6 days · Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro — Umbwe Route, 6 Days
The steepest and most direct way up Kilimanjaro. Spectacular, very quiet, and unforgiving on acclimatisation. We only run it for trekkers with real high-altitude experience.
Is this trip for you?
Trip type
Private expedition
Your own guides, cook and porters, on your own dates. We do not merge you into someone else's group, which means the pace is set by your party and nobody else's summit night.
Ages
10 and over
Kilimanjaro National Park sets a minimum age of ten. Beyond that we go on how you answer our health questions rather than on your age, and we may ask for a doctor's note first.
Fitness
Good general fitness
No technical climbing and no ropes on any route we run. What it asks for is five to eight hours of walking a day for a week, and one very long night. Three months of hill walking beforehand is worth more than any gym programme.
Group size: Private party, with guides, a cook and porters sized to it
Day by day.
-
1
Umbwe Gate to Umbwe Cave Camp
About fifty minutes to Machame Gate for the formalities, then a short transfer through villages, coffee and banana plantations to Umbwe Gate at 1,800 m, where you meet the crew. The trail is steep and often slippery, up a forestry track through dense rainforest and then heather, tall grass and wildflowers, narrowing and steepening along the ridge between two rivers. Umbwe Cave Camp is perched among the trees at 2,950 m.
- Altitude
- Umbwe Gate 1,800 m → Umbwe Cave Camp 2,950 m
- Distance
- 9.4 km / 5.8 mi
- Walking
- 6 hours
- Habitat
- Steep rainforest ridge
- Meals
- Lunch and dinner
-
2
Umbwe Cave Camp to Barranco
The trail keeps to the ridge over rocky ground and moss-covered trees, flattening as it approaches the Barranco valley, then dropping to Barranco Camp at 3,960 m — the finest campsite on the route, ringed by giant senecio and lobelia.
- Altitude
- Umbwe Cave Camp 2,950 m → Barranco 3,960 m
- Distance
- 6 km / 3.7 mi
- Walking
- 6 hours
- Habitat
- Rocky ridge into the Barranco valley
- Meals
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
-
3
Barranco to Karanga
Down into the ravine at the foot of the Great Barranco Wall, then the hardest hour and a half of the day: a steep, non-technical climb where you will use your hands in places. Over a series of hills and valleys, sharply down into the green Karanga valley and one last climb to Karanga Camp at 3,963 m.
- Altitude
- Barranco 3,960 m → Karanga 3,963 m
- Distance
- 5.5 km / 3.4 mi
- Walking
- 5 hours
- Habitat
- Barranco Wall and alpine desert
- Meals
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
-
4
Karanga to Barafu
Across desolate scree with nothing growing on it to Barafu Camp at 4,640 m. Steep, and made harder by the altitude. Rest, an early dinner, and up again between 23:00 and midnight.
- Altitude
- Karanga 3,963 m → Barafu 4,640 m
- Distance
- 4 km / 2.5 mi
- Walking
- 4 hours
- Habitat
- Scree
- Meals
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
-
5
Summit day, then Mweka Camp
Away around midnight, four to five hours of scree to Stella Point at 5,739 m as the sun comes up, then an hour along the rim to Uhuru Peak at 5,895 m. Back to Barafu for breakfast and down to Mweka Camp at 3,100 m.
- Altitude
- Barafu 4,640 m → Uhuru Peak 5,895 m → Mweka Camp 3,100 m
- Distance
- 18 km / 11.2 mi
- Walking
- 13 to 15 hours
- Habitat
- Arctic summit zone, then moorland
- Meals
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
-
6
Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate
A gentle descent through the rainforest to Mweka Gate at 1,630 m, certificates, and the drive back to Moshi.
- Altitude
- Mweka Camp 3,100 m → Mweka Gate 1,630 m
- Distance
- 9.1 km / 5.7 mi
- Walking
- 3 hours
- Habitat
- Rainforest
- Meals
- Breakfast
Where you sleep.
On the mountain
Three-season mountain tents, sleeping mats, and a mess tent with a table and chairs. Three meals a day cooked on the mountain, and filtered water throughout. Marangu is the exception: it uses the park's huts throughout.
Before and after
Bed and breakfast in Moshi the night before the climb and the night you come down, with hot water, laundry and somewhere to leave the luggage you are not carrying up.
Upgrades
A portable flush toilet with its own tent is US$70 per toilet and tent for the climb, and is the upgrade most parties are glad they took. Single tents and a walk-in tent with a camp bed are available on request, as is an extra night in Moshi at either end, which most climbers who fly in the same day end up wishing they had booked. We also hire out clothing, mountain kit and sleeping bags - though we would rather you brought your own boots.
We book against availability for your dates rather than naming a property we may not be able to get you into. Your written quotation names every lodge and camp before you pay anything.
What is included
- Park fees and camping fees
- 18% VAT on tour fees and services
- Three-season mountain tents
- Transport to and from the mountain gate
- Professional mountain guides, a cook and porters
- Three meals a day on the mountain
- Filtered water throughout the trek
- Accommodation before and after the trek
- Fair wages for the mountain crew, at the rates set by Kilimanjaro National Park (KINAPA) and the Kilimanjaro Association of Tour Operators (KIATO)
- Private airport transfers both ways
Not included
- Flights
- Visa fees
- Travel insurance
- Sleeping bag
- Tips for the mountain crew
- Items of a personal nature
- Alcoholic and soft drinks
- Laundry services
- A doctor travelling with the group
- A portable flush toilet with its own tent, which is US$70 per toilet and tent
When to go.
January to mid-March — warm and clear
The warmest climbing window, with clear mornings and a good chance of snow on the summit cone. Busy, but less so than the northern-hemisphere summer.
June to October — cold, dry and busy
The most reliable weather of the year and the highest traffic on the mountain. Nights are the coldest, which is what a proper sleeping bag is for.
Late March to May, and November
The rainy months. We do run climbs then, on the northern and western routes that sit in the mountain's rain shadow, but you should expect wet forest days and we will say so plainly before you book.
Questions about this trip.
Who is Umbwe for?
Experienced trekkers who have been high before and want the hardest, steepest and least travelled way onto the southern circuit. It is not a first Kilimanjaro.
How steep is it, really?
Day one climbs 1,340 m in about five hours on a forest ridge, and day two follows a narrowing spine with drops on both sides. There is no scrambling, but there is very little flat ground.
Why is there an acclimatisation day at Barranco?
Because Umbwe gains height faster than any other route, and without that day the summit rate collapses. On this route the extra day is not optional and we will not sell it without one.
Is it more dangerous?
Not technically. The risk on Umbwe is altitude, gained too quickly, which is what the Barranco day is there to manage.
On this route
Where you will be.
Compare
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Make this itinerary yours.
Add days, drop a park, change the pace. This is a starting point, not a fixed departure.