FACTS ABOUT MOUNTAIN KILIMANJARO

Mount Kilimanjaro has three significant peaks that are known. These peaks are basically volcanic cones. The three peaks are Mawenzi, Shira and Kibo. Of the three mentioned peaks, Kibo is the highest point, giving Mountain Kilimanjaro the right to be the tallest mountain in Africa and the World’s highest free-standing mountain. These are facts about Mountain Kilimanjaro.

1. Approximately 25,000 people attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro annually. Approximately two-thirds are successful. Altitude-related problems is the most common reason climbers turn back.
2. South African Bernard Goosen twice scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair. His first summit, in 2003, took nine days; his second, four years later took only six days. Born with cerebral palsy, Goosen used a modified wheelchair mostly without assistance to climb the mountain.
3. Shamsa Mwangunga, National Resources and Tourism Minister of Tanzania announced in 2008 that 4.8 million indigenous trees will be planted around the base of the mountain, helping prevent soil erosion and protect water sources.
4. The mountains snow caps are diminishing, having lost more than 80 percent of their mass since 1912. In fact, they may be completely ice free within the next 20 years according to scientists.
5. The fasted verified ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro occurred in 2001 when Italian Bruno Brunod summited Uhuru Peak in 5 hours 38 minutes 40 seconds. The fastest round-trip was accomplished in 2004, when local guide Simon Mtuy went up and down the mountain in 8:27 minutes.
6. Almost every kind of ecological system is found on the mountain: cultivated land, rain forest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and arctic summit.
7. The oldest person ever summit Mt. Kilimanjaro was 87-yr-old Frenchman Valtee Daniel.
8. Nearly every climber who has summited Uhuru Peak, the highest summit on Kibo’s crater rim, has recorded his or her thoughts about the accomplishment in a book stored in a wooden box at the top.
9. Kilimanjaro has three volcanic cones, Mawenzi, Shira and Kibo.

Mawenzi and Shira are extinct but Kibo, the highest peak is dormant and could erupt again. The most recent activity was about 200 years ago; the last major eruption was 360,000 years ago.

10. Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain on the African continent and the highest free-standing mountain in the world.