Hard times always bring out the creativity in man. Necessity is the mother of invention. There are a slough of offers across the internet for cut price Kilimanjaro climbs being tendered by the lower two-thirds of climb market in Tanzania. This is the strata that caters for the bulk of the venture climb traffic.

This dovetails very neatly into the need for cheap climb options. Without these many would be unable in this economic climate to climb. However if a trip is offered below cost, and if economic survival is the key, then corners will be cut, and here are a few ways this is being achieved.

Short trips

This is a trick that has surfaced and submerged often over the years. Currently it is back at the surface and breathing new life into the ailing bottom feeders who have always occupied the fringe of respectable Kili business. It is very simple, and here is how it works:

You pay for an 8-day trip and upon check-in at the national parks gate, usually with connivance of one of more TANAPA officials, your operator pays for only a 6-day trip. The crew are then under instructions to ensure that as many members of party as possible succumb to AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) within those 6-days, which can be achieved in any number of ways, particularly among novice climbers. These are then hustled off the mountain which allows the outfitting company to retain the parks fees, not only for those paying packs themselves, but also the porters and guides for whom fees will also have been charged but not paid.

The obvious way to guard against this is to make sure that the correct monies are paid at the gate and the correct registration completed. This not easy, particularly if a TANAPA official is in on it, but it is a precaution.

It is also worthwhile – particularly if you have been given younger guides whose attitude is less one of professionalism than random teenagers taking any job they can – not taking as rote everything you are told. The signs of this type of guide are usually that they remain plugged into their MP3 player or transistor radios from beginning to end, have no particular answers to any queries, and are more interested in what kit they can beg from you than your well-being or enjoyment.

If you find yourself with this type of guide you need to take more control of your circumstances. If you are suffering obvious health problems and your guide’s advice is go, go, go! … then pause and assert your status as a paying client and lay down the law. Do not be coerced or bulldozed into side excursions that you do not feel fit for, and do not adhere to any suggestions of short cuts, truncated days or any other creative route finding that strays from the written itinerary.

Short Staffed

A very common sight on the final stretch of the climb are climbers clearly on their last legs, fading in and out of consciousness, retching and weaving, but being pushed forward by their guides. This might on the surface seem inspirational, but is in reality extremely poor practice. Here is why:

It is essential when setting off from Barafu Camp towards the summit to have with your group enough personnel qualified or experienced at high altitude to ensure that everyone has a shot of getting to the summit. Out of a group of ten packs it is possible that half might drop out at various stages and need to be escorted down by someone who knows what they are doing. The remainder are then able to continue up with another guide, usually the lead guide, who also knows what he or she is doing.

If a group of 10 packs is sent up on the last 6-hour slog to the summit with just one, or maybe two guides, obviously, in order that the whole group are not forced to return alongside the first casualty, the ailing member is put under enormous, and extremely dangerous pressure to continue. It is usually a very irritated party of climbers that has to return short of the summit thanks to the incapacity of one, or maybe two climbers.

Any climb outfitter worth its salt will provide a ratio of guides-to-climbers of three packs to one guide. Usually this is arranged so that the party is led by a ‘lead’ guide whose age and experience is sufficient to undertake the task. He will be supported by an assistant guide, or two, who are licensed, but gaining experience under the tutelage of the master.

Supporting these will be a clique of porters with ambitions to go through the licensing system who usually undertake the tasks of cook, camp manager and quartermaster, with the capacity to escort injured or weakened members of the climb party down if necessary, and otherwise to stand in as emergency guides in a crisis.

It is worth remembering the bulk of the porters you will have on your trip are part of the bottom rung of the climb fraternity, and for the most part they are an itinerant workforce with little mountain experience who do a trip or two when they need the cash and otherwise are lowland farmers or share croppers accustomed to the steppe. These are not men capable of any degree of professional mountaineering, and very much bring up the rear.

