Guides and porters

Strict laws prevent anyone from climbing Kilimanjaro without a licensed guide. The mountain is mostly contained in a national park, and each climber must sign in and register their journey. You’ll hire an operator and it’s advisable to do that long before you arrive in Tanzania. The operator will hire the lead guide, who will help organize the rest of the large crew that will support your group on your climb.

Lead guides

Like the captain of a ship, they are in charge of everything and everyone else. There is typically one lead guide, but the rest of the crew will depend on the size of your climbing group and the financial strategy of the operator who sold you the package. The guide is always licensed, very experienced, and fluent in English. They’ll answer your questions as they coordinate everything else going on in the camp, and will walk in front of your group. The best lead guides stay busy and many of them have summited Kilimanjaro 300 or more times.

Assistant guides

A good operator will hire one assistant guide for each two to three climbers in your group. In other words, a group of 4 climbers will have 2 assistant guides to go along with the lead guide and the rest of the support crew. Since groups tend to get spread out during each day’s climbing segment, the assistant guides will space themselves out among the group as well, and one assistant guide will be bringing up the rear to make sure everyone is safe and healthy. Assistant guides will almost always speak reasonably fluent English.

If someone in your group has problems with altitude sickness or any other major problem that cuts their climb short, an assistant guide will attend to them and help them descend and get help if needed. The rest of the party carries on toward the summit, so this can be a difference between a group that makes it and one that doesn’t. If the operator doesn’t hire enough staff then a medical problem can put everyone’s climb in jeopardy, but the better operators make sure this won’t happen by hiring the proper size crew.

Porters

These men are usually newer to the Kilimanjaro scene and it’s not necessary for them to be fluent in English. They’ll carry almost all of your stuff, as well as the tents, cooking equipment, food etc. for the whole group. There will typically be 2 or 3 porters for each climber in your group, so a group of 4 climbers might have between 8 and 12 porters.

They, along with the cooks, are the lowest paid in the crew, but you can feel good knowing these are very desirable jobs and men come from all over the region just to compete for these positions. Compared to making next to nothing as a farmer, these low-paid porters are doing quite well for themselves. If they learn enough English and get enough experience they can move up the ladder.

Cooks

Depending on the size of your group, you’ll have at least one dedicated cook and maybe several. There can be some crossover between cooking and hauling gear, but you can expect a professional cook to be preparing your meals in the evening, usually long before you arrive at camp yourself.

Tipping the crew

This is an issue that many people, particularly tip-crazed Americans, are curious about, and it’s good to factor this into the price of your climb. Yes, it’s common and courteous to tip these brave men who helped you conquer Kilimanjaro, but only if the service was good or great. For detailed information about tipping see the bottom of the prices page.

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