Preparing for Kilimanjaro is something that you may be thinking about and one of the items on your menu may be whether you need training to make it to the summit. I’m preparing for a Kilimanjaro climb myself and I have been doing some research.
While you might be able to get to the highest camp on Kilimanjaro without training, the summit attempt will be greatly hampered if you don’t do any training in preparation for your climb. in this article I will give you 14 reasons why you shouldn’t climb Mount Kilimanjaro without training
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Learn MoreCan You Climb Kilimanjaro Without Training
Before I give you the reasons why you shouldn’t climb Kilimanjaro without training, the first question you may be asking yourself is, do you actually need training to successfully climb Kilimanjaro?
Based on the hundreds of hours of research that I have done on climbing Kilimanjaro, getting to the highest camp on this mountain can be done by anybody with average fitness.
Getting to the summit, however, is a whole different challenge. The summit attempt will start at midnight and will take a total of 12 hours from start to finish. Walking continuously for this amount of time is extremely hard on the body and without training, you are unlikely to successfully complete the climb on this day.
So to answer the question, while it is possible to complete the Kilimanjaro climb, including summit day, without prior training, you lower the chances of getting to the top and generally make you climb miserable if you don’t train ahead of time.
14 Reasons You Shouldn’t Climb Kilimanjaro Without Training
1. Training Ensures you get to the Summit
Your main satisfaction from climbing Kilimanjaro is reaching the summit. The fact that you will be spending thousands of dollars to do the climb, you will definitely be disappointed if you were not able to get got the top.
The average success rate on Kilimanjaro is 66%. This means that you have a 44% chance of being unable to make it to the summit. Not training reduces your chances to lower than this.
Not training before your climb puts you at risk of not being fit enough to get to the summit.
2. Altitude Sickness
Over and above the fitness levels required to summit Kilimanjaro, you will likely deal with the challenge of acclimatizing to the extremely high altitude.
In a study conducted on Kilimanjaro climbers, 47% of them were found to have varying degrees of mountain sickness due to their bodies’ inability to acclimatize to higher altitude.
Although physical fitness does nky affect your chances of getting mountain sickness, not training for your climb adds to the challenges you will be dealing with on your climb. Physical weakness combined with mountain sickness and the exhaustion of walking for a week may prove to be too much for you and may end up making you give up the attempt.
3. Walking a Lot
Kilimanjaro is not a technical mountain go climb and any person with enough physical fitness would be able to make the climb.
However, what it lacks in technical difficulty it makes up for in the amount of walking you will have to do.
The average route length is ranges from 50KM to 98KM (31-60 Miles). All of this will be on an incline and under low oxygen levels due to high elevation.
If you don’t train for your Kilimanjaro climb, you won’t have any idea what you are up against and this will affect your mental stamina to complete the climb.
4. Subsequent Days
In addition to the long distance, the climb will be at least 6 days long. If your body is not used to dealing with continuous physical strain over several days, training will help get you in the right shape to comfortably walk the daily distances.
5. Summit Night
This is by far the toughest day that you will experience on your climb up Kilimanjaro. The day will begin at midnight where you will start climbing up Kilimanjaro in the dark of night. Temperatures will be extremely low and the wind speeds high. you walk from the camp to the summit will take roughly 8 hours which will be followed by a brief photography session at the top. After the few moments of celebration, you will need to walk for 6 hours to camp that has a lower elevation.
This long and grueling day is described by many as one of the toughest days of their lives. Mental strength and physical endurance are tested and pushed to their limits. If you did not train and prepare for this kind of day, you’ll be absolutely miserable and will be unlikely to reach the summit.
6. Prevent injury
Kilimanjaro’s terrain is rocky and has a lot of slippery sections. If you are fit and quick-footed, you’ll find it easy to jump over the rocks navigate the scree that is abundant on the Kilimanjaro Trails.
One wrong step can land you on a stretcher or worse It is therefore extremely important that you have sure footing and that you are used to walking on uneven ground that is Rocky and inclined.
Training will help you prevent injuries that come with losing your balance or weak knees that will reduce your ability to come down the mountain once you have successfully summited to the top.
7. Enjoy the climb
There are a lot of great views as you head up Kilimanjaro. The fact that Kilimanjaro is a free-standing mountain in steps you will be surrounded by the lowlands. On both clear days and cloudy days, you will be surrounded by very scenic and beautiful views of the African Savanna.
Not training for your climb means that you will just be focused on trying to just get up the mountain and not able to take a moment to enjoy the lovely views around you.
The difficulty you will be experiencing will cause you not to see the great beauty around you and this is a great shame.
8. Considerate to the guides
The guides let’s take you to Kilimanjaro are awesome. They do a lot of work in helping you get up the mountain safety and enjoyably and without them getting up the mountain would be considerably more difficult.
Not training ahead of time makes their work more difficult since they will have to concentrate on checking on you as you struggle to go up the mountain.
If you are incapacitated, which is possible if you don’t train ahead, the guide’s work becomes way more difficult since they will need to stop focusing on the rest of your climbing Team to help you either get down the mountain or find means of emergency evacuation.
9. Avoid evacuation costs
Although getting evacuated is something you never want to happen to you, it is a very real possibility when you’re climbing Kilimanjaro. every good Kilimanjaro climbing company has a plan for emergency evacuations and will be able to get you quickly down the mountain if something goes wrong.
I would imagine that the cost of taking you down the mountain quickly is included in an insurance package or something, but, be that as it may, you are likely to still have a lot of out-of-pocket expenses if this were to ever happen
Training adequately ahead of your Kilimanjaro climb reduces the chances of an emergency evacuation and eliminates the costs that would be associated with this.
10. Overall fitness
Whether you’re doing is to climb up the mountain or just for your health, consistent physical activity is great for you and you will end up being more flexible and agile as a result of your training.
Whether or not you’ll be climbing Kilimanjaro, getting in better physical shape is good for you and you’ll be happy that you did train.
11. The training itself is fun
Preparing for Kilimanjaro does not have to be done at the gym. From what I’ve read, the best way to prepare for Kilimanjaro is by doing actual hikes and trying to simulate the kind of environment that you will face when you actually start your climb.
The fact that you want to climb Kilimanjaro probably means that you enjoy the outdoors. This means that you will have a great time preparing for your climb since you will be doing what you already enjoy.
12. Test if you really want to climb Kilimanjaro
Preparing adequately for Kilimanjaro will help you to figure out whether you are actually wants to climb this mountain.
Since the best preparation for Kilimanjaro is simulating the kind of environment that you will find on the actual mountain, preparing for several months will help you figure out whether doing long distance walking (which is basically what you will be doing everyday on Kilimanjaro) is something that you want to do.
As I mentioned in a recent article I wrote, Kilimanjaro is very expensive to climb. Making such a huge investment on something that you will not enjoy is something you don’t want to do inadvertently.
13. Reduces your chances of injury
The fact that you will be working on uneven ground and on paths that are not well prepared or paved means that the possibility of small bumps and bruises is highly likely. While some of these may not require you to get down the mountain before completing the summit, they would make your accent more difficult.
Preparing ahead of time by training will help you avoid some of these since you will have more experience walking on uneven ground and therefore reduce your chances of getting injured.
14. Breaking in your boots
As I mentioned earlier you will be walking for eight consecutive days and the possibility of developing blisters on your feet is almost certain.
By not training ahead of time for your climb, you are unlikely to have broken in your boots. This will exponentially increase the chances of you developing blisters on your feet earlier on in your climb and make the rest of your climbing experience extremely miserable.
