Crater Camp is touted as the last word in isolation on the slightly over-trammeled Kilimanjaro circuit. There is no doubt that getting up there, particularly via the famous Western Breach, is a large undertaking, and spending the night at over 5500m is not for lightweights, but isolated Crater Camp is not!

We made the trip up from Arrow Glacier Camp in about 7-hours of fairly solid slogging up the middle of the Western Breach. Scrambling over the edge of the crater the first sight that greets one is the rather diminutive – not much more than a huge ice-cube – Furtwangler Glacier. After the obligatory photograph against the ice mass – ‘say Fartwanker!’ – we trudged over the ash colored sand that lines the crater floor towards camp situated about 500 meters distant. As usual the porters had arrived before us and were setting up camp, and besides them we were alone on this beautiful and desolate spot.

Litter and worse…

However it was difficult to ignore a carpet of detritus littering the extremities of the camp, a collection of oddments including discarded tampons, teabags, hand-warmers and the usual debris associated with the human condition. I took my camera and set off to photograph the hidden piles of kitchen waste and portable toilet dumps that were the most obvious signs, but pretty soon I was reeling at the sheer volume of crap – literally – that littered the camp surrounds.

Behind every rock, and even some way up the trail towards the summit, hundred and hundreds of human turds lay un-decomposed as might be expected under these conditions of temperature and altitude. It was the most revolting sight imaginable in an otherwise pristinely beautiful natural space.

High altitude lethargy…

Basically the problem is this: It is ecologically unsound to dig pit latrines at this altitude thanks to the fact that no degeneration will take place and what is deposited will remain effectively forever. The use of portable toilets is the alternative, but few porters care to portage filled units down so they simply dump the contents onto the sand. Moreover the porters themselves have no facilities so have no choice but to defecate out in the open and it is this that accounts for the colossal amount of human waste in evidence everywhere.

The end of Crater Camp

As soon as I was back in Moshi I was on the phone to the local head of KINAPA who told me that the situation at Crater Camp had been of concern to the parks authority for some time, and that in fact the decision had recently been taken to shut the facility down altogether. This effectively means that any Western Breach Summit will end at Barafu Camp and that only by special license can anyone in future make use of the crater floor.

As far as current obligations are concerned, pre-existing bookings will be honored, but within a year the facility will be cleaned up and left to nature. It is a very sad fact that the state of human commerce on the mountain is so reckless and indifferent, but the fact remains. Although very sad it is probably for the best. So for those of you booked to climb via Crater Camp, hold your nose, watch your step and make the most of being the last of any of us to make the journey.

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.

Eco-tourism

This is an odd principal to apply to an industry such as tourism, but in developing countries, and in Africa in particular, great efforts have been made, and significant advances achieved, in spreading the bounty of high yield eco-tourism to local communities. This presents the opportunity for local people to actively partake in and receive the financial benefits of tourism as an incentive to preserve their natural environments.

In Kilimanjaro, and in the other two main mountain ranges in the region, this has been most notably achieved in the mandating of local guides and porters as a basic requirement for any group embarking on a climb. In principal this ensures that local communities benefit from tourism revenues, but in practice it has often resulted in quite cynical exploitation.

These men are clearly ill-equipped to contemplate climbing to Barafu Camp or Kibo Huts above 18 000ft

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project

The Facts

On this blog I have made fairly liberal use of National Geographic as a source for reliable and authentic information, and once again I have found National Geographic at the forefront. In a 2003 article entitled Carrying a Heavy Load some startling facts were exposed. These are some:

Many porter deaths (an estimated 15-20 annually) go unreported thanks to the unwillingness of TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks Authority) to release accurate figures.

The main reason is ‘price gouging’, and the resultant savings gained by unscrupulous local outfitters providing porters with little or no high altitude survival gear.

There are recorded instances of porters ailing with edema or other altitude related maladies left on the side of the trail to be revived by better equipped groups or sent down alone without support or monitoring.

Unwilling to risk their jobs being handed to a large pool of desperate and willing men sick porters often persevere at great risk to themselves.

Porter deaths are principally from edema or hypothermia.

Kilimanjaro porters are usually lowland farmers with little or no mountain tradition.

For every death there are hundreds of close calls and narrow escapes.

Fair Trade in Kilimanjaro

There is no doubt that Kilimanjaro is an expensive mountain to climb, but certain questions are worth asking as you ponder the great variety of prices on offer, and what they represent.

Can my outfitter realistically mount a Fair Trade expedition at US$1000/1500 per pack?

Can I take it as a given that because my guide/outfitter assures me that the highest standards are being applied, that they are?

Do I want to contribute to the abuse and exploitation of local people for the sake of saving US$500-US$1000 on a budget climb?

Should I adopt an ‘out of sight out of mind attitude’ as I bed down in my down-sleeping bag knowing that my porters have been equipped with a plastic bin-liner and a blanket?

The answers to all of the above are, or at least should be no!

An inescapable fact of East Africa is that it is one of the most corrupt regions in the world, and in a business as potentially lucrative as tourism, with the degree of competition that exists, corruption on the ground is guaranteed. Human exploitation is also widespread throughout Africa, be it in the recruitment of child soldiers, or the demands for sexual or economic favors from local UNHCR staff in exchange for the registration of women and girls as refugees, or the simple extortion of would be migrants for perilous boat journeys across the Mediterranean to Europe. It should not then come as a great surprise that with the sheer numbers of people employed in the Kilimanjaro porter industry that many will fall victim to similar exploitation.