Another point worth remember is that there is a local industry is second hand kit, and your guides and porters will have their eye on what your might be relieved of from the onset. Requests for kit and tearful distress at low tips are a common feature of Kili, arm yourself with fore-knowledge, and do not give away kit you do not want to give away just because your petitioner looks like he might need it. Chances are he intends to sell it.

>>Here are some more common scams...

So these are just a couple of popular scams, let me know if you have experienced any others and I would be happy to compile a rogues gallery of naughty boys that do this kind of stuff.

If you are interested, you can find out more details in our Kilimanjaro climb sections.

Upcoming Adventures:
7 Day Machame Climb – June 14 (7 spots)
7 Day Machame Climb – July 6 (4 spots)
7 Day Machame Cilmb – July 12 (3 spots)
7 Day Machame Climb – August 23 (5 spots)

Both the July 12 and August 23 are followed by an optional 5 day camping safari.

“We used Kilimanjaro Tanzanite Safari for our northern circuit safari in Tanzania. What a disaster! Andrew, the managing director, totally screwed up our trip, promising everything and delivering nothing. We didn’t even have blankets (which we specificially asked whether we should bring our sleeping bags) in our tents!

I would NOT recommend this company!!!! Stay away. There are too many other good operators out there to waste your time and money. He almost destroyed our whole trip to Tanzania! We even had to cut our safari short by a day because he did not book our flight out of Arusha till 2 days before the end of the safari. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY!”

Whenever I organize a safari or climb up Kilimanjaro, I usually preface it with this:

PLEASE NOTE:
While we strive to make your trip the best possible, and pride ourselves on trying to cover every detail of your trips, it’s important to understand that Tanzanian business, time and culture operate in a different manner throughout East Africa. With an adventure trip this long and of this magnitude, you are bound to encounter a multitude of problems, which could effect your itinerary: bad weather happens, vehicles break down, people get sick, etc. While we have back up plans for all of these instances, it’s important to understand that is part of the adventure in Tanzania.

But even this is no excuse for over promising and under delivering…

Steve Hansen wrote:

Dear Donovan,
I am sorry this is so late as I returned safely from my trip on Feb 11th.
I am sorry that I don’t really have any great stories or pictures to share
with you.
During the night after the first day of climb, I slept very little and had
diarrhea. The following morning during the climb I proceeded to vomit and
had more diarrhea. My strength seemed to be gone and I was delaying the
rest of the team, so I decided (along with our compassionate guide) not to
continue.
Of the eleven people on the team, four made it to the top; two girls and
two guys. Some of the others had breathing problems and altitude sickness
further up the mountain.
It was a five day climb. After this experience, I agree with the people
who strongly recommend a six day climb with a rest-and-acclimate day on day
three. I might have tried to continue knowing day 3 would be a rest day.
But that will remain speculation as I have no plans to try again unless the
Lord so instructs me.
Thank you again for all your advice, help and encouragement. I really
appreciated it!

Steve Hansen

If you are looking to join a group to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, I will update this webpage each week, adding dates that groups have offered their climb for others to join. Generally most trips to climb Kilimanjaro are private, but from time-to-time, people open them to others. Below are some current public group options – anyone can join:

JUNE:
June 25 – Two Canadian women are looking for a few other travelers to join their group. They are doing a seven day Machame climb, starting on June 25 and ending on July 1. Beginners welcome. This trip now has one other American guy on it. TRIP CLOSED

JULY:
July 4 – Two men, also from Canada, that are opening their trip for other people to join. Climb begins July 4 and ends July 10. It’s a 7 day Machame Climb. Beginners welcome. This trip has two Americans girls, and another guy who have joined. TRIP CLOSED

NEW – July 11 – July 15 – Two Americans looking for others to join their camping safari, which includes the Serengeti, Tarangire, and Ngorongoro National Park. This trip is open to three other people.

AUGUST:
NEW – Aug 6 – August 12 Two guys climbing the seven day Machame route, looking for others to join. Contact Donovan at BootsnAll for more details.

