Planning the trip - the route, the timing and the tour operator

The first major decision you have to make is which route you want to take up the mountain because this will drive everything else. There are several different routes with very distinct characteristics.  The prevailing opinion is that the longer the hike, the more likely you will make it to the summit.  According to people smarter than me, the reason why is that when people have more time getting used to the high elevations, they are less likely to suffer from elevation sickness and can make it to the top of the mountain.  Below are the statistics that are floating around online about the success rate based on the length of the climb.

• 5 day routes 27%
• 6 day routes 44%
• 7 day routes 64%
• 8 day routes 85%

 So, here's the problem with this (no, I never take off my lawyer hat).  How do they know? How do they know that someone who did the 8 day climb successfully couldn't do the 6 day climb successfully? Plus, did the people who did the shorter climbs drink enough water? Take elevation sickness pills? Do something stupid like run? Yeah, I take these statistics with a grain of salt.  But, being a non hiker, we picked an 8 day route - the Lemosho route.  My lawyer brain saw some logic in the statistics and frankly, we really wanted to do everything we could to improve our chances of reaching the summit. (Yes, I did just argue both sides of that issue.... mad lawyer skills)

So, once we picked the route, we had to pick the time of year we wanted to go.  Mount Kilimanjaro has five major ecological zones including a rain forest. Temperatures don't fluctuate much, so there will be snow at the top and rain on our way up.  As I envision it, the fact that I can't shower for 8 days, have to sleep on the ground, pee standing up (more on that later) and deal with elevation sickness as a possibility, the last thing I wanted to deal with was rain so we picked a dry time to go. However, in light of my prior statements, I'm not sure it's going to make a difference....

Here's a link to a website with the weather information.  

https://us.worldweatheronline.com/moshi-weather-averages/kilimanjaro/tz.aspx

As you can see August has very little rain, so we thought that would be a great time to go. Plus, the with summer vacations, sometimes there is a little slow down in my work, which would make taking time off in August less burdensome for my clients and my colleagues who need to cover me. 

So, with August picked, we had to narrow down the tour operator.  To say that there are a lot of choices would be like saying there are a wide selection of paint colors.  You can go into town and hire guides to take you up or you can literally spend tens of thousands of dollars for tour operators that pull out all of the stops and have really high success rates.  I read all of the reviews on Tripadvisor,  blogs from people who had taken the trip and various websites online to try and track down the right operator for us. It was a little bit of information overload.  No, it was a lot. The good news was that the reviews included information about the actual climb, so even reading them gave me more information than just the tour companies. 

 Ultimately, I selected ClimbKili. First, the reviews made me feel good about the company. Second, they have local US representatives so it was easy to send an email or call them for information (and, by the way, they have been super helpful and responsive). Finally, they have a lifetime guarantee deposit, so if you have to cancel, the funds carry forward and you can do the trip another time.  

Once we sent our deposit, ClimbKili sent us a packet of information, which started the frenzy of purchasing that has consumed my life since the day we received it.  Everything I have shared in these initial posts is the same stuff you would find online after a quick search and probably not terribly compelling. However, I anticipate that my future posts will be more personal and, well, weird, as you get a glimpse into my head and how my prep for the climb has unfolded.