3 years ago
Great operator and I highly recommend! I booked th...
Great operator and I highly recommend! I booked them for a friend and I to climb Kili and the whole team was great.
We did a 6 day Machame Route.
My flight from Nairobi to Kili (JRO) was canceled due to an airport strike. So I hired a driver to take me to Moshi and notified Daniel (the owner). He immediately responded and requested I give him the driver s full name and phone number. He called the driver to make sure I was okay which I appreciated. Kenya and Tanzania are overall very friendly countries but it was nice for Daniel to look after me.
On the mountain itself, we had Sanke and Manasei as our chief and assistant guides, respectively. Sanke is a 32 year old professional with good knowledge of the mountain. His English was pretty good. Manasei is in his late 40 s perhaps and loves being on the mountain. He understands English very well but somethings were a bit lost in translation. Nothing bad as a result though. He is incredibly kind and seemed a bit like a father figure on the mountain. The porters were also fantastic! What superheros. Those guys carried twice the weight and climbed in half the time. Very impressive. Our camp was always set up for us upon arrival.
The food deserves its own review. It was much better than expected. The price of Youth Adventures seemed to be right about in the middle or even a little less expensive than some other Kili companies. When the price is less, often the food is one of the first things that is compromised. Not in this case though. We were well fed, three hearty meals, very tasty, and a pretty good variety.
Summit day; I worked out extensively for this climb and was well prepared. My friend who is in pretty good shape didn t do a whole lot of prep though. He also strained his knee on a hike a week prior. On summit day, everything hit him at once. The altitude got to him, his knee was is terrible shape and his energy was zapped. Our guides kept getting him on his feet and moving up though. We both summited and couldn t have been happier.
Great job Youth Adventures!