Summit night climbing Kilimanjaro

There are three things that you need to do to give yourself the best chance of climbing Kilimanjaro to the summit successfully.

Get your temperature right

Conserving energy by ensuring that you always have the right body temperature will mean that your body is not working overtime to either cool down or heat up.

When you set off walking you need to be slightly cool, regularly climbers say “Be Bold, Start Cold” so just before you start to remove your down jacket or over the jacket. When you stop moving for your “maintenance stop” then immediately put on your down jacket or over the jacket to keep warm. This will help you conserve energy.

Eat and drink plenty

Ensure you have enough energy to the summit and descend by “feeding your climb “. You will be trekking for 13-15 hours on summit day and could easily consume burn over. 4000 calories during this time. We suggest that you bring with you a selection of things you like, and find easy, to eat such as candy bars, crisps, cookies, trail mix, fruits, nuts, energy bars, and hard sweets for summit day.

Use stops effectively

During your summit ascent, we will have “maintenance stops” not rest stops- you need to use this time effectively to make sure that you are ready for the next stage. Plan in advance what you need to do: adjust your clothing, have a loo visit, eat and drink and most importantly before you stop put on something warm to prevent heat loss.

Go slowly but not too slowly

Our guides will set a pace that they think is best for you and you should try and maintain this pace. Going too fast puts you at risk of altitude sickness, going too slow will mean your walking day becomes impossibly long. Just keep plodding and you will get there.