Mount Kilimanjaro (5)

Mount Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcanic
mountain in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in
the world at 5,895 metres or 19,341 feet above sea level (the Uhuru Peak/Kibo Peak).[4]

Climbing history[edit]

From the UK National Archives

According to the famous English geographer Halford Mackinder: "It was the missionary Rebmann of
Mombasa who, in 1848, first reported the existence of Kilimanjaro." [16] In 1861, the German officer
Baron Carl Claus von der Decken and the young British geologist Richard Thornton (18381863)
made a first attempt to climb Kibo,[17] but "got no farther than 8,200 feet"[18] (2,500 meters). In 1862,
Von der Decken tried a second time together with Otto Kersten. They reached a height of 14,000
feet (4,280 meters).[19][20]
In 1887, during his first attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the German geology professor Hans
Meyer reached the base of Kibo, but was forced to turn back, not having the equipment necessary to
handle the deep snow and ice on Kibo. The following year, Meyer planned another attempt
with cartographer Oscar Baumann, but the mission was aborted due to consequences of

the Abushiri Revolt. Meyer and Baumann were captured and held hostage, and only escaped after a
ten thousand rupees ransom had been paid.[21]
In 1889 Meyer returned to Kilimanjaro with the celebrated Austrian mountaineer Ludwig
Purtscheller for a third attempt. Their climbing team included two local headmen, nine porters, a
cook, and a guide. The success of this attempt, which started on foot from Mombasa, was based on
the establishment of many campsites with food supplies so that multiple attempts at the top could be
made without having to descend too far. Meyer and Purtscheller pushed to near the crater rim on
October 3, but turned around exhausted from hacking footsteps in the icy slope. Three days later
they reached the highest summit on the southern rim of the crater on Purtscheller's 40th birthday
(October 6, 1889). They were the first to confirm that Kibo has a crater, which was filled with ice at
the time. After descending to the saddle between Kibo and Mawenzi, Meyer and Purtscheller
attempted to climb the more technically challenging Mawenzi next, but could only reach a 5096 m
high subsidiary peak (later to be named Klute Peak) before retreating due to illness. On October 18,
they reascended Kibo to enter and study the crater, cresting the rim at Hans Meyers Notch. In total,
Meyer and Purtscheller spent 16 days above 4,200 m during their expedition. [21][22]

The summit of Kibo wouldn't be climbed again until 20 years later by the surveyor M. Lange in 1909.
The first ascent of the highest summit of Mawenzi was only on July 29, 1912, by the German
climbers Edward Oehler and Fritz Klute, who christened it Hans Meyer Peak in Meyer's honor.
Oehler and Klute went on to make the third ascent of Kibo, via the Western route over the Drygalski
Glacier.[22]
In 1989, the organizing committee of the 100-year celebration of the first ascent decided to award
posthumous certificates to the African porter-guides who had accompanied Meyer and Purtscheller.
One person in pictures or documents of the 1889 expedition was thought to match a living inhabitant
of Marangu, Yohani Kinyala Lauwo. Lauwo did not know his own age nor did he remember Meyer or
Purtscheller, but he remembered joining a Kilimanjaro expedition involving a Dutch doctor who lived
near the mountain and that he did not get to wear shoes during the 8-day affair. Lauwo claimed that
he had climbed the mountain 3 times before World War I. The committee concluded that he had

been a member of Meyer's team and therefore must have been born around 1871. [23] Lauwo died on
10 May 1996 and is now often suggested as co-first-ascendant of Kilimanjaro. [24]

Mapping[edit]
Early maps of Kilimanjaro were published by the British Government's Directorate of Overseas
Surveys (DOS 422 Y742) in 1963. These were based on air photography carried out as early as
1959 by the RAF. These were on a scale of 1:50,000 with contours at 100 ft intervals. These are
now unavailable. Tourist mapping was first published by theOrdnance Survey in England in 1989
based on the original DOS mapping (1:100,000, 100 ft intervals, DOS 522). This is also no longer
available. EWP produced a map with tourist information in 1990 (1:75,000, 100 m contour intervals,
inset maps of Kibo and Mawenzi on 1:20,000 and 1:30,000 scales respectively and 50 m contour
interval). In the last few years, numerous other maps have become available of various qualities.
[3]

3D route maps are also available online.[25]