Africa's Other Mountains

Giant Groundsels at Mintos Tarn

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Mount Kenya Practicalities

Location: Mount Kenya is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive (if you're lucky) north of Nairobi, which can be accomplished in varing degrees of efficiency by public bus, private hire, or matatu (suicidal, overpacked minivans that are the most popular form of public transportation).

Management: The whole mountain is protected as Mount Kenya National Park, and there is a confusing system of entry fees, park fees, and camping fees, which will be explained to you at the park gate. (It works out to about $15 per person per day.) The Kenya Mountain Club owns some of the huts on the mountain, which are reserved for members only.

Guides and porters: No guides and porters are required, although both are available. Guides are strongly advised for those with limited high-altitude experience. Every year, people get sick or lost on the mountain, due to the altitude and sudden storms. Mount Kenya may be smack on the equator, but it does snow there. You can make arrangements for guides and porters at Chogoria's Transit Motel or at the Naro Moru River Lodge.

Gear: You need warm clothes and a warm sleeping bag (20 degrees is fine). You can rent most gear (backpacks, tents, hiking boots, sleeping bags) at the Naro Moru River Lodge. If you're taking the Naro Moru route, be aware that most trekkers leave MacKinders at 2:00 a.m. in order to be on the summit at sunrise, so take a strong flashlight.

Guidebooks: Trekking in East Africa has route descriptions. Also recommended: The Kenya Mountain Club's Guide to Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro (available locally in Nairobi bookstores, as are detailed maps). Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya: A Climbing and Trekking Guide (Mountaineers) is available through the Adventurous Traveler Bookstore.

Of all of East Africa's volcanoes, Mount Kenya is the one where volcanism and glaciation have combined to show how fantastic a landscape they can create when they work together, and the Chogoria Route is where they have showcased their work. Huge hanging valleys, waterfalls, wild and craggy rock formations, sparkling tarns, towering summits, and those ridiculous Afro-alpine Dr. Seuss plants: It's as if this is where the Creator decided to see just how dramatic a mountain could be. I have climbed the Chogoria Route three times, and would go back in a heartbeat.

Starting at the small town of Chogoria, a rough and rutted 20-mile jeep road barely worthy of the name takes you past small family farms tucked in among the lowland rain forest and rising into cooler bamboo uplands. Most hikers arrange a ride from Chogoria to the ranger station (9,807 feet) and camp there, although if you walk, you'll decrease your chances of altitude sickness.

From the park gate you can go all the way up to Mintos Tarn (a gain of 4,500 feet and a hike of about seven to eight hours), or you can take a short day and hike about five miles through heath moors to the road's end, where you can spend the afternoon swimming in Vivienne Falls (elevation 11,500 feet). The next day's walk, then, to Mintos Hut shouldn't take more than four to five hours, short enough that you can take your time—a good thing, because you'll want to stop and gawk every few minutes. The trail winds through huge rock fields, although rock isn't precisely the right word since the rocks are the size of trucks, with views down into the steep-walled and well-named Gorges Valley. Your destination, Mintos Tarn (at 14,300 feet), is even better, a sparkling blue tarn framed by high pinnacles and steep scree slopes dotted with forests of giant senecio and lobelia. However, overuse has had a price: Filter the water, because the tarn is polluted. There is also a small, run-down hut, although most people prefer to pitch a tent. Keep an eye on your food bags in this area, or you may be visited by the marmot-like rock hyraxes—try to figure out whether you believe they are related to elephants.

If you're feeling the altitude, you may want to take a rest day here. Or you could take yet another slightly longer route. A circuit around the high peaks, which rambles around summit peaks staying mostly at elevations between 14,000 and 15,000 feet, adds a couple of days to your trip, gives you more time to acclimate, and shows you even more of the mountain. To handle the circuit, you should have solid backcountry and route-finding skills—or hire a guide.

Either way, you end up at Austria Hut, 15,600 feet, near the Lewis Glacier. From there, Point Lenana is just a half-hour scramble away. Start the climb just before sunrise. The weather is better and the views of the sunrise-burnished volcanic formations are unforgettable.

You can either return the way you came or via the quicker Naro Moru route. The descent can be done in one excruciatingly long day, or two very comfortable ones. A descent back to Chogoria takes most people two days. You'll want to arrange to have transportation waiting for you at either end. If you meet other hikers during the climb, you can share the cost.