Walks of a lifetime
The world’s most famous treks are well-known for a reason – so how can you experience their glories whilst avoiding their pitfalls? Hanna Lindon looks at how best to tackle six walks of a lifetime...
THERE ARE SOME TREKS
Whose fame precedes them, even in nonhillwalking circles. Name-drop Everest Base Camp or the Inca Trail on social media, and your post will instantly sprout a forest of likes. It’s easy to dismiss these A-list adventures as crowd-pleasers – but there’s a reason they top so many bucket lists. These treks are some of the most beautiful you’ll find anywhere on Earth. They also present enough of a challenge to satisfy all but the most masochistic walker. Here’s how to get your trekking fix on these world-famous routes whilst avoiding the pitfalls of their popularity...
Kilimanjaro is often flagged as the easiest of the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on each continent). When it comes to the world’s tallest mountains, though, ‘easy’ is a relative term. Kili might be diminutive in comparison with Everest, but at 5895m it’s head and shoulders above three other peaks in the Seven Summits group – and it is a test of both altitude resilience and endurance. Indeed, only 45-60% of trekkers make it to the summit. In other words: don’t underestimate the challenge.
From afar, Africa’s highest is one of the most recognisable peaks in the world. It hovers into view across the flat, game-roamed wilds of Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro National Park, its snow-streaked volcanic cone often rising above a skirt of thin cloud. At certain times of year, the full moon appears to balance on the mountain’s summit. Perhaps that’s why second-century sailors described it to Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy as Africa’s ‘moon mountain’.
As well as all this visual splendour, Kilimanjaro has several significant claims to a place on any amateur mountaineer’s bucket list. It’s the highest free-standing mountain in the world – hence the dramatic way it strikes the eye across the Tanzanian plains. Barring the rarely-climbed Breach Wall Direct route, pioneered by Reinhold Messner and Konrad Renzler in 1978, there are no technical difficulties on any of the seven routes to the top. The only real barriers standing between you and summit success are fitness and altitude.
“The major unknown, which is largely out of your con
