Machame Route

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Kilimanjaro
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Machame Route

Page Type:	Route
Lat/Lon:	3.0667°S / 37.35000°E
Route Type:	Muddy trail, then hike, then scree/snow slope depe
Time Required:	A few days
Difficulty:	Walk-up
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Approach

From Kilimanjaro airport, go spend the night in one of the nearest towns Arusha or Moshi. Although farther, Arusha has more facilities.
The next day, take a taxi to the Machame Gate of the Kilimanjaro National Park (or your guide, guide and porters being compulsory on Kili, will simply take you there).

Route Description

. First day: hike through VERY muddy trail to Machame Camp (alt 2.980 m. dist. 18 km). Dense jungle .
. Second day: hike through a nice landscape of small bushes to Shira Camp (alt 3.840 m, dist. 9 km)
. Third day: from then on, the landscape becomes very lunar. Hike to Barranco Camp (alt. 3950 m). Alternative route through Lava Tower (alt 4.630 m) and back down to Barranco.
. Fourth day: the day starts with the climbing of the Great Barranco Wall, the only portion of the trip where you will have to "get your hands out of your pockets", although it is nothing a 10 year-old could not do. It nicely breaks the monotony. Then hike to Barafu Camp (alt 4.550 m, 7 hours)
. Fifth day: Depart around 1 am, hike up kibo through Stella point around sunrise, then to Uhuru Peak (alt. 5.986 m) one or two hours later. Then back down to Barafu or more likely to Mweka Camp (alt. 3.100 m !).
. Sixth day: out of the Park through Mweka route. Don't forget your diploma delivered at the gate. ;-)

Essential Gear

Nothing much, since it is not a technical climb. Even crampons are not necessary, just some warm clothing for summit day.
Since porters carry everything, you should bring a small day pack for some stuff you might need during the day hike.
Also: two ski poles might be a good idea: I was slipping and skiding in the mud when I saw some guys gliding past me using ski poles for balance.

Miscellaneous Info

If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.

Additions and CorrectionsPost an Addition or Correction

Viewing: 1-7 of 7

Marcel van der Wal - Jun 3, 2002 8:37 am - Hasn't voted

Route Comment

I would suggest to bring a warm sleepingbag for you'll be sleeping in tents and the nights, even in summer, can get very cold. Also bring a sleepingmat for some of our team rented ones got extremly wet during the day and they had to sleep on a wet mat and hence a wet bag for a couple of nights.
We also had a waterpurifier, on the way up to Barafu you will pass a river which is the last waterpoint. The guides will take water then for cooking only, we filled up all our bottles there. Maybe the water didn't have to be purified but we didn't want to take any chances..

John - Jun 3, 2002 9:26 am - Hasn't voted

Route Comment

on the way up to Barafu you will pass a river which is the last waterpoint. The guides will take water then for cooking only

This depends on the tour operator you use. My group used the Marangu Hotel and spent 2 days beyond the water supply (Karanga Valley), one at Barafu Hut and another at Barafu High Camp. Both days our guides/porters had drinking water for us. I'm not saying this is an ideal situation as I don't mind carrying more myself, but it's the service that was provided. However, they didn't have extra water for the hike back down to Rau Camp after the summit hike. Luckily some of us had extra :-)

Marcel: Who did you use for your tour operator/guide service?

Marcel van der Wal - Jun 4, 2002 1:50 am - Hasn't voted

Route Comment

Hi John, the operator we used was 'worldtours' based in Arusha, you can get in touch with them at: infoworldtours@habari.co.tz
In fact we carried all our water ourselves (except my father, but then he is 66 years old), as you are suppose to drink a liter per thousand meters each of us carried around 6 litres of water on the last day. And no porters go up to the summit with you.

eza - Dec 5, 2002 5:29 am - Voted 9/10

Route Comment

If windy, it can be extremely cold during the summit attack. Be absolutely sure to have warm clothes and gloves. Gore-tex or similar are best. We suffered such a situation, and it was cold enough (in the beginning of september) to stop our headlamps working.

miztflip - Feb 13, 2004 9:20 am - Hasn't voted

Route Comment

The park service and guides have constructed an excellent trail from the Machame Gate to Machame Hut between Sept. and Jan. This new trail is a very smooth bed of gravel that is raised about 8 inches with water runoff ditches to either side. Even in the rain it remained dry and pleasent.

Rockhopper - Apr 2, 2004 8:47 am - Hasn't voted

Route Comment

There is a nice path all the way up to Machame Camp (since about a year, but I'm not sure about that). We just returned from Tanzania. And although we had rain on the first day (Machame Gate to Machame Camp) we didn't have to struggle through mud anymore. At several points we saw parts of the 'old muddy trail'.