These are Kilimanjaro records that you may have not known about Mount Kilimanjaro, from the fastest ascend to descend to the youngest and the oldest to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
Fastest ascent of Kilimanjaro
On August 13, 2014, Swiss mountain runner Karl Egloff ran to the 5895m summit in 4 hours and 56 minutes, thereby beating the previous ascent-only record of Spanish runner Kilian Jornet, set in 2010.
Fastest ascent and descent
That’s not the end of the story, however, for Karl then trotted back down to the gate in a total time of 6 hours 42 minutes and 24 seconds.
Fastest ascent and descent (unaided)
A previous holder of the record for the fastest ascent and descent, Simon Mtuy of Tanzania, still holds one record. On the 22 February 2006 he climbed from Umbwe Gate to the summit and back in 9 hours 19 minutes. In doing so, he achieved the fastest ever unaided ascent and descent. By unaided, they mean that he carried his own food, water and clothing.
This despite suffering from a nasty bout of diarrhea, as well as taking a three-minute break at the top to video himself, plus two further breaks to vomit!
Simon runs the Summit Expeditions and Nomadic Experience trekking agency in Moshi, was there to greet Kilian as he finished his record-breaking feat (and took the record from Simon) – proving he is a gentleman as well as an extraordinary athlete!
Fastest Female Ascent and Descent
Danish athlete Kristina Schou Madsen reached the summit of Kilimanjaro via the Mweka Route- and descended on the same route – in a speedy 6 hours, 52 minutes and 54 seconds. Kristina set the time on February 23rd, 2018.
Youngest person to reach the summit
On 22 October 2018 Coaltan Tanner, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, reached the summit of Kilimanjaro aged just 6 years, 1 month and 4 days. In doing so, he broke one of the most enduring (and disputed) records on the mountain by becoming the youngest person ever to reach the summit unaided. (By unaided, we mean that Coaltan was not carried at any time during the trek and walked the entire way from gate to summit.)
The first recognized holder of this record was Keats Boyd, who back in January 2008 successfully hauled his seven-year-old body up to the summit of Africa’s highest mountain. That record stood for a decade until 2018 Cash Callahan, also aged seven (or 2824 days to be precise), also climbed unaided to the summit. Unfortunately, nobody could trace Keats to find out when his birthday was, and as a result nobody was certain which of them was actually the younger when they reached the top.
Thankfully, Coaltan’s achievement means we now have a new – and undisputed – record holder.
The following year, Ashleen Mandrik, from near Brighton, climbed to the summit aged just six. That climb has yet to be ratified by the Guinness Book of World Records, however; showing a refreshing lack of interest in having a record-breaking child, her mum, Victoria, did not contact them until after they had completed the climb, and thus it is currently uncertain whether Ashleen will be officially recognized as the youngest female ever to climb to the summit.
If she isn’t, and her claims that she got to the top unaided can’t be verified by the authorities, then the record will remain with Montannah Kenney, of Austin, Texas. Montannah was aged just 7 years old – 2865 days to be precise – when she made it all the way to Uhuru Peak.
The youngest person – or, rather – people to climb Kilimanjaro and who were above the minimum age were the Loynd twins, Alex and Alan, who achieved the summit on the 24 June 2019 on their tenth birthday.
Oldest person to reach the summit
Perhaps surprisingly, this is the record that has changed hands most frequently over the past few years. In July 2019 Anne Lorimor, from Phoenix, Arizona, reached the summit aged 89.
This was not Anne’s first successful climb to Uhuru Peak: four years earlier, in August 2015, she had climbed with her niece and nephew to the summit aged 85.
Back then, Anne’s Mount Kilimanjaro climb had earned her the record for the oldest woman to reach the top. But on October 29th of that year, Russian octogenarian Angela Vorobeva took the popular Machame Route to the top aged 86 years, 267 days. (Impressive, but it’s fair to say that it’s not the toughest challenge that Ms Vorobeva has faced, having survived of the Siege of Leningrad in 1944!).
Ms Vorobeva held the title of the oldest person to climb to the top until July 20th 2017, when Dr Fred Distelhorst, a retired orthodontist from Vail, Colorado, reached the summit at the age of 88. Fred held the record for two years until Anne, spurred on by the fact that she’d lost her record, launched her latest record-breaking expedition.
Even prior to 2015, the record had changed hands frequently. On 2nd October 2014, Robert Wheeler, from the USA, reached the summit after five days of trekking aged 85 years 201 days. His climb thus trumped Martin and Esther Kafer, from Vancouver, who reached the summit in September 2012 aged 85 and 84 respectively.
Esther was just a year older than Bernice Buum, who reached the summit aged 83 in September 2010; while Martin’s achievement piped those of farmer Richard Byerley from Washington, USA, who in October 2011 reached the summit of Africa’s highest mountain at the ripe old age of 84 years and 71 days – and who in turn had eclipsed British granddad George Solt, a retired professor from Olney, Buckinghamshire, who the previous summer had summited at the age of 82.