7-Day Lemosho Route Kilimanjaro Climb

Seven Days Up Kilimanjaro from the West — Walking In Through Rainforest, Not Driven Onto the Plateau

🏆 TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice 2024, 2025 & 2026 · ✅ Kenya TRA Licensed No. TRA1/47/C01/25895 · 🏛️ TOSK (Tour Operators Society of Kenya) Member #0082 · 🇹🇿 Operated in Tanzania by our TALA-licensed partner — licence 037480. Certificate available on request.

7 Days · Kilimanjaro National Park · From $1,740 per person (group of 3+) or $1,859 private · All park fees included

Why the 7-Day Lemosho Route?

Lemosho comes at Kilimanjaro from the west. You register at Londorossi Gate — Tanzania National Parks spells it Londorosi — then drive about an hour up a forest track to the Lemosho Glades trailhead, roughly 2,360 m (published figures run from 2,100 m to 2,390 m). You walk from there: two days up through rainforest and heath onto the plateau, sleeping at 2,895 m on the first night.

Check that the itinerary you buy contains that walk-in, ours or anyone else's. Several companies sell a seven-day Lemosho whose first day is a drop-off at around 3,600 m on the plateau, with no forest at all: that is the Shira route under a Lemosho name, and a different acclimatisation profile.

Lemosho is widely called the most scenic route on the mountain — a judgement, not a measurement, but it rests on checkable things: every vegetation zone in turn, and the full width of the plateau. The first days are quiet; from Shira 2 you share the trail with Machame.

📋 Lemosho Route at a Glance

🗓️ Your Climb, Day by Day

🌲 Day 1 — Lemosho Glades to Mti Mkubwa, 2,895 m

6 km · 3–4 hours · Rainforest

Easy walking on soft, wet ground under closed canopy, at a camp also sold as Big Tree.

🌾 Day 2 — Mti Mkubwa to Shira 1, then Shira 2 Camp, about 3,810 m

8 km, then 7 km · 5–6 hours, then 3–4 hours · Heath and moorland

The longest day before summit night, and the one the eight-day splits in two: giant heather, then moorland to the plateau rim at Shira 1, 3,505 m, then east across it.

🏜️ Day 3 — Shira 2 over Lava Tower to Barranco Camp, 3,976 m

10 km, then 3 km · 4–5 hours, then 2–3 hours · Alpine desert

The most useful day for your body: lunch at Lava Tower, 4,630 m, higher than any camp you sleep in, then a drop of more than 600 m.

🧗 Day 4 — Barranco Wall to Karanga Camp, 3,995 m

5 km · 4–5 hours · Alpine desert

The wall is 257 m of steep ground on a zigzag path — a scramble, not a climb: hands on rock in places, no ropes and no equipment, and the Kissing Rock, where you press flat against the face. One to two hours.

🏜️ Day 5 — Karanga Camp to Barafu Camp, 4,674 m

4 km · 4–5 hours · Alpine desert

Short and deliberately unexciting: nearly 700 m of gain over bare rock.

⛰️ Day 6 — Barafu to Uhuru Peak, then down to Mweka Camp, 3,068 m

5 km up, 12 km down · 11–16 hours in all · Arctic, then every zone in reverse

The long one: away at midnight, the rim at Stella Point around dawn, Uhuru an hour later, then back and on to Mweka Camp. Set out in full below.

🌳 Day 7 — Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate, 1,640 m

10 km · 3–4 hours · Rainforest

Downhill through warm forest, and the mud is real.

🫁 Acclimatisation on This Route

Sleeping heights: 2,895 m, 3,810 m, 3,976 m, 3,995 m, 4,674 m. The big step is day two, which lifts your sleeping height more than 900 m at once — exactly the day the eight-day Lemosho splits in two.

The best feature is day three: up to Lava Tower at 4,630 m, then down to sleep at 3,976 m — climbing higher by day than you sleep at night. Day four adds 19 m of sleeping height while working you hard near 4,000 m.

