"Intending to challenge ourselves, we took the most direct and steepest route, Umbwe, with minimal porters (1 per two people), set up and dismantled camp ourselves, cooked our own meals and climbed within the mountain's winter season (Nov & Dec). We had roughly only 5 other teams on the mountain due to Covid travel complications, and had day 1, 2, summit day, and final decent day all to ourselves. We had food for 8 days but in the end only spent 6 days on the mountain, summiting on day 5. Our plan to acclimatize properly by spending more time at the highest camp (Barafu) was foiled as we learnt that one may only spend a single night at this camp unless being rescued. We therefor attempted the summit not sufficiently acclimatizes and exhausted from the heavy packs we were carrying ourselves. (Exhaustion results in oxygen depleted blood). We all incurred severe altitude sickness symptoms en-route, (vomiting, throbbing pain resistant headaches, loss of appetite, weakness, sleepiness), I hyperventilated on the summit and needed to descend rapidly, Wade developed HACE (symptom was onset of significant drunkenness) and had to be assisted down the mountain. We were happy to have ach..." — CraigBurnsStellenbosch • Dec 11, 2021

"6-day Machame route. Rained all of day 1 to Machame Camp, but dry each day after. Couple of windy days in the middle, but clear skies and low winds on summit day. Just an awesome 6 days, really loved being on the mountain." — jodola • Sep 14, 2019

"Speed climbed Kili on a short trip to Tanzania. We reached the summit through Umbwe route in 33hours (including an overnight at Baranco camp), Total time spent from start of ascent to exiting through Mweka was 48 hours 37 minutes." — shulmani • Dec 2, 2016

"Traveled with Alpine Ascents, with a group from Gainesville, Fl. We were summitting for Climb for Cancer, a group started by Ron Farb. The trip to seven days. This was a once in a lifetime amazing adventure." — jaycochran • Jan 30, 2016

"7 days, stunning walk, first really big summit and first time over 4000m. 10 friends met from around the world to undertake the adventure - 9 summited to the top and 1 just made the first summit. 1 summited to the very top but was carried off the mountain - he was determined but should have stopped earlier. The one that didn’t top summit recovered quickly and enjoyed rest of trip. Mild altitude sickness was experienced by most over the hike but overall pretty successful trek! Zanzibar after was well worth the reward! Beautiful Tanzania 🇹🇿 " — Chefinthecity • Sep 16, 2015