Tracking your Friends and Family as They Climb Kilimanjaro
The vast majority of our climbers have loved ones back home who are concerned about their safety and happiness while away in Africa. For family and friends of a climber it can be worrying to imagine them struggling against altitude, the elements, and objective risks associated with climbing a mountain, and to have no information or updates about how they are faring. It is with these concerns in mind that we have developed a system of live-time reporting - complete with photos - sent directly from the mountain.
To track your friend or loved one's progress on Kilimanjaro, please WhatsApp their name to us and request the link to their reports page.
Choosing to Climb with Team Kilimanjaro
We understand that a very significant factor in the decision of many adventurers to climb Kilimanjaro with us is that we control everything directly ourselves, not relying on any middlemen or local tour operators to dilute the integrity of sometimes very sensitive and specific information as it passes down through the chain of command.
Consequently, our climbers expect near-perfect communication between management and our staff on the ground on Kilimanjaro, and swift and ready access to information pertaining to all aspects to their booking.
While we believe that the nature of Team Kilimanjaroβs operational structure affords us a very great advantage in this sense, we would however, like to caution climbers that they should please understand the limitations of the hardware that we use on Kilimanjaro, and - more significantly - the limitations of the cellular network provider to supply consistent signal across the mountain.
With such concerns in mind, we would suggest that while climbers may rightly expect TK to enjoy the highest standards of communication realistically available, we regret that such are the objective limitations that lie outside our control, that climbers should certainly not base their decision to climb with us on the assumption that we will unfailingly be capable of providing photographs of their climb sent in live-time direct from the mountain on every day of their climb.
Limitations of Data Availability on Cellular Networks on Kilimanjaro
Indeed, prospective climbers should please appreciate that while we have a very transparent blog site that ought to provide clear evidence of what our teams are able to achieve in terms of live reporting from the mountain from Kilimanjaro, nonetheless, the following factors may disappoint climbers that expect faultless and comprehensive photo reports:
- There are several areas on the mountain which enjoy cellular coverage for voice calls but which lack adequate data packet saturation, necessary to send images of an average size of 50KB from Kilimanjaro. This means that on certain days on certain routes (particularly days 1 and 2 on TK Lemosho), it is entirely impossible to provide live photo reports.
- Even in zones where we ordinarily enjoy adequate voice and data signal coverage, from time to time we encounter periods of as long as three consecutive days, in which cellular coverage is simply absent. We understand this to be attributable either to maintenance, system upgrades, hardware failure or damage, or power supply issues.
- From time to time our guides may commit human errors, such as allowing their phone to become damaged or wet. Where such (rare) events occur, our guides will usually use the phone of one of their fellow team members to send SMS reports or will attempt to liaise with other iPhone-equipped TK groups on the mountain. This is often not possible, however
In short, we would ask climbers to please appreciate the fact that we aim to achieve an ongoing high standard of communication and reporting amongst our teams, and we believe that the service we provide in this regard is second to none that is elsewhere available.
That said, we ask climbers to understand that the provision of such services is not to be understood to be an βinclusiveβ component of the service we provide or in any way a contractual obligation on our parts.
We hope therefore that friends and family will enjoy tracking their loved ones on Kilimanjaro, but assert unequivocally, that this facility should not be depended on and that this service should be expected to be intermittent and subject to many uncontrollable limitations, including those already described.
Many people spend a lot of time and money training and equipping themselves for a Kilimanjaro climb, only to fail in their objective of reaching the summit. Failure is avoidable and we really want trekkers to understand how to prevent it.
As from March 2021, PCR testing (or rather, sample-taking) is now available at Seronera and Ndutu airstrips in the Serengeti. This facility has been implemented to prevent clients having to either curtail their safaris or dissect their safaris with a journey to Arusha or, more recently, Karatu (FAME Hospital), mid-safari - so as to satisfy the "less than 72 hours old" validity rule that most airlines are required to enforce.
Arusha Pedal Series club aims to organise a group ride three times a week - on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, and Saturdays. All keen cyclists are welcome to join.
We read widely divergent estimates of deaths on Kilimanjaro, but how dangerous is it really? In this post we share our own experience of the dangers.
First of all - you can definitely still climb Kilimanjaro during COVID-19! There is absolutely no impediment within Tanzania. Issues only potentially arise with your own country's rules.
Although there is no requirement to have a PCR test for COVID in order to enter Tanzania, many climbers are nonetheless required by their airline to show evidence of a negative COVID test before boarding the flight home.
This following information is provided to reassure prospective climbers that there is a straightforward way to enjoy the incredible tourism and adventurous opportunities that Tanzania offers, while ensuring that returning home afterwards is stress-free.
Kilimanjaroβs Western Breach is a beautiful and breathtaking place but represents the most risk-associated assault route to Kilimanjaroβs summit, of the four options currently sanctioned by Tanzania National Parks.
I think the question of how much it costs to climb Kilimanjaro is a little like asking, how much it costs to buy 'a car'! Apart from the obvious question of how many people you want the car to carry and whether you want it to have offroad capability, there are more subtle considerations.
Kilimanjaro has been climbed from the park gates to the summit in a little over just 5 hours, and yet the Royal Geographical Society suggests that trekkers should not spend less than 10 days reaching the summit? So, how long does it usually take and what is safe?
While we've assisted people in their 70s, a 5 year old, amputees, and quadriplegics to the summit, and while in theory, pretty much everyone could climb Kilimanjaro, nonetheless, many people have told us that climbing Kilimajaro is the hardest thing they've ever done in their lives - and some of these people have been professional athletes (rugby players).
