Kilimangaro in March~Gear help

[jbealer]

My wife and I are in Moshi right now, leaving for the Machame route tomorrow. We will let you know how it goes!

i can't wait to hear from you!

thank you to everyone who has responded so far.
one thing not mentioned was food. what did you pack to eat between meals, somewhere i read to have like 20 some "bars" with you for the 8days. i have some funsized candies packed to share with everyone, plan on energy chews, powders for water, cliff, pro meal and kind bars, maybe even some trail mix.
trying to see if someone will lend me a steripen for the trip
looking into a down jacket for hubby, with a hood and under $200

looks like we can get our visa on line so going to do that soon.

need to set up apt with doc about shots and pills
got my hep A, said i was good for hep B
diphtheria/tetanus/polio-think im good on
need: (sound right?)
yellow fever
diamox
typhoid
malaria
cholera?
rabies?

this is starting to feel real!!! Took husband up Sherman on Sat and he did great, need to work on his mental game for this trek.

[matt pierce]

Do you really want to make porters cleanup up your potty every day? I think this is kind of rude. Just go squat in the outhouses, it isn't that big of a deal.

Be careful what ppl are telling you, it gets very cold at altitude and it sounds like you are more prone that others. To me, summit night is the most important night to get that last few hours of sleep. If you're freezing it's gonna be a long slog to the top.

If you take candy for the porters, take a bag of something like Jolly Ranchers and do NOT give the whole bag to one person and ask them to pass them out - they will horde every last one. Pass them around yourself.

You don't need a rabies shot and no bug spray is needed.

[matt pierce]

Which company are you using? If your a conscious climber keep this in mind - many of the companies overload their porters. By law (so to speak) they are supposed to be limited to a certain load limit. Many companies often go way beyond this. On my second trip (self supported) I insisted on more porters than needed because I think to hire a porter was something like $12/day. Plus a tip of course. Just my random rant here - I'm just saying please keep this in mind and hold the company accountable.

Oh and one more idea - the porters and guides there have an extremely difficult time getting gear. If you can take anything extra to donate, do it. Last time I left a closed foam pad, a tent (I got plenty of use out of it), socks and some other things. It didn't cost me much and was invaluable to them!

[aiyers]

Food was not a problem at all. I actually may have gained weight on this hike than any other.
Everyone except for one chose to have vegetarian meals. They provided plenty of food and snacks for us including popcorn. We got tired of eating.
I took a bunch of cliff bars but I ate only a couple. I did use Stinger energy gels on the summit day.
I also took some Nunn tablets for flavor but really did not use them much.

You can get the Visa at the airport. That's what we did and did not bother sending passports by mail and fear of losing it.

Down jacket: I recommend MyTrail (formerly GoLite) in Boulder. It has kept me warm on several high alt hikes.

We did not take any special shots for the trip. Don't worry about malaria as we saw just 3 mosquitoes on the entire trip including safari time. The hotels had nets over the beds.
Diamox is good to have.

[douglas]

My saving grace was Ambien - especially on the night before summit. I don't sleep well at all in tents and it gave me a good solid 5+ hours of sleep. I also used diamox - whether it helped or not is hard to know - I've never had problems with altitude.

[jbealer]

Matt,
We worked really long and hard to pick our guide company, Ahsante Tours, they are members of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, and have great reviews, a friend had used them as well. We do have plans on leaving extra gear, i have started that pile already.

Douglas,
i also can not sleep in tents/woods. i have done many summits while being awake for over 24hrs when i camp the night before summits, no idea what my issue is. even for my Rainier trip i was awake for both nights, summit day was tough in a storm and being awake for 2 days. i think next time i will try it in a 2 day push, not 3. this lack of sleeping has been in the back of my mind for this trip, im hoping i get so tired i truly do sleep. i have friends that have taking sleeping aids on the mountain and claim they are in a fog for the summit push because they could not sleep long enough.

[polar]

i have friends that have taking sleeping aids on the mountain and claim they are in a fog for the summit push because they could not sleep long enough.

