I created this blog for people who may want to hike Mount Kilimanjaro. I want them to know how amazing this adventure can be. I also think it is very important for people to understand the risks and challenges they may face before they attempt to hike the highest mountain on the African Continent.
I hiked Mount Kilimanjaro in July of 2017. Prior to my trip, I searched the internet for as much information that I could find about people that successfully hiked the mountain. I watched videos and read articles of hikers’s experiences. But after my extensive internet search I felt something was missing. Although I did watch a handful of informative documentaries about the mountain, I felt that I was not able to find what I was looking for. I wanted to read more commentary about how the hiker trained, and planned their trip. I wanted to read articles and watch videos of a hiker’s day-to-day experience on the mountain. In other words, I wanted to review an interactive encyclopedia of a hiker’s first-hand experience of their entire climb. So, after not finding what I was looking for, I decided to create this blog.
Before you dive into this blog head-first, there are a few things I want to explain. First, I am not a documentarian. I worked on this blog off and on for over a year. I spent hours upon hours editing and organizing the following videos you are about to watch. Secondly, I am not an English major, or a journalist. I worked very hard on the articles, editing the grammar to the best of my ability. And finally, I am not an expert at writing blogs. This is my first attempt at publishing a blog. I had to learn on the go while working on this insanely difficult and time consuming project. So, I hope you you find this blog informative, and entertaining.
This is a very detailed blog. This blog consists of fourteen articles, over 40 videos, and several pictures, and it will likely take you over an hour to read and watch all of the content. Therefore, you can use the paragraph below as a short cut to what you may be interested in reviewing. For example, if you are interested in only learning about my hiking experience of Mount Kilimanjaro, then you can review chapters 6 through 13, and so on.
My blog is organized in five major sections: Part One (Chapter 1) consists of how I planned my trip. Part Two (Chapter 2) consists how I trained to prepare myself for the hike. Part Three (Chapter 3 and 4) details my journey to Africa. Part Four (Chapters 5 through 13) refers the day before I started my hike, and each day on the the mountain. Part Five (Chapter 14) describes my final thoughts on my trip.
I personally recorded all the videos in this blog other than a few short video clips that my hiking partner, Sawsan, recorded with her Go Pro. Also, I captured all of the photographs you will see on this blog other than a few photographs that my fellow hiking partner, Matt, took with his camera. Thank you Sawsan and Matt for sharing your photos and videos with me.
All videos were taken with my iPhone 6s Plus, and my GoPro Hero 4 Black Edition. I captured all other pictures with my Sony DSC-HX400V.
Finally, you may notice that when scrolling to the bottom of each chapter there is a link that is titled “previous” and “next.” Unfortunately, due to blog posts being posted in reverse chronological order (meaning the last, or newest chapter is posted first) the link is backwards. I cannot change it. In order for the Chapters to be posted on the home page in chronological order I published the Final Thoughts post first, and I published Chapter 1 last. I apologize if this confuses you while you read and navigate my blog, but I do not have the knowledge or expertise to fix this issue. I hope this does not cause you too much confusion.
I hope you find this blog informative, and entertaining. I worked hard in trying to create an interactive world for aspiring climbers of Mount Kilimanjaro. Enjoy.
Climbing To The Roof Of Africa 