trekking at mounting kenya

While Mount Kenya is technically an easy climb (and back in the day, you didn't need a guide), it is not an easy trek. Once you pass 14,000 feet (sorry I don't know meters-- just say the last 1,000 meters of vertical) the climb becomes quite ardous and your body will feel it. 4 days up and down is the norm, but it doesn't give you a chance to acclimatize or enjoy the mountain.

Good luck. It was one of the highlights of my trip.

Carmen,
I highly recommend you to contact www.mtnmadness.org<BR>They runs fantastic trips in all E.Africa mountains.

For sure they must be having some groups you can join.
All the best

AVOID www.mntmadness.org by all means. They have several handles on this board, faking they are tourists.

Carmen,

I'm living in Nairobi at the moment and leaving in September, so am trying to get off my arse to plan a trip up Mt Kenya at the end of August. There are heaps of different routes to take up the mountain, and myriad different levels of luxury. We are going to source out a cheap guide from among a few recommendations, hire a cook, and hire enough porters to carry tents etc, although you could always get extra porters to carry the bulk of your gear for you. We want to go up Shirimon and then come down Chogoria, spending an extra night on the route on the way down so that we can just relax and spend an afternoon looking around the stunning slopes rather than powering all the way to the peak and back down in a day. The standard hike is to spend three days actually on the mountain - two days to get just below the peak, then a day summiting and coming back. Shirimon is supposed to be one of the easier routes, whereas chogoria is extremely beautiful but extremely hard, so I've heard (hence coming down it, rather than going up it). So in total with an extra day to enjoy chogoria on the way down we would probably be at the mountain for four nights if you factor in a night in Nanyuki (at the base of the mountain) before starting...

We are just a few people at the moment so are looking for some others to join the group. Let me know if you are interested in joining us...

The guide we are thinking of taking up can provide tents etc so there should be no problems from an equipment point of view, just that August isn't great weather for the climb so it will be cold, maybe a bit wet.

Cheers.

To: Luxuryshuttle - It is forbidden to promote businesses on this forum. it is for non-commercial use only. Any further posts will be reported to the Moderator

To carmen & hewanilazima,

I'm in a similar boat - leaving Kenya in Sept and trying to get up that mountain. I'm alone and am restricted to dates between Aug 30th to 8th Sept for the climb. Sirimion and Chorgonia are my preferred routes also.
Carmen I have kind of crashed your post coz I'm interested in hearing from hewanilazima...

Now I'm going to write my own, but I wish you an enjoyable and (not too) challenging climb.

Mary

Sorry to be annoying but the summit of Mt Kenya is a very technical climb, The Point Lenana part of Mt Kenya is a challenging trek and one of the best I have ever done. I organized the trip out of Nairobi with East African shuttles? Not even sure if they still exist. I much preferred the area around Mt Kenya than Mt Kiliminjaro.