5 Days Mount Kilimanjaro Marangu Route: The Classic Hut Climb

After breakfast and the briefing you drive to the Kilimanjaro National Park gate, roughly an hour and three quarters, register and start climbing. The walk goes up through rainforest to Mandara Hut. A side trip to Maundi Crater is worth the extra half hour and opens up views across northern Tanzania into Kenya. In the forest watch for towering trees, heavy birdlife and colobus monkeys.

Elevation: 1,700m to 2,740m
Distance: 7 to 8 km
Walking time: 4 to 5 hours
Habitat: Montane forest

From Mandara the trail runs through a short stretch of forest, skirts the base of Maundi Crater and comes out into the transition from rainforest to moorland. A short scramble up the crater rim gives you the first real view of Kibo, which on a clear day shows its glaciers in the morning sun. Once you are in open moorland you start seeing Kilimanjaro’s strangest plants: the endemic giant lobelia, which reaches 3m, and the giant groundsel, Senecio kilimanjari, which can reach 5m. Roughly six hours of walking brings you to Horombo Hut for dinner and overnight.

Elevation: 2,700m to 3,700m
Distance: 11 km
Walking time: 6 to 8 hours
Habitat: Moorland

After breakfast the climb continues into alpine desert. Two trails run from Horombo to the Saddle, the ground between Mawenzi and Kibo: an upper route on the right fork and a lower one on the left. The upper should feel familiar, as you will have covered most of it on yesterday’s acclimatisation walk towards Mawenzi Hut. This section is stony and badly eroded. Kibo Hut sits out in bare alpine desert, a stone block house with bunks for sixty climbers and no water nearby, though drinking water and soft drinks can be bought at the camp office. The summit is another 1,195m above you and you set off for it tonight, so get your equipment ready before dark.

Elevation: 3,700m to 4,700m
Distance: 9 to 10 km
Walking time: 6 to 7 hours
Habitat: Alpine desert

You wake around 23:30 for tea and biscuits and set off. The first section is a rocky path up to Hans Meyer Cave at 5,150m, a good place to rest. From there the path zigzags to Gillman’s Point at 5,681m on the crater rim, and this is the hardest part of the whole route: very steep, deep stone scree, and as much mental work as physical. Walk slowly. From Gillman’s you will usually have snow underfoot the whole way round to Uhuru Peak at 5,895m, the highest point in Africa. It is about three hours back down to Kibo Hut for breakfast and a short rest, then a further three hours down to Horombo for the night.

Elevation: 4,700m to 5,895m to 3,700m
Distance: 4 km up, 14 km down
Walking time: 7 to 8 hours to Uhuru Peak, 6 to 8 hours down to Horombo
Habitat: Stone scree and ice-capped summit

After breakfast you pack and walk out, around six hours, passing Mandara Hut and continuing down to Marangu Gate where you sign for your certificate. Green certificates go to climbers who reached Gillman’s Point at 5,681m and gold to those who stood on Uhuru Peak at 5,895m. You are collected from Marangu village and driven back to Arusha for the night.

Hiking time: 6 hours
Distance: approximately 19.7 km