⛰️ Summit Night

You leave Barafu at midnight. The ascent takes six to eight hours, and the aim is the crater rim around dawn with daylight left to get down to 3,068 m afterwards: five kilometres, about 1,200 m of ascent, switchbacks on scree and rock, dark and very cold. The pace will feel absurdly slow, and that is the technique.

Lemosho reaches the rim at Stella Point, 5,756 m — not Gilman's Point, which serves Rongai and Marangu on the far side — then about an hour round to Uhuru Peak, 5,895 m. The descent is the part that hurts: scree back to Barafu, then 12 km to Mweka Camp — eleven to sixteen hours on your feet.

🩺 Altitude, Health and Turning Back

Altitude, not fitness, is what stops most people. AMS — acute mountain sickness — is the common form: headache with some mix of nausea, lost appetite, dizziness and broken sleep, because you have climbed faster than your body has adapted. Between half and three-quarters of Kilimanjaro trekkers get some degree of it, and it usually settles with rest, water and no further climbing that day. AMS is normal; what it can turn into is not. HAPE, high-altitude pulmonary oedema, is fluid on the lungs — breathlessness at rest, a cough that will not stop, blue lips. HACE, high-altitude cerebral oedema, is swelling of the brain — confusion, stumbling, unable to walk a straight line. Both are life-threatening, and both have one treatment: go down, at once. Do not hide symptoms.

Rescue, honestly. Helicopters fly on Kilimanjaro but cannot land above roughly 4,900 m, do not fly at night and do not fly in bad weather — which rules them out for most of summit night. Above Barafu Camp, real evacuation means walking down with a guide, which is why we would rather catch a problem two days early. Your insurance must cover trekking to 6,000 m including helicopter evacuation: a policy written for 4,000 m does not cover Uhuru Peak, and the park rescue fee in your price is a park charge, not insurance.

Ask before you book. We will put in writing what health monitoring, what emergency equipment and what crew your climb carries. Ask us — and ask everyone else you are considering. An operator who will not answer that in writing is telling you something.

📊 About Success Rates

We publish no summit success rate. Nobody audits these figures: an operator counts its own clients, decides what counts as success, and publishes the result. Two companies' percentages cannot be compared, and neither can be checked.

The only figures the park authority is known to have published date from 2006, and they are far too old to describe the mountain as it is climbed now.

What decides your summit is time on the mountain, a profile your body can meet, a slow pace, water, and a guide willing to turn you around. Longer itineraries summit more often, which is why the eight-day Lemosho exists. We would rather explain that than print a number we cannot stand behind.

✅ What's Included

• All Kilimanjaro National Park fees — conservation, camping and rescue
• Your licensed mountain guide and crew
• All meals on the mountain
• Drinking water on the mountain
• Group camping equipment
• Transfers to the start gate and back from the exit gate

❌ What's Not Included

• Flights
• Your Tanzania visa
• Travel insurance — cover to 6,000 m with helicopter evacuation
• Personal gear hire
• Tips for the mountain crew

About tips. Tips are customary and are in nobody's price. They are worked out for the group as a whole and shared among the guides, cook and porters — not charged per climber — so the cost per person falls sharply as the group grows: two climbers carry the whole tip between them, six carry the same tip between six. We put the recommended figure in writing before you travel.

🎒 What to Bring

• A four-season sleeping bag rated to about −10 °C or colder — you are in a tent every night
• Waterproof boots with ankle support, worn in before you fly, plus camp shoes
• An insulated down jacket for camp and summit night
• Waterproof shell jacket and over-trousers
• Two sets of thermal base layers, a fleece mid layer and trekking trousers
• Insulated gloves or mitts plus thin liners — you cannot work a zip in the outers
• A warm hat, a sun hat and a neck buff
• Category 3 or 4 sunglasses, high-factor sunscreen and SPF lip balm
• A head torch and spare batteries, kept warm against your body
• Three litres of water capacity including two bottles — bladder tubes freeze on summit night
• Two adjustable trekking poles for the descent
• A 30–35 litre daypack with a rain cover, and a soft duffel for the porters
• Blister plasters, a small first-aid kit, rehydration salts and prescription medicine in your hand luggage
• Passport, insurance documents and your yellow fever certificate if you travel from Kenya, plus small notes in cash for crew tips

👍 Who This Route Suits — and Who It Doesn't

It suits a reasonably fit walker with a week to give, and anyone who would rather walk onto the Shira Plateau than be driven onto it.