Have you tried melatonin? I've used melatonin before when I had trouble sleeping. On the occasion when I had to wake up early after taking melatonin, initially I’d feel pretty tired and sleepy, but the effect would wear off pretty quickly and my day would end up being pretty normal. I never felt like I was in a fog. Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced in our bodies, so maybe it’s easier for our body to tolerate than other sleep aids.

[matt pierce]

Matt,
We worked really long and hard to pick our guide company, Ahsante Tours, they are members of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, and have great reviews, a friend had used them as well. We do have plans on leaving extra gear, i have started that pile already.

Sounds good

[jbealer]

Have you tried melatonin? I've used melatonin before when I had trouble sleeping. On the occasion when I had to wake up early after taking melatonin, initially I’d feel pretty tired and sleepy, but the effect would wear off pretty quickly and my day would end up being pretty normal. I never felt like I was in a fog. Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced in our bodies, so maybe it’s easier for our body to tolerate than other sleep aids.

I have with no help. i take ZMA's now but have also been trying some CBD oil, wondering if i can pack that...

[emcee smith]

I don't recall sleeping too much/well on the Kili trip until the night after summit day. It seemed to me that the first two nights were warm and humid and was hard for me to get cool enough, then you get up high and I struggled with sleeping at altitude. Our guides understood this and said as much as possible just lie still and comfortable and not worry too much about it. Rest is rest if not sleep.

As mentioned before, you don't really do that much walking each day (Machame Route). You should have plenty of opportunities for cat naps in the afternoon and at breaks/lunch.

I do remember sleeping poorly, but I don't remember feeling overly tired, even on summit night.

[douglas]

Matt,
We worked really long and hard to pick our guide company, Ahsante Tours, they are members of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, and have great reviews, a friend had used them as well. We do have plans on leaving extra gear, i have started that pile already.

Douglas,
i also can not sleep in tents/woods. i have done many summits while being awake for over 24hrs when i camp the night before summits, no idea what my issue is. even for my Rainier trip i was awake for both nights, summit day was tough in a storm and being awake for 2 days. i think next time i will try it in a 2 day push, not 3. this lack of sleeping has been in the back of my mind for this trip, im hoping i get so tired i truly do sleep. i have friends that have taking sleeping aids on the mountain and claim they are in a fog for the summit push because they could not sleep long enough.

That's the advantage of Ambien - most people wake up just fine alert without any brain fog. For me a solid 5 hours was better than a restless 7 hours. Summit eve we went to bed at 7 and got up at midnight to start hiking. I don't think there's any way I would have slept more than a few minutes without pharmacological assistance. That camp is CROWDED and bustling. But that's me - everyone is different. Also you need a prescription for Ambien.

[sue personett]

I went with Zara Tours. There were four of us with 2 guides, 12 porter and a cook. The food was excellent and there was plenty. Tents and sleeping pads were comfortable. We had a mess tent with table and chairs set up for breakfast and supper. Lunch was on the trail unless we reached camp early then it was in the mess tent. They took good care of us! The entire trip was a walk in the park. All of us carried snacks in our daypacks but we ate so much at mealtime that I never felt tired or hungry. I didn't use Diamox but the other three hikers used it. They lived at much lower altitudes. Two were from sea level. I did a 7 day Machame hike because I was concerned about my lungs, I have had pneumonia 4 times in my life and my last bout was viral pneumonia that lasted 5 months. That was only 2.5 years before my Kili hike and I wasn't sure how I would respond to 19341 feet since I hadn't been that high. I took the longer hike to assure that I would acclimate. I was the oldest one in our group at 63.5 years old. I was thrilled to discover that I didn't have any problems and very happy that everyone in our group reached the summit. I have only one suggestion to make......if your tour company offers a portable toilet for a reasonable price, get one. The outhouses on Kili were filthy. We heard that some hikers got sick just from the disgusting toilets. I wish that our group had rented one. I didn't find out about renting one until it was too late. If you don't rent one always be sure to carry and use a hand sanitizer. Make the hand sanitizer your friend. Otherwise enjoy the journey. It was so much fun!!!
Namaste
Sue