. Remnants of savanna vegetation. |
| Montane Forest | 1,000 m - 1,800 m (3,300 ft - 5,900 ft) | Coffee plantations, native vegetation limited to inaccessible valleys. |
| Cloud Forest | Higher elevations on southern slopes | Ocotea usambarensis, ferns, epiphytes, Podocarpus latifolius, Hagenia abyssinica, Erica excelsa, fog-dependent mosses. |
| Northern Slopes | Drier conditions | Olive, Croton-Calodendrum, Cassipourea, and Juniperus forests. |
| Alpine Desert | Highest elevations | Ice and rock, minimal vegetation. |
So there you have it, some facts about this great mountain: its history, and its geology. Some figures - both in the numbers and the famous folk. And some focus. Is climbing Kilimanjaro on your bucket list? Have these facts piqued your interest?
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