It does not suit you if you have had altitude sickness before or adapt slowly — take the eight-day Lemosho. If you want a bed, huts exist only on the Marangu route; and if one day less decides it, read the six-day Shira page with your eyes open.

🔗 Combine it: The other length of this route is the 8-Day Lemosho Route Climb. Closest comparisons: the 7-Day Machame Route Climb from the south, and the 6-Day and 7-Day Shira Route climbs, which share every camp above it. All thirteen are on our Kilimanjaro Climbs page. Either side of the climb, the Shira Plateau day trip and Kikuletwa hot springs are on the Moshi day trips page. Or compare all six. The two Lemosho itineraries are set side by side on the Lemosho route page.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

How fit do I need to be?

Fit enough to walk five to seven hours a day, on consecutive days, with a daypack. No climbing skill is needed; long hill walks in your own boots are the training that helps. Fitness does not predict altitude tolerance.

How do I know the Lemosho I am buying starts in the forest?

Ask for the day-one start point in writing. Ours is on foot from the Lemosho Glades trailhead, reaching 2,895 m in rainforest that night. A seven-day Lemosho beginning with a vehicle at 3,600 m is a real climb — we sell it as the Shira route — but it is not this one.

What happens if I cannot continue?

You go down, and going down early is the difference between a bad day and an emergency. Descent is the treatment for altitude, and it is your guide's call. We put the crew arrangements for your climb in writing before you book.

Do I need a yellow fever certificate?

It depends where you fly from. Tanzania requires one from travellers over a year old arriving from a country with a risk of yellow fever transmission, or transiting more than 12 hours through an airport in one. Kenya is on the World Health Organization's risk list, so bring it if you are coming from Nairobi or crossing the land border — and carry it even on a connection, where a delay can push you past 12 hours. Flying direct from Europe you generally do not need one. Confirm current requirements before you travel.

What does the price include, and can I cancel?

All park fees, your licensed guide and crew, all meals and drinking water on the mountain, group camping equipment and gate transfers. Not flights, visa, insurance, gear hire or tips. A 50% deposit confirms the booking and the balance is due 14 days before departure; cancel with 14 days' notice for a full refund, or reschedule within 12 months.

Why Lemosho rather than Machame?

The first two days. Machame reaches the same Shira 2 Camp from the south and is among the busiest trails on the mountain; Lemosho is quiet until the plateau. Above it they are one trail, so you are choosing the approach.

📞 How to Book

A 50% deposit confirms the booking. The balance is due 14 days before departure. Booking inside 14 days: full payment confirms it. Cancel with 14 days' notice for a full refund, or reschedule within 12 months. The group rate applies from three climbers.

We accept M-Pesa and bank transfer. Payment details are sent with your written invoice.

We never request payment through social media, personal phone numbers, or any account or link not confirmed in writing by our office. If in doubt, call us before paying anyone.

Tell us your dates and group size. We confirm availability, your departure date and the arrangements in writing before you pay anything.

📱 WhatsApp / Call: +254 729 257 317 · +254 734 417 496

🇦🇹 Austria: +43 650 702 1313 · +43 676 676 8130

📧 [email protected]

Booking and payment stay with us in Nairobi. Talk to us before you decide.

Operated in Tanzania by our TALA-licensed partner — licence 037480. Certificate available on request.

Prices shown are for non-resident climbers. East African citizens pay lower national-park fees — see our East African citizen rates.