Mt Kenya Climb

From Nairobi We did a 6 day trip to climb Mt Kenya. It is the 2nd highest mountain in Africa so worth a look we thought. Our cousin in Nairobi dropped us off at the pickup point that day we were to start. A driver first drove us the 4 hours up to Nanyuki where the hiking guys met us. Our group consisted of a guide, a cook and three porters plus us two. We only needed therefore to carry our day packs with water, a warm jacket, pants gloves etc in it if we were to need them.


The first day was a 9 km hike from the park gate up to a hut along a 4WD vehicle track. It was up to an altitude of 3000 m (10,800 ft), it was dark when we got there and the temp was falling quite a lot. We had expected to be in little tents, but found out we were in a bunk hut. Being out of the wind made it so much warmer. A bunk bed with a mattress, what a luxury we had. Still it was quite chilly. Hot soup and a big meal from the cook helped. Way more food than we could eat however.

From that hut, the next day’s trail was up a big valley to the peak region. A full day’s hike but beautiful scenery. We were passing these cactus like vegetation. Groundsel and Lobelia, very different to conventional plants. Near the head of the valley we were walking through a forest of these plants, very surreal like something off a Star Trek Episode. Unlike Mt Kilimanjaro which is a huge conical single mountain, Mt Kenya, originally was a much broader mountain and erupted much longer ago than Kilimanjaro so it is more weathered. The original volcano shape has gone, no crater or such, but just these soaring high columns of rock sticking up into the air. The Mountain has multiple peaks clustered into one region which is where the cone must have formerly been. The two highest you can’t trek to as they are almost 1000 m high columns of vertical rock face. The third peak which is where everyone hikes to, can be reached by a rock scramble for the last 100 m. Picture this region as this central region where all the peaks spring up then leading radially away down from that region are these big U shaped carved valleys scouged out by massive glaciers eons ago. In amongst these peaks towers there are still glaciers. A beautiful rugged site.

Ramona’s Birthday was the next and we started to do a hike about ½ way around the peaks in an anticlock wise direction. With the rock peaks to out left and the big U shaped valleys on our right we circuited around ½ of the peak region. At some point we were walking on a path on the side of a cliff, the massive rock face just meters away on the left and the cliff then falling down into the valley on our right. Not so narrow as to be dangerous but very exhilarating to be there is this massive set of structures all standing together.

Getting to the actual trekking summit was the goal of day 4. We hiked a few hours up to a hut at the base of the rock towers. From there one of the glaciers was to the left at the base of the two highest rock towers, the trekking peak called Pt Leanna was high in front of us about 500 m (1/4) mile away. The guide took us off up towards the Leanna peak. It was a bright sunny though rather cool day. The going started off easy then got trickier as we scrambled up rocks to get higher. At some points it was quite narrow with a potential big fall to the left and big rocks on the right. I was right behind Ramona with the left hand out ready to catch her in case she slipped. She was fine though and after 40 mins climbing and hauling ourselves up rocks we got on the top rock little plateau. 4985 m (16,300 ft). Only the two twin rock towers to the west a few 100 m away were higher than us now. The view was for miles and very clear. There were clouds down below us further out. There was a flag pole on top with a rigid flag on it that was half falling down. We spent a 15 mins or so taking pictures and then started back down. Lunch was back at the hut. From there we stated walking down the eastern valley to the camp site for the night. About a 4 hr walk. Along the way was a memorial metal plaque bolted to a cliff face where a plane had crashed a 3 or so years ago in which a South African family of parents and 3 kids & pilot had smacked into the cliff and all perished. That night we did camp in a little 2 man tent and it was freezing all night. Brrrr. It was at a designated camping area around which there were some small lakes called Tarns. But the trash from other campers was quite bad and left a bad impression on us.

The Temple point was the start of Days 5 hike. This was a rock cliff not far from where we had camped. It towered over the Gorges valley we were to follow out that day. The bottom of the valley was vertically way down below us. The Temple point was a shear rock cliff that we were on top of. It was nerve wracking to get near the edge and peer over it. Wow what a drop. While on the cliff edge two helicopters came for a tourist fly around. They flew down the Gorges valley and they were way below us just little things. As we walked out the wild flowers out along the way were striking. So many varieties and colours. Along the way I saw a bunch of strewn shiny things on the ridge on the other side of the Gorges valley about 1 km (1/2 m away) . I asked the guide if that was another wreck? ‘Yep’ he said ‘about 20 yrs ago and no one has gone to clean up the wreckage’. The 6th day was a hike out and a ride back to Nairobi.

A beautiful mountain with spectacular scenery, fauna and geology to awe at.