Photo: another Lemosho Glades

Here's another photo of the hike through Lemosho Glades. The trees are quite beautiful: they are massive and draped with lichens. It would be nice to hang out in this biological zone for a while, as the glades feature a great variety of bird life and interesting vegetation. Unfortunately, as climbers we're terribly goal-oriented and can't wait to get above the glades to the next camp!

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Photo: Shira 1 Camp

Above: Shira 1 Camp, in the middle of the Shira Plateau. Night 2, Lemosho Glades Route.

Shira is one of the of the three peaks of Kilimanjaro. It is an ancient caldera, like Crater Lake, but the depression of the caldera was filled with new flows from the eruption of Kibo, the highest peak in the Kilimanjaro massif. Thus, the Shira Plateau is a gently sloped plane surrounded by a low ring of mountains.

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Final Push to the Summit

Above: climbers hike up the final section of scree on the Western Breach route (now closed). The Furtwangler Glacier is behind them.

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Lemosho Glades/"Big Tree" Camp

Above: Trekking through Lemosho Glades on the start of Day 2, Kilimanjaro Climb.

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Above: Lemosho Glades Camp

These are a few images from Lemosho Glades camp, one of the approaches to the Shira Plateau on the western side of Kilimanjaro. The camp is beautiful although people sometimes complain about the dusty ground (muddy when wet). However, on Kilimanjaro if it's not dusty, it's rocky, so you have to pick your poison!

Above: Dinner in Lemosho Glades

Dinners are hearty, frequently feature large portions of starch (pasta or potatoes), and are nothing special until you consider that everything you're eating and eating with was carried here by porters. Then you start to appreciate this dining atmosphere!

Photo: Porters

The most undersung staff of Kilimanjaro climbs (compared with the guides and the cooks), the porters are essential to climbers' success on the mountain. Porters work extremely hard carrying all of your things up the mountain and work for incredibly low wages by Western standards. It's a comment on how poor much of Tanzania is that these men work as hard as they do for such low wages--about $8 per day.

Above: porters are dividing the group's gear, including the climbers' overnight bags, for the hike to the first night's camp. The porters carry around 10 to 20 pounds on their backs and another 50 pounds balanced on their heads or sometimes over their neck and shoulders.

On one trip, I advised clients to bring bags that had shoulder straps so the porters could carry the bags more easily on their backs. Instead, porters tied the bags to other items and put the entire load on their heads!


Above: A porter heads up through the forest to the Lemosho Glades camp. The porter's personal items are in the small pack on his back--the remainder is group gear.

Photo: Colobus Monkey

This is a black and white colobus monkey. They live in trees on Kilimanjaro's lower slopes and can occasionally be spotted, especially making spectacular leaps from tree to tree.

The colobus can be hard to spot because of heavy traffic by porters and trekkers. They are very shy and will move away from the trail if they hear anyone coming.

We spotted this one on a late afternoon hike out of Lemosho Glades. No one was using the trail, which made it a great time to observe some of the plants, birds, and wildlife.

For more information on the colobus, check out:
http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/colobusmonkey