Kilimanjaro Gear
Let’s talk equipment for a bit. I was outfitted almost head to toe by REI and everything worked great. Rain gear is essential and my rain pants, rain shell, and pack cover all worked great. My rain pants were old style, just like pants with zippers at the bottom, but they actually seemed to work better than the totally open (basketball warm up style) zipper/Velcro system on other people’s newer pants. The newer pants did offer more flexibility, but it was also a pain for people to get everything facing the right direction & all buttoned up for a tight seal. I think the pants would have been better if they were well defined (i.e. sewn) from waist to 5 inches below the crotch & all the way down the inseam. Then just have the outside seam of the pants open with sealing up via Velcro. It is important for the rain pants to offer plenty of room for layers underneath.
I had new gaiters (my old ones broke on a training hike) & the new Velcro up the front (vs. zipper in back) makes getting them on and off a breeze. I’m not sure if the gaiters were really needed every day, but they certainly were down low & then through the scree near the top of the mountain. I wore my 5 year old Asolo boots with Gore-Tex uppers and they worked great… no foot or toe problems at all (even on the long descent day), and my feet stayed nice and dry despite the heavy rain and deep mud.
For my legs I had my normal medium weight long underwear, expedition weight long underwear, and fleece pants. I also had some regular cargo hiking pants, but I stopped wearing them after 2 days and just used my rain pants as the constant outer layer for my legs.
For my upper body I had my normal medium weight long underwear, expedition weight long underwear, dry fit long sleeve shirts, medium weight pullover fleece sweater, and a heavy weight fleece top with my rain shell on top. This was plenty of warmth and the layering approach worked very well and I would recommend it over a heavy jacket.
The very slow pace definitely means you don’t generate as much body heat as I’m used to on my normal outings. Compared to what I wear for a snow shoe outing back home to what I wore up high on Kilimanjaro (similar temperature range)… I needed more layers on Kilimanjaro. I wore heavier gloves and more layers on top and bottom than I ever wear back home.
For my hands, up top I was wearing my heavy ski mittens. Lower down a light liner glove was not quite enough, but with a wind shell over the top my hands stayed warm… keeping them dry probably made a big difference as well. Trekking poles are a definite must. During the first two days it is a real challenge just to stay vertical in the slippery mud, without poles I would have fallen down several times, and there were spots where I’m not sure I could have gotten up the hill without being able to use the poles and my upper body as points of force. Later on the poles were helpful for balancing in particular when I hiking in the dark with just my headlight. Of course on the two descent days I was using the poles like crazy to lighten the impact on my knees and quads.
On my head I wore my “helmet hat” (the full head fleece liner that I wear under my downhill ski helmet) on cold days, with my wide brimmed sun hat and then the hood on my rain shell. In the rain, I kept my sun hat on with the hood pulled over the top because the big brim of the sun hat really helped keep the rain off my glasses which made hiking more enjoyable.
I had an REI “Kili” down sleeping bag & it kept me very warm and toasty. I was a bit worried with all the condensation inside the tent that dripped onto the bag, but just wiping the bag off in the morning seemed to prevent any serious absorption of water.
I am pretty well outfitted for three season hiking plus snow shoeing and downhill skiing. The only extras I needed to purchase for this climb were the sleeping bag (my old one was due for replacement, but normally I would not have purchased such a warm bag) and the expedition weight long underwear. Both of these were important items on the climb, but there was nothing else that I needed.
For water, I carried 3 one liter camelback bottles with bite valves. I hung one bottle off a carbineer on my waist belt and put the other 2 in pouches in my backpack. I did not bring my camelback bladder. By drinking from the bottle hanging from my waist belt it was almost as convenient as the bladder. I went with the bottles out of concern for the bite valve and tube to the bladder freezing. If they froze, I was concerned that I would really be hurting for fluids. Whereas with the bottles, if the bite valve freezes you can always unscrew the top & just drink the water like a normal bottle. Some of my fellow hikers had bladders and they seemed to work OK. Veronica taught them to blow into the bite valve after drinking to clear the water out of the valve and the tube so there was nothing in there to freeze. Seemed to work.
I used 2 old one liter Nalgene bottles as my pee bottles for use in the tent at night. I was peeing a liter and a half at night, so I needed this much capacity. I had stopped using the bottles for water some time earlier because they had PBA plastic… so this was a good use. However a 2 liter bottle would be even better because I still had to switch bottles in the middle of the night & it kept you guessing regarding how much more you could pee without overflowing the bottle.
Dirt doesn’t bother me, but my hands were gross by the end of the trip. I think I would recommend bringing a small little scrub brush to use with soap & water to scrub the grime off your hands 7 fingernails. I found the “body wipes” to be very useful. It worked well for me to have all my meds in a single ziplock bag… quick access. I carried a bottle of Tylenol in my backpack in case I needed relief on the trail.
Follow this link to see photos of the trip.