At 19,340 feet, Mt. Kilimanjaro is Africa's biggest mountain and the highest free standing in the world. Climbing Kilimanjaro is more of a week long hike than a mountain climb. There are several different routes to choose from and since few are technical no previous experience is required. Kilimanjaro was my first experience on a large mountain, and what I found most exciting was watching the terrain change from rainforest to grassland to alpine desert as we ascended. The two most popular routes to the summit of Kilimanjaro are the Marangu and the Machame route. I choose the Machame route because it is said to be more challenging and the hike itself is more scenic.

Kilimanjaro Links
	The climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro will begin in muddy rainforest, eventually leaving it to reach a grassy area. During my safaris in Africa before I came to the mountain I saw nothing but clear skies and dry plains. Once on Kilimanjaro, the rain was unstoppable and seemed to go on all day and night.
	On the left is one of the first views of the Kilimanjaro glacier early in the climb. On the right is one of our campsites which was in a small cave. This was the perfect shelter since I had the non stop rainstorms. Each day I'd get soaking wet and have to dry all my gear by the fire at night. The smoky smell stayed on my gear for almost a year after, no matter how many times I washed it. On the upper right is me standing in front on the camp, way back in 1999!
	The next zone is an area that is very rocky and is also home to the giant Senecio plants. You can see some smaller ones on the left, but some of these plants can grow close to 25 feet in height. The taller ones are pretty much a big trunk with no branches on it similar to a palm tree. As we continued higher in the climb we reached the alpine desert. To the right you can see that this part of the mountain is lifeless; nothing but rocks with some fog rolling in.
	Eventually we got high enough in the climb that it was always freezing so the rain turned to snow and I was no longer fighting to stay dry. While I was climbing on the summit day and close to the top, I looked over to my left and I saw a huge block of ice. Since this was one of my first adventures and I was only 18, I said whoa, what is that! My guide explained to me it was the Arrow glacier, and we would be approaching it soon. I stopped to take a picture and you can see it on the upper right, with the Arrow glacier in the background. Unfortunately these two pictures may be something of the past. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1999, but other people that I've talked to who went recently told me they saw almost no snow, even at the very top. Some scientists blame this on global warming and say that it's possible for Mt. Kilimanjaro to have its glaciers melt and to be snow free in the next decade or two.
	On the left is a picture of the sun rising as I stand between two layers of clouds almost at the summit. I reached the top early in the morning on November 27th 1999, climbing one of the seven summits of the world!

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Mt. Kilimanjaro Climb

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