You’ll likely only climb Kilimanjaro once, so you may as well do it ‘right’. The best way to do this is choosing a trek which allows enough acclimatization time to reach the summit safely. The single most important factor on whether you reach the summit or not depends on the number of days you take. The park minimum is 5-days – that’s 3.5 days to the summit. Only about 50% of those on 5-day climbs reach the summit. Of the roughly 1,000 climbers we take up the mountain each year, we average eight days. Our ten day trek options include the experience of camping next to the glacier at Crater Camp. The results are dramatic when comparing the summit success rates vs. the number of days on the mountain. For Nature Discovery, these are the average summit success rates:
5 days: 65%
6 days: 75%
7 days: just over 80%
8 days: 90%
9/10 days+: over 95%.
It makes a significant impact on summit success rates to take extra days.
