Shortly after arranging my trip to Kili, I received a list of the kit I’d need to complete the climb in relative comfort and with all my fingers.
Then I found another Kili kit list on a website, and my climbing partner Shaun sent me two more. It seems everyone has a different idea of what you need to take up Kili. While they have some confusing variations, there are a few essentials they all agree on.
Shorts and T-shirts are pretty simple. Even I understand how those work. But down jackets, waterproof suits and thermal underwear were more unfamiliar territory. Words like Thermalite, Coolmax and Hypalon made me realise that keeping warm and dry were going to be a serious, hi-tech business.
So we made our own list of the kit we’d need especially for Kili and decided to test it on the mountain. Since we were unwilling to risk appendages, we chose stuff that was recommended by experts.
Ray Chaplin at the Wynberg Capestorm was our chief gear guru and helped assemble a mountain of kit, along with a landslide of useful tips.
Performance at an acceptable price was our main specification. With enough money, you could probably levitate up Kili, but we tried to keep it realistic. Weight is also a major consideration, since personal weight allowance for the climb is just 12kgs. Anything over that, we had to carry ourselves or leave behind.
For some of the more specialist items, we tested a couple of different options. Information given to me by suppliers (all raving gear freaks) was compared with the actual performance of the kit.
