Trip Report
Mount Kenya -Attempting Nelion 5189m & Batian 5199
Thursday March 28, 2019 8:55am
Again a video instead of a written trip report.
This time, as I had promised here in the forum it is in English.
[Click to View YouTube Video]

Discussions, questions, comments ... are welcome.
Here or on YouTube. If you like the video, of course you are also welcome to send the link to your friends, leave thumbs up ...

When we were planning the trip, I could not find good, reliable information, so here are some hopefully helpful hints for those who plan to climb/trek Mount Kenya

Our flight to Nairobi arrived very early in the morning. Nevertheless we planned one night in Nairobi, to have time to shop on additional food supplies, gas for the stove and in case baggage goes missing.

If we would do it again, we would go directly from the airport to Chogoria, if we had an early arriving flight.
Food can be bought in Chogoria, gas canisters the type suitable e.g. for the jetboil are not really available in Nairobi. David located two for us, but at this second hand outdoor equipment store they wanted 35 $US each.

We cannot recommend the Chogoria Transit Motel. Online booking did not really work, we asked David to make a reservation. There they charged us the equivalent of 40$. According to our information it should have been MUCH less, probably David got a little commission, but still way too much. The rooms had no or thorn mosquito nets, the lightbulbs were blown, we had to wait nearly one hour for the breakfast.

We did the Chogoria route up to "basecamp":
Each day in the park is 52$ per person (foreigner). On Chogoria route days start with passing the new gate. You pay at the original gate, usually at the end of the first or start of the second day. You can NOT pay cash! Only credit card our Mpesa (kind of Kenyan PayPal).

For good acclimatization we tried to walk in slow.
1st night near the original gate (2800m).
2nd night "Roadhead" 3300m. There you have nice waterfalls, that means also running water for the last good wash.
3rd night "Minto Hut" 4200m. Good camping spot about 80m further from the hut. Where also the tarn (muddy water) is.
We had our climbing gear and food deposited by the porters at "Austrian Hut" 4790m. There we also said goodbye to Wilson our cook, packed camping gear and food and hiked down to near "Mac Kinders" 4200m for better acclimatization. There you also could get accommodation at the mountain rescue place, if you don't want to camp.

We had been happy with David (info@mountkenyapeaktours.com), who organized the three porters and a cook for the first 4 days and also some other things. He was reliable.

In general in Kenya it is important to make things really clear, repeat things, let the other person repeat to avoid misunderstandings. For most things you should barging about the price.

We were also happy with Wilson our cook who was always in a good mood (unfortunatelly the email address Wilson gave me does not work any more).

If you have any questions just ask. If I can answer them, I will.

  Trip Report Views: 2,322
juergen_l
About the Author
Juergen is a trad climber from Germany.

Comments
juergen_l

Trad climber
Germany
Author's Reply  Mar 28, 2019 - 09:07am PT
How can I add a thumbnail for my trip report?

Thanks!
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
  Mar 28, 2019 - 10:12am PT
The Euro-irony is strong here. Mustache rides from the roadhead...The outrage of waiting an hour for breakfast...Two whole days to outwait icefall risk, too much! Fixed ropes (cable?) and Austrian huts, oh my! The lines drawn on the mountain look cool but I can't take it, sorry!
fear

Ice climber
hartford, ct
  Mar 28, 2019 - 09:58am PT
Awesome! This is something on my short-list for Africa...
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
  Mar 28, 2019 - 09:00pm PT
hey there, say, juergen_l ... wow, thanks for sharing...

going to go see it now... :)
Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
  Mar 28, 2019 - 10:10pm PT
That was a cool video, I enjoyed watching. Thanks.
Hoser

climber
Vancouver,Rome
  Mar 28, 2019 - 11:38pm PT
really awesome to watch!!! At times i thought it was 40 years ago.
Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
  Mar 29, 2019 - 06:15am PT
Thank you for taking the time to make your video in English. I love the music you used. Despite your setbacks, it looks like it was a wonderful trip.
fgw

climber
portland, or
  Mar 29, 2019 - 08:25am PT
That was a fun watch. I'm surprised at how much wildlife you see in the park during the approach (eg. elephants) - very cool.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
  Mar 29, 2019 - 08:44am PT
Nice video, brings back memories. Was there in 2005 and climbed both summits...an alpine surf and turf. A ten pitch rock climb on one and the Diamond Couloir on the other.
We had been told that global warming had made the DC unclimable. Not so, it just morphed into a modern ice climb. The first pitch had ten meters of M7 followed by forty meters of thin WI5. Above that it was fat and easy.
Old5Ten

Trad climber
Berkeley and Sunny Slopes, CA
  Apr 10, 2019 - 08:25am PT
i highly recommend 'no picnic on mt. kenya' by benuzzi, a fine read and compelling story.
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