In this article, I am going to be talking all about Mount Kilimanjaro, standing at a height of 5895 m or, 20,000 feet, above sea level and happens to be the highest mountain in the entire continent of Africa. It is also the highest freestanding mountain in the entire world. It has three volcanic cones. The last recorded active volcanic activity was actually 360,000 years ago.
I am sure you are someone who is probably thinking of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. But, before you go ahead and place the booking, you need to understand how hard it is and what is required of you. You need to understand that you need to acclimatise yourself. You cannot climb the mountain immediately. You need to go through months of training, to successfully climbed the mountain. You need to be physically and mentally prepared to climb this beast of a mountain. One of the biggest problems that climbers face is actually related to the altitude.
1. Let us talk about the geology. Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain, like I mentioned above.
2. The glaciers on Kilimanjaro are actually estimated to be around 11,700 years old, and in the late 19 century, the entire summit of Kibo was covered in the glacial ice. Sadly, it clearly isn’t today.
3. If we put this into numbers, in the year 1912, the coverage was around 11.4 km². By the year 2011, a mere 1.76 km² of glacial ice actually remains on the mountain. It is estimated that with the present climate conditions, all of the ice on the mountain will have melted by the year 2060.
4. Mount Kilimanjaro being the tallest mountain in Africa, actually gives it the status of being one of the seven summits. The seven summits happen to comprise of the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. A lot of mountain years actually long to climb all of these mountains. In Asia, Mount Everest happens to be the tallest mountain, standing at 8848 m.
5. If you have been paying close attention, you will notice that at 5895 m high, Kilimanjaro happens to be the fourth largest of the seven summits that I am talking about. There are many more mountains, particularly in the Himalayas, that are actually larger than Kilimanjaro, but this mountain still boasts a very significant and impressive size. Size definitely matters, ladies and gentlemen.
6. A lot of classical geographers were actually interested in this African Mountain, because of its history. It was referred to as the great snow mountain.
7. There are actually seven official routes up the mountain to the summit. The climbers have to use at least one of these routes, because it is not possible to make your own route. It is recommended that you follow these routes.