Gear review – Kilimanjaro

Worked well.
• Sleeping/camp clothes. To put on different clothes. This was so nice at the end of the day and gave time for clothes to air out
• Water proofs kept out majority of the rain even on worst days, whereas others wrote off entire sets of clothes due to wet and not able to dry.
• Sleeping bag. I was sceptical about this but kept me warm really well. Although rated to -18° it is about 10 years old, however as soon as I was in it soon warmed up. However did not get to try it at the coldest camp.
• Marino layers kept me warm and sweat free. I think I wore the same 2 layers throughout the whole trip.
• Poncho. This was a last minute keep in. And worked realy well in sweaty rain forest. Easy to pull on and off, kept the rain off my bag and cloths.
• Dry bags for kit. Although duffels were quite water proof all my kit remained dry whilst others got a bit wet on one day. Also numerous multi coloured bags allowed sorting and organising within the bag.
• Talc. After a soggy day ability to dry your feet out was good. Also after a hot day with sweaty feet. Dry your feet and socks out really helped reuse socks and keep feet fresh.
• Exxico under wear. So comfy, light weight. Breathable. Quite expensive but totally worth it.
• Gaters. Cheap but very useful, kept the bottoms of my trousers dry and clean throughout the trip.


Did not need
• Sleeping mat, although super comfy the other matt supplied was good. Plus the inflation was a bit faffy and gave less space in tent. However did not know how comfy the mats provided would have been.
• So many snacks. I lost my apitite and nothing wanted to be eaten.
• So many portable chargers and batteries held out a lot better than expected. Was not as cold on an evening.
• A few too many spares bits and pieces,

Should of taken
Ginger -biscuits, chews, tea. Helped with stomach and tasty.
Spare torch. Although i was fine others had issues with torches and as this was essentialy for the final night not something you want to break of loose.


Could improve
Although boots were super comfy they did get my feet wet on 1 particular day coming down from lava tower through rivers and hail.
I think only 1 person with leather boots did not have this issue, so not sure if there was much which could be done. -research a way to dry boots quickly. Also might have needed them slightly bigger to fit thicker socks to keep feet warm, however for 90% of the time they were good and did not get any blisters. 😀

Some socks were better than others. Most the time I wear only 1, however some were too thin so needed 2, which is ok but means you carry around more socks.

Garmin watch does not record steps either because using walking poles or because it was too vertical. Walked for 6 hours but only took 3000 steps. Climbed 291 floors. Someone else recorded about 17000 which felt more realistic.

Overall I used all my clothes and they worked well so quite happy I made the right choices. Would try and cut down on the other stuff but I always say that and never do.