Thanks, Oksana. “Daunting” is how I might describe Mt. Kilimanjaro, especially the rapid ascent. But doable. Let us know when decide to climb it; we’ll be interested to know your experience. Happy hiking.

TJ: When I think back to any training and what we did before climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, we did little to nothing specifically to prepare. However, from our various travels before, we were in fairly good shape, having hiked and walked quite a lot with pretty big packs, so that kind of preparation didn’t hurt.

The huts differed a bit from site to site, but for the most part they were 6-12 people with bunkbeds. We rented a sleeping bag from the lodge in Moshi so we were plenty warm enough. It’s good to bring earplugs, not only for snoring but also because people will be getting up during the night to pee from all that water drunk during the day.

We took our big DSLR (Nikon D300 at the time) up with us to the top of Kilimanjaro. It did add extra weight, but I used this camera bag with a wide waist strap that put the weight of the camera on my hips (rather than my back or shoulder). This shift of weight to my hips helped, especially on summit night.

Alternatively, you could take a look at some of the smaller mirrorless cameras (e.g., Sony or Fuji) that still have great image quality without a lot of the bulk. One of our photography-savvy friends has a Sony A6000 that he likes. The Panasonic Lumix line also gets good reviews.

Good luck with your decision and upcoming trek!