Dr. Joel Batzofin with guides and porters

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro One Step at a Time

Joel with Thomson guides and porters after a successful Kilimanjaro trek This week we are delighted to speak to Dr. Joel Batzofin, a respected Manhattan fertility expert who summited Kilimanjaro in 2014 with his wife and daughter. He recently wrote a book about his experience on the mountain – One Step at a Time: A climb up…

A picturesque view of Mt. Kilimanjaro

Awe Inspiring! The Seven Best Views on Kilimanjaro

  Whether you’ve been dreaming of climbing Kilimanjaro for years, or have just recently decided to make the trek, we are excited to help you summit Uhuru Peak! The Kilimanjaro climb is a challenging, life changing, and wisdom imparting experience that will provide a lifetime of incredible memories. Need inspiration to get you started? Here…

Thomson camp under the stars

The Top 5 Things You Should be Doing to Prepare for Kilimanjaro

Your trek may be right around the corner or months down the line, but it’s never too early to start getting ready. We could give tips on everything from which boots to buy to which songs to download (hey, it matters!), but no matter what, we’d tell all our guests to make sure they’ve done the…

Luggage scale

Weighing Your Options: Packing Smart for your Kilimanjaro Trek

Everyone who’s ever been on a long journey knows it’s not just what you pack, but HOW you pack that counts. But on Kilimanjaro, the limiting factor isn’t the space in your duffle: it’s the weight of your items. Porters on Kilimanjaro are only allowed to carry 33 pounds each up the mountain, a limit Thomson strictly adheres to for their health and safety.

Elbola infographic

What You Need to Know About Ebola

An unfortunate side-effect of the 24-hour news cycle is that dramatic or tragic stories get much more coverage than stories of hope and success, and that coverage often lacks context and in-depth analysis. Shock value and implied danger are the order of the day while perspective and basic facts are often lost in the media…

Porters and their respective tribes

The People of Kilimanjaro

If you look at Kilimanjaro’s history, one culture stands out as being intimately tied to the mountain: the Chagga. But the Chagga didn’t live around the foothills of Kili in isolation, and in fact, for several centuries, they weren’t a unified culture at all. Much like their neighbors (and longtime adversaries) the Maasai, the Chagga…

New summit sign at Uhuru Peak

Sign of Success: New Summit Sign on Kilimanjaro

The Kilimanjaro summit sign has long been an inspiration to weary trekkers nearing the top. But over the years, the original sign, constructed from wooden planks, became weathered and worn. In January 2012, the wooden sign was finally retired, replaced with a shiny new green sign…

Trekker Kristen with a group of porters

The 2% Club: One Trekker’s Story of Pre-Summit Descent

At Thomson, we’re proud to lead 98% of our trekkers all the way to the summit! But what about the 2% who don’t reach Uhuru Peak? Read David’s story of his early descent with his daughter who suffered from altitude sickness.

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