Kilimanjaro Climb - IITK90 29ers - July 20-27, 2023
In 2020 my IIT-Kanpur college friends had made an ambitious plan to climb Kilimanjaro before going on to visit Masai Mara for a safari. COVID put paid to those plans, but three years later in July 2023, under the leadership of Samir Palnitkar and Arun Kumar, we resurrected the plan and 29 of us (14 batchmates, 5 spouses and 10 children) embarked on the journey, little knowing what was in store. We ranged in age from 11 – 55 years old, and in experience from 2 people having done Everest Base Camp earlier in 2023, to some doing their first high altitude trek. We had engaged African Love Birds as our trek company, and July 19 th found us all at Panama resort in Moshi, Tanzania to get briefed, rent any gear needed and be ready to leave the next morning. I was accompanied by my son Sahil who had just finished college and was going to start working next month. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa...