9:32 p.m. on April 22, 2012 (EDT)
Sam,
Well, you got a bunch of opinions, which vary from one another greatly, and only one from someone who actually hiked up the hill (plus reading my trip report). Something to keep in mind, of course, is that even though Kili is only 3 deg south of the Equator, the weather does change from day to day and with the seasons.
Since I do not see it in your posts, have you signed a guide service? If so, who? If not, I strongly suggest you book with a local guide service (locally owned and run by the guides and porters themselves), not through a European or US based service. And in Moshi, would be my first choice. The foreign companies are required to hire local guides and porters, just like any foreigners are. So you will pay less (not paying the foreign company overhead and for their personnel), and if you make an attempt to learn a bit of Swahili and talk to the guide and porters, you will have a much more pleasant experience. That said, there is an adventure travel brokerage that acts only as an intermediary between you and the local guide service that we used, based in Colorado (but services Europeans as well as Americans and Canadians), named Adventures Within Reach. They are very much environmentally oriented and make a point of using local guide services. Considering that there was a huge brouhaha a few years back that led to most of the guides and porters union breaking off and forming their own guide services (the foreign and foreign-owned "local" companies were way overworking and underpaying the guides and porters).
Second thing, I suggest you get Explore Mount Kilimanjaro, by Jaquetta Megarry, published by Rucksack Readers, Landrick Lodge, Dunblane, FK15OHY, UK, phone +44/0 1786 824 696. A Brit friend of mine recommended it to me - great maps (waterproof) and a lot of excellent tips.
Some gear comments:
Pack - a daypack of about 40 liters. The porters carry all your gear except your lunch, water, rain gear, and camera gear (yes, take that big DSLR - you will be wanting to take lots of photos, especially during the first and last days when you are in the rain forest and the Colobus monkeys are leaping through the trees). You will probably be wearing the rain gear the first day, while in the rain forest, plus maybe a few other days.
Dry bag - this is for your warm layers down low, plus sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc. You could use a large waterproof duffle for this, but I found the 2 Sea to Summit dry bags I used worked better. Thing is the porters will carry this and they are officially limited to 15 kg of client gear (plus their own gear, food, etc).
Clothing - note well that in all the photos until summit day, we were wearing microfiber pants and either microfiber longsleeve or T-shirts, with no longjohns:
wicking underpants and T-shirt
mid-weight longjohns (top and bottom - I used Patagonia Capilene, because that's what I have - you will use these only on summit day, starting about midnight)
microfiber pants for hiking and around camp
long-sleeve microfiber shirt - I used my Ex Officio Buzz-off that I had for keeping the mosquitoes off during the safari part of the trip
waterproof breathable jacket (Marmot Alpinist 3, now retired and replaced with a much more breathable eVent Wild Things jacket - make sure you have pit zips - you will really want them when hiking in the rain in the rain forest)
waterproof breathable FULL SIDE ZIP bibs/pants/salopette (Wild Things bib in my case for Kili. My son has an equivalent Rab salopette). If you can get ones that allow venting the sides (velcro patches to allow the side zippers to be mostly unzipped, but not flapping if wind comes up, so much the better. I used to have a Marmot bib that was like that, but it is no longer available.
top-quality poncho - normally I would not suggest a poncho for hikes. However, in the hot, humid rain forest sections, a good poncho that has snaps all the way down the sides and a hood, so it fits over your day pack, is much cooler. It can be ripstop nylon with a polyurethane flashcoat (doesn't need to be breathable). That's what the guides wear until you are at high camp, and for good reason. Just much better ventilation than a full rainsuit
fleece jacket equivalent to Polartec 300 or Patagonia R3 - mostly for evening in camp.
light Primaloft puff jacket (Integral Designs Dolomiti was perfect, but after ID was bought by Rab, this was discontinued. Rab does have an equivalent. Patagonia's Puff jacket with hood is an alternative - Nanopuff and Micropuff are too light). I recommend against a down sweater, because of how damp things can get) - it can get cold and breezy on summit day. I started out, as usual, slightly cool from camp, expecting to warm up. But when we got about 1000 ft up, the temperature was significantly lower than I expected (my chocolate snack bars and 5-Hour energy drink in an outer jacket pocket were frozen solid, though my Camelbak hydration bladder, worn under my layers with the hose running down the sleeve was just fine all the way to the summit and back)
Gloves - Waterproof shell, medium liner
Peruvian-style Windstopper hat (bu Outdoor Research)
Balaclava (Windstopper, from Mountain Hardwear - has mesh over the ears so you can hear - straight Windstopper really blocks hearing).
Lowa boots (full leather) for the hiking - Personally, I have warm feet and hands, so I recommend strongly against goretex-lined boots. You are likely to encounter enough damp weather to make mesh boots and trail-running shoes an uncomfortable choice, though a lot of the porters wear tennis shoes (that's partly economics, though). I had rain on Day 1, rain and sleet on Day 2, rain, sleet, snow and dense fog on Day 3 (to Barranca), light snow on Day 4 (to Barafu), clear and cold to the summit and back to Barafu, rest 2 hours, then warm getting to hot during the drop 9200 ft to Mweka Camp on Day 5, and hot and humid down another 7300 ft through the rain forest to Mweka Gate on Day 6. I was very glad to have the boots (broken in and properly fitted, of course)!
Socks - thin wicking liners (I use Injinji toed socks these days, but not on Kili), plus hiker-thickness merino wool outer socks. I did a change of socks for summit day, and wore those all the way back to the exit gate.
Trekking poles - an absolute must! Especially on summit day, where you go from high camp (4600m) to the summit (5896 m), back to high camp for a couple hours rest, then down to Mweka Camp (3100 m), for an ascent of 1296 m, followed by an almost straight through descent of 2795 meters for a 10 mile day. That 16,500 ft from the summit to the gate on the last two days leves a lot of people with sore knees and often sore feet as well (that's why you need really good, supportive boots).
The guides and cooks will be boiling water and using Steripens for your water. However, the water at Mweka camp apparently has some minerals in it (you are on the side of a volcano, after all) that upsets some people's stomachs (sulfur salts?). I wasn't bothered, but many non-locals apparently are.
Sleeping bag - as I noted in my trip report, I took my -40F/C bag, expecting much colder weather than I encountered (I slept in a tent the full time). My +15F/-10C Integral Designs Primaloft bag would have been just fine, since I could have slept in my longjohns , and maybe added my Dolomiti jacket if I had felt cold at high camp. The -40 bag was definitely overkill. I have seen recommendations of -10F/-25C, but it never got that cold. Megarry recommends -15C to -18C. The Starlight IV should be fine, and you can sleep in the longjohns and parka at high camp if not.
Sleeping pad - I used a combination of a 3/4 length standard Thermarest and a "blue foam" full length closed cell pad. In part this was because I was expecting colder weather, perhaps sleeping on snow. Well, we only had a few cm of snow, which would melt off during the day (except on the summit). The porters carry extra pads, so check with your guide service - you may be able to get along without a sleeping pad of your own.
No tent needed - furnished by your guide service (don't choose the extra cost huts - I understand they are not too clean anyway).
Don't forget to use lots of sunscreen, at least SPF 50 and broad spectrum. You will likely be using an antimalarial - read the side effects closely. The one I used turns out to have a side effect of making you more sensitive to sunlight, and indeed I did get a bit of a sunburn, despite using SPF50.
Good idea to take some gifts for the guide and porters, in addition to the tip. Because I was trying to learn Swahili and talking to the guide and porters, I was able to ascertain which of them were doing more or less. The guide obviously gets the most (he is with you all day), cook next (the amount of food was HUGE, and really good - I was never able to finish it, since there was enough for a huge meal for both me and my wife - and she wasn't along on the hike), the porters who set up your tent every day next, and, if you have any porters who carry less, you might cut down a bit there. I figured out , based on recommendations from the Adventures Within Reach folks (remember, their cost of living and annual incomes are far less than we in the the "Western" world get). And I brought separate envelopes to give directly to each team member (sealed after adjustments, but before giving them to each one). Seems that if you give the total to the guide (or worse, to the North American or European "guide" and liaison person), the porters might not get a fair share.
Hope this helps. Keep in mind that things change with time.
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