6 Days on Mt. Kilimanjaro — My Journey to the Roof of Africa

Imma Baradyana
13 min readApr 22, 2022

I fell in love with mountains at the age of 16, which is when I moved to Switzerland. Anyone who knows a thing or two about Switzerland knows that the country is about 60% Alps. With such conditions, you have to try really hard not to become a mountain lover.

For more than a decade now I’ve enjoyed everything about a good hike — the workout, the scenery, and the view at the top. In fact, every hike I’ve been on has inspired me to aim for even higher altitudes until one day, I found myself casually saying, “I want to hike to the top of the Kilimanjaro”. For those who don’t know, Mt. Kilimanjaro located in northern Tanzania is the highest free-standing volcano in the world and its Uhuru Peak at 5,895m (19,341 ft) above mean sea level (amsl) is both, Africa’s highest point and the 4th most topographically prominent summit on earth.

12 years after I made that comment, I did the damn thing 😜 💪🏾. I HIKED TO THE TOP OF THE KILIMANJARO!!! It was the most rewarding and most challenging experience of my life to date and I am definitely thinking of doing it again!

So, how did I go about booking my Kili adventure? Why did I finally get to it in 2021? How did I choose the route and the tour company to go with? What was it like to be so high up? Did I experience any altitude sickness? This is the post…

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Imma Baradyana

International tech professional. Writes about personal, professional, and academic experiences. Learn more at immabaradyana.com