Choosing a Kilimanjaro route (and why days matter more than fitness)

Kilimanjaro requires no technical climbing. It is a walk — a very long one, ending at 5,895m. What turns people back is not fitness but altitude, and the single strongest predictor of reaching the summit is how many days you spend getting there.

The routes

• Marangu (5–6 days) — hut accommodation, the lowest summit rate. Avoid.
• Machame (6–7 days) — popular and scenic, good acclimatisation profile
• Lemosho (7–8 days) — the best balance of success rate, scenery and quiet
• Northern Circuit (9 days) — the highest summit rate of any route

Why the extra days work

Acclimatisation is physiological and it cannot be rushed or trained around. Longer routes let you climb high and sleep low — the Lava Tower day on Lemosho takes you to 4,600m and back down to 3,900m to sleep, which is uncomfortable and is precisely the point.

“An eight-day Lemosho has roughly double the summit rate of a five-day Marangu. The extra days are not luxury; they are the mountain's actual price.”

What we insist on

Supplementary oxygen carried by the crew, twice-daily health checks including pulse oximetry, and a guide with the authority to turn any individual around. Ethical porter treatment matters too — fair wages, proper equipment and enforced load limits are a condition of the operators we work with.