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Shaida bai karim and I had an interesting meeting. This meeting resulted in the following event:
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Kilimanjaro Adventure MMX

Mission
A fun(d)-raising conquest of the roof of Africa

When
Early July 2010
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UPDATE: The dates of the expedition have been finalized.
5th July - 13th July 2010
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Registration deadline Friday, 30 April 2010
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UPDATE: The registration deadline has been extended to 31 May 2010.
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How
Machame Route
The day-to-day 6 day Machame Route Itinerary [pdf file, 1.47Mb] is now available for download.


Who
Ladies (accompanied by Gents), 18yrs and above; First come, first served
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UPDATE: 15+ year-old's can now join provided they are generally fit and ready to train for the climb
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Cost
600,000/-* per person

To register
the 'Registration/Consent Form' [pdf file, 17KB] has to be filled, signed and submitted to Hasin [0713 555055 or hasin [at] ask.or.tz] along with one passport sized photo and a photocopy of the passport. Tshs 100,000/- has been fixed as a the initial non-refundable deposit.

For more info: 0713 555055 [Hasin] :: 0716 434231 [Mrs. Shaida Karim]
*For residents only (Non-residents have to pay extra park fees). Excluding transport, tips, soft drinks and equipments

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The 1st preparatory meeting for participants was held on 8th May
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UPDATE: The 2nd Preparatory meeting for participants will be held on Friday 21 May 2010.

Here is the official poster

FAQ's

This post is dedicated to questions and queries that keep repeating. Read this before posting your question(s)
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Q: I am confused, whats happening when?

A: Registrations start in April and end on 30 April 2010.
Deposit of 100,000/- (non-refundable) is required on registration.
Meetings to start mental and physical preparation for the climb start in May 2010.
A second deposit of 50% is to be made by Saturday May 15, 2010.
The balance is due by May 31, 2010.
The group takes off for Arusha from Dar es Salaam early in July 2010 (date to be announced soon) and returns from Arusha before the end of the second week of July.
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Q: How does the fund-raising work?

A: Each group member will be given fund-raising guidelines which will allow them to cover their own cost of the trip as well as fund-raise for a worthy cause. A strong fund-raiser can possibly make her own trip absolutely free
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Q. Do I have to fund-raise? Whats in it for me?

A. We are discussing a minimum fund-raising figure that each participant will have to raise. These funds will help you in two ways:

(a) The funds will go towards a public service organization (i.e. Ask.or.tz) who will use the funds towards the running of their projects. One of their on-going project is support for Dar-Ul-Muslimeen Orphanage (http://www.orphanage.or.tz)

(b) The fund-raising forms specify that 50% of what you collect will go towards the costs of your trip. This means that if you manage to collect Tshs 1.2m/-, you go free :)
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Q. What route? Itinerary? Fund-raising forms? All the details?

A. Upon registration, each participant will be given a participants folder with all the details. Each meeting will focus on important issues such as Health on the mountain, How to assess physical and mental ability, How to increase physical and mental ability, Getting to know the day to day experience via Machame route and so on.
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Q. Since this is a Ladies expedition, what arrangements have been made for safety on the mountain since all the guides and porters are gents?

A. A few respectable gents who have climbed Kilimanjaro before will accompany the group along with respectable ladies who have climbed Kilimanjaro before. This is necessary as not only are porters and guides mostly gents but so are half the tourists climbing the mountain.

These gents and ladies will be introduced to the group during the meetings. Parents who have climbed Kilimanjaro and are willing to volunteer should contact us.
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Q. I want to bring along my father/brother/husband as my guardian along with me. Is this possible?

A. Yes, pending approval by the organizing team
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Q. I am not a resident/citizen, can I join the expedition?

A. Yes. However, you will have to pay foreigner park fees. (email or call if you need to know how much)
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Any questions, queries or requests for information can be posted here

The group will be accompanied by experienced gents and ladies who will be guiding the group throughout the climb.

Meetings for the group will be held in May in order to initiate the mental and physical preparation that is paramount to a successful ascent of mount Kilimanjaro.

The group, in the process of climbing Kilimanjaro, will fund-raise for Ask and its projects, including the support for Dar-ul-Muslimeen orphanage.

Dar ul Muslimeen orphanage

Kilimanjaro: Machame Route
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(taken from Tanzania Odyssey)

The beautiful Machame Route is highly rated as the most scenic route of all those up Kilimanjaro, with diverse vegetation and wide views as well as a number of possible route choices beyond the Lava Tower Camp at 4630m.

Machame Route can take either five or six days to complete, depending on the fitness of the climbers, and the final ascent is steep in each case. This route sets off from Machame village, and reaches the first Machame Camp at 3000m where the forest meets the heather. The track continues across moorland to Shira Camp on the western side of Kibo, with excellent views over the Shira Plateau.

From here it is usual to follow the Shira Route to the Lava Tower Hut and then join with the Umbwe route down to Barranco Camp for an overnight at 3950m, but very fit climbers may continue to ascend the much steeper route via Arrow Glacier, (although the hut here is no longer in use).

Those at Barranco Camp ascend to Barafu Camp by the Mweka route, and continue on this trail on the final ascent to the summit. This route will usually descend by the Mweka Route.

Here is another map comparing three routes of Kilimanjaro

Here is a map comparing all 6 routes

Salam
this seems to be quite a challenging route. Have u been there? Wat was ur personal experience like?

Although Machame is traditionally thought to be a more challenging route than the "coca cola' Marangu route, many experienced Kilimanjaro climbers will beg to differ.

The most simple way to judge the difficulty is to look at success rates. Machame has much higher success rates than any other route up the mountain, except perhaps Rongai.

In addition to the above, Machame is beautiful and very scenic compared to Marangu. machame also has a distinct acclimatization advantage which can prove very helpful especially for us who dwell at sea-level.

Here is a quote from a specialized mountain company about Machame

The principal advantage of the Machame Route over the standard Rongai, Umbwe and Marangu Routes is that day 3 ascends from 3847m to only 3984m, yet via 4642m at the base of a volcanic rocky outcrop known as the Lava Tower. The 600m height differential ensures that Machame exploits the ‘climb high, sleep low’ principle to maximum effect. This and the fact that the summit assault on the Machame Route is via a ridge rather than a loose scree slope and is therefore considerably less difficult than the assault on Marangu and the standard Rongai Route, is responsible for the fact that Machame boasts the best summit success rates of all the routes after the TK Rongai Route.

One of the glaciers in the crater of Mount Kilimanjaro

There are other advantages to Machame:

1. We can see more of Kilimanjaro.
On Marangu the climber goes up and down the same route. Via Machame and other tented routes the climber goes up one route /(example Machame) and down another (example: Mweka)

2. The final ascent
On Machame, the climber reach the crater rim via stella point while on Marangu and Rongai the climber reaches the crater rim via Gilmans point. Gilmans point is approximately 1 hour further away from Uhuru Peak than Stella Point.

An informative email has been sent out regarding this expedition.

The full text of this email can be read online at http://ask.or.tz/newsletter.php?mail=25#p