In August, we have the annual Bootsnall group that anyone can join. We take 15 people. $500 for the deposit to hold your space. Find out more details for BootsnAll’s Kilimanjaro Climb. 3 people are registered for this trip, so far. (This trip is closed)

SEPTEMBER:
Sept 2 – Two Brits and one American, all young professional women, are doing an eight Day Machame climb, sleeping at Crater Camp, the highest camp on Kilimanjaro at about 18,000 ft. People with previous trekking experience are open to join this trip. Oxygen will be brought on this climb. (This trip has two more people on the climb now. We are keeping this open for one more person. Very cool trip!)

Sept 29 – Two Americans – male and female, boyfriend & girlfriend – are opening their climb to 4 people, starting September 24, ending Sept 30. Looking for people who like to have fun and are laid back!

OCTOBER:
Oct 29:
Rachel Cadden of Verve Enterprises is looking for people to join her group climbing the Machame Route for seven days. This trip is open to anybody with adventurous spirit. Contact Donovan for more details. This is an adventure trip – and is not focused around Verve Enterprises mission. But you are welcome to ask Rachel about it on the trip!

DECEMBER:
December 7: Two Americans on a multi-month trip around the world are climbing the Machame route, seven days. Open to others. Date could change to Dec 5 or Dec 6.

Dec 26 – Kilimanjaro Fundraiser starting December 26, and summiting on Kilimanjaro for the first sunrise of 2008. Climb ends January 2. The charities they are raising money for are The Goodlife Kids Foundation and Amani Children’s Home. They’ll be holding around 6 fundraisers throughout the year this year. Our biggest fundraiser is a Kid Friendly Cook Book, with a recipe contest being run nationwide (open to children and adults).

If any of these trips interest you, contact Donovan at BootsnAll. Email donovan (at) BootsnAll (dot) com. The phone number from the US is 866-549-7614, or outside the US at 503-528-1005.

Here is the personal response from Jan Moshi, the Director of Sales & Marketing of Kili Treks & Safaris, on why her company is unique. Kili Treks is based in Tanzania.

“While we offer the standard mountain, safari and Zanzibar packages, the directors, myself and Alex are completely hands on, which gives us a degree of flexibility to provide as much of a personal service to our clients as is humanely possible. There is no agent, no ‘middle man’ and we oversee everything from our Moshi based office.

Alex (Tanzanian) is a licensed safari driver and a Kilimanjaro TANAPA guide trainer with extensive East African mountain experience. Part of his role is on-the-job training for the Kilitreks mountain and safari teams, which means he may be accompanying the clients.

I (British) battle away on the web site and answer the emails. My job is to untangle the email requests to ensure that what has been requested is what we can provide at a reasonable price and I make sure they get enough information to prepare themselves. Then I hand over to Alex and his teams for the practical stuff. Kilimanjaro climbing has become more expensive in recent times due to the increase in National Park fees. We are keeping our prices in the lower regions for 2007 to encourage all kinds of climbers to fulfill their dream (or madness). For this reason we have set departure dates for Marangu, Rongai and Machame routes with minimum group numbers (6 climbers). This means we can keep the prices reasonable. We also have a price for ‘private’ bookings which can start on any date and any route.

We like to encourage travellers to try different activities off the beaten track when they visit Tanzania. Not so many are brave enough. We offer a 3 day bush safari into the Massai Steppe to climb Lendenia mountain (in Simanjiro – the green bit in the middle of travel guide maps which is devoid of any location details). Climbing usually involves a Massai morani armed with a panga to cut a path to the top. There are no tourists, just Massai going about their business, donkeys, cows and Chagga merchants. What we spend goes directly to the community (puncture repairs included). The travelling and accommodation options are very basic but it is just a wonderful experience. We are still a small company developing our client base, but I think we do a good job.”

