Mt Kenia, the mountaineers mountain of Africa
Mt Kenia is a true climbers mountain and not like Kilimanjaro a "trekking peak".
It is steep and craggy and with twin summit spires, its the kind of peak mountaineers may dream of if they think of serious climbing. Her summit is made up by two peaks Neilion, 5188m and Bation 5199m.
Both peaks are very adventurious to climb and even the "easy routes"are technical.
Here is some more information about mt Kenia...............................
The name mt Kenia is from the local name "Kiinyaa", what means "mountain of the ostrich", the local thought the white spots of the snow looks like the withe feathers on the male ostrich. Later when the first "white people" arrived they translated this into Kenia. So Kenia is called after her heighest point and not the other way around.
The trek in to mt Kenia is amazing!!!!!
The climate is very tropical and this gives a misty mistirious atmosfhere to the mountain. The plants look like they are from an other planet. 80 spieces of plants that you see, only grow here on mt Kenia.
It takes about three days to walk to the base of the climbs, but beware most climb starts at about 4700m so it is wise to take some rest days to aclimate
The easy route is the Mackinder route to Neilion, it is a 16 pitch route and the crux is the "de Graaf's variation".
This is a pitch of IV+ uiaa at 5000m, the rest of the route is grade II and III mostly.
It is a very clasic climb, like some major routes in the Alps, the route finds the "weak" spots in the mountain and follows them. Beware it is sometimes hard to find the way and because of the afternoon mist and rain, conditions can change very quickly! mt Kenia lies at the equator but this doesn't mean it is always nice and sunny!
It is possible to rappel this route down from the summit, 50 and 25 m rappels and be down the same day.
In a emergency you can bivi at the summit in a small bivi hut.
The view from the summit is amazing, the plains of Kenia with the forest in front of you!
This is just one way to the summit, there are numerious of routes even multi-day routes.
Because all the attention of climbing in Africa goes to Kilimanjaro, you can have mt Kenia for yourself most of the time.
For me climbing in Africa was a boys dream that became true !
The experience is so special because of the setting of the surroundings, I hope more people will check it out!