What can I do?

The main culprits in this are the local Tanzanian climb outfitters. There are certain Tanzanian outfitters with a well documented reputation for this sort of behavior, and although it is not the business of this site to point the finger and name names, there are a few things that you can do to limit the practice.

If you want western standards to be applied then work through a western outfitter. The money you pay still filters down to the same people on the ground, but western outfitters ensure their reputations by holding their local suppliers to acceptable standards. If it costs a few hundred dollars more, then at least you will not be confronted by a freezing porter at 15000ft dying of hypothermia.

Remember that if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. The less you pay the less your mountain support crew will likely get. The outfitter will be paid, and TANAPA will be paid, and it is likely to be your guides, assistant guides and porters who will be sold short.

The Good News

TANAPA has been stung in recent years by revelations of corrupt gate officials and very lax standards. These days the agency is placing a lot more emphasis on monitoring local operators and issuing licenses to keep the most blatant bottom feeders off the mountain.

There also now exists after some 20 years of high volume tourism a pool of guides that have worked their way up through the ranks and have emerged with authentic credentials and solid expertise. These men are in high demand and are relatively well paid, and have quite rightly contributed to the heavy rate of price increase over the last decade. TANAPA still accepts very low individual standards as basic, but it can at least be said that the opportunity exists for motivated newcomers to rise through the ranks and aspire to work for and with some of the top providing outfitters in the market.

Perhaps the best news has been the arrival in the region of the International Mountain Connection which, originally conceived as a welfare and support body for Nepalese porters, has opened up in Kilimanjaro offering local porters free survival gear as well as first aid and English lessons.

The Machame route is best done in 7 days, as typically on the 6 day route, you are trying to compress 2 days into one, skipping Karanga Camp. Don’t get me wrong – I have seen people successfully summit by skipping Karanga camp, but from everyone I have spoke with, more often than not, they turn back, get sick, exhausted.

Take into account the following scenario of a six day climb:

The normal hike from Barranco Camp to Karanga Camp is give or take 6 to 7 hours. This is typically completed in on Day 4, as you are at about 15,000 ft/ 4000 meters. The hike from Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp is probably 5 hours on Day 5. This is typically completed in 1 day too, the day before you summit Kilimanjaro. If you skip Karanga Camp, your day hike would most likely be around 10 to 12 hours – (Day 4 + Day 5).

Now most people can hike 12 hours, but what make it extra difficult is that these compressed two days are the night before your summit. That means, you have to get up at midnight after your 12 hour hike (when you arrived at camp at 6:00 p.m.), hike for another 6 hours to the summit, and then descend another 6 to 8 hours down to Mweka Camp. If you take all this into account, doing the Machame in 6 days, you would have a hike, in under 2 days of 12 hours + 6 hours, + another 6 hours, basically 24 hour of solid hiking, with probably about 3 hours of solid sleep. Smart?

It is my opinion that if a company is selling you a 6 day Machame climb, they do not have your best interests in mind, which should be getting to the summit. If you are serious about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and want to actually summit, do it with your best interests in mind – take an extra day.

Read
Kilimanjaro Climber Dies

Read the Rongai route story.

Travel insurance is pretty cheap normally – and the extra $50 you spend, is well worth the safety and security to know that you are covered. One thing about most travel insurance is that you end up covering any medical costs you incur, and then you are reimbursed by the insurance agency. I know that may seem ridiculous, but how can a insurance company work with different hospitals all over the world. You manage the process, and then are reimbursed.

BootsnAll Travel Network has a wide range of travel insurance that you can review.

I think it’s best to read of this type of experience before you travel half way around the world. It’s really tough – and could be tougher than you imagined.

Quote from Madduck blog:
“Suffering from low blood pressure and weak circulation, no amounts of water or sugar could counter the increasing headache, and the feeling of dizziness that would chase every slip, every misstep, and every unexpected stone on the way. At the same time, the temperature, estimated between -15 and -20 degrees Celsius was finding its way to my toes, despite the two pairs of socks I wore.”

I would require this as mandatory reading before going up on the mountain.

Read CNN Story

The thing about this, and the recent story on Mt. Hood in Oregon – my home state – is that all these climbers were NOT novices. They were somewhat experts, or people who had considerable experience on mountains. Boskoff had climbed mountains around the world, including Everest, and the three guys on Mt. Hood had been climbing for more than 20 years and were training for Everest. All of these people, I assume, died because of the power of the mountains. Regardless of how much experience you have as an adventurer, there is always the chance that something could happen to you. And sometimes I think we forget this, even if you are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Here is how it works. The guide usually pays for the least amount of day possible before the climb begins. If it’s a planned eight-day Lemosho or Machame route, the guide will pay for seven days. If the clients spend the entire eight days on the mountain, the guide will pay the difference at the exiting gate.

If, however, the clients decide to come down the mountain early since they are tired, hungry, or whatever, most do not know that the guide didn’t pay the park fees for the last day. Normally this isn’t an issues. However, if you finish your summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and spend your day hiking to Mweka Camp, sometimes people push on another 3 hours, and finish at the Mweka Camp gate, one day early. You should get the park fees back. Most people don’t know this.

The thing is you need to see how many days your guide paid for at the beginning of the trip. If you know this during sign-in, then you can see if he manipulates this or not.

Again, this is an age old scam and a majority of the guides pay this in full, in good faith.