Now that I look at Jan’s response, I think she has really brought forward an issue that most people don’t do. That’s REALLY getting off the beaten path and trying to do something new. Everybody wants to climb Kilimanjaro and go to the Serengeti, but will 300,000+ tourists coming to Tanzania each year, it’s becoming increasingly hard to find an authentic experience. 95 percent of the people do the SAME thing. However, like Jan mentioned about climbing the Lendenia mountain with a Masai, that’s probably an amazing experience, and pretty much as authentic as you can get. I personally wouldn’t use Kili Treks & Safaris for climbing Kilimanjaro, until I really knew the guide and his experience, but I would probably use them for a safari in the bush – and definitely check out their off the beaten path tours. Good luck Jan!

Well, to be brutally honest, it looks like this company, Kilimanjaro Tanzanite Safaris, is a standard Tanzanian company – they offer everything, but nothing that’s different from anyone else. It’s just meat and potatoes tour. They have copied a bunch of material, text and pictures from around the Internet and then posted it in no logical order with lots of strange colors, fonts and advertisements. It fact, I have even found information that I have written on their site. Thanks guys!

I have heard of this company once before, but having spent about the last seven years organizing tourism in Tanzania, I have never heard of anyone that has went on any of their trips. They are a registered member company by Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, which does add some validity,and say they have been in business for 18 years.

Since this website looks a bit shady, this is a classic reason why some people choose to buy through a reputable and trustworthy company, one they can call on the phone. Don’t get me wrong, this could be a great company and it probably has cheap prices, but it doesn’t feel safe to me. They are not even located in Moshi, the town at the base of Kilimanjaro, but actually in Arusha, about 1 hour from the mountain.

The only contact information is an email address and a PO Box.

Owned by, I believe, an American couple, Thomson Trek’s is famous for being part of an Imax Movie: Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa, which was produced by David Breashears, a well known American mountain climbers who was at the 1996 Everest Disaster highlighted in Jon Krakauers’s Into Thin Air.

Over the years, I have always heard good reviews from other Kilimanjaro climbers, their Thompson guides who works for other companies on occasion, and from some of their local competitors. From what I know, they employ some solid guides, have good equipment and try to take the path less traveled.

Their trips are pretty expensive, though – on average almost $5,000 per person, but they definitely aren’t giving you a run of the mill climb up Kilimanjaro. You get a lot more than a standard seven-day Machame climb. The best climbing option, is their Western Route approach, which starts on the Lemosho route, transitions to the Machame Route, and then a night at the Crater Camp, which is at 18,750 feet. Bring your thermal underwear!

If you are someone who has the money to pay $5000, and want all the extras, then this is the company for you. If you are trying to do Kilimanjaro climb for a bit less, which many people are, then you might want to shop around.

REI, just like many companies, is not based in Africa nor do they have an actual company there. They are partnering with another company, which I think is Tusker Trails or Abercrombie & Kent, and then selling the trip for more because they have the audience. If I calculate the total cost of this trip, if you were to buy it when you arrive, it is about $2500, give or take a few hundred dollars. The value that REI brings is they already have the contacts who can set up the trip and give you a good experience. If you were to arrive in Tanzania and try to orchestrate this exact trip, you are bound to chance. You might find someone who could do it for cheap, be a great guide, and have good equipment, good vehicles – or you might find hook up with a local Fly Catcher, and the trip could be ruined. It all comes down to your patience level.

My only qualm is that REI Adventures should be doing a Machame route camping trip, instead of the Marangu route, staying huts. I think the average REI attendee would be more a camper on the mountain and want a little bit more action vs. the lame, flat Marangu route. The cool thing about REI’s trip that I have not seen before is they have a great cycle trip on Day 13, which starts on the edge of this amazing sheer cliff, that is actually part of the Great Rift Valley.

Don’t get me wrong, REI does a few good things on their trips in Africa to help make it a little better. I have seen their trips before. The question is, do you have money to pay for this trip, or could you arrange on your own? That’s something you need to decided for yourself.