I highly recommend Ascend Tanzania for any Kilimanjaro climbing trek. My daughter and I climbed the Machame 7 day route. Before traveling to Tanzania, I was able to use video chat with Ascend for help answering my questions. The Lindrin Inn that is used by the company for before and after the trek is a beautiful quiet resort with a friendly and helpful staff. We met with Kennedy and our lead guide, Dixon who briefed us for the trek. They checked equipment, paperwork and asked us about our trekking and hiking experience. We met our assistant guide, Stephen, chef, Peter and all of the porters the next day. Everyone on the trail was happy, cheerful and went out of their way to make our experience fun. Peter cooked us large quantities of delicious food at high altitude every day. Richard was our waiter who greeted us every morning with coffee, tea and hot water. He set our table daily, served us every meal and taught us Swahili phrases. On summit day, my daughter began to feel signs of altitude sickness. The guides kept her moving, made her drink juice and encouraged her to keep climbing when she wanted to stop. If it were not for the guides, Dixon and Stephen, she would not have made it to Uhuru Peak. The trek to Kilimanjaro was an incredible experience which was elevated even more ( pun intended 😊)with the kindness, humor and professionalism of the Ascend team.

I have made many pleasure trips around the world in my 68 years, but Kilimanjaro was par-none.

An African Safari was in my bucket list, yes, but Kili? No! It never occurred to me; an opportunity purely by chance; and I am proud that I did it. Now, a week after returning home, I’m missing Kili so badly that I want to go back again!

I tell you, dear reader, that in addition to the magic of that majestic mountain and its panoramic surroundings, there is yet another attraction that pulls me back there: the goodness of heart of the guides, Especially Erick “the Guide” Ponera and Yahya (Yaki) Chuma.

We hired Ascend Tanzania after checking out a total of five different companies for this trip (our plan included a 6-day hike of Kilimanjaro and a 3-day safari thereafter.) Ascent Tanzania turned out to be the best tour organizers I have used thus far in my life. They proved to be simply great! Everything worked like clock-work. They provided us with four guides, two cooks, and other supporting staff like servers, porters, etc., totaling thirty-three (33) people to accompany us - all for a reasonable price. Outstanding! To top it off, they rushed the printed copies of our COVID RT-PCR test results to us at the airport, overcoming the bureaucratic delay of the government testing agency, just in time to board our flight back home.

The most important takeaway I have was the dedication and the hard work of those men and women to make our trip so successful. We were a bunch of eight (8) misfits who misguidedly thought that we could make the Machame route in 6 days, even though the information we gathered showed us an average success rate of only 73%. Some of us had practiced hiking and other exercises prior to departing for Tanzania, but not all. We were clueless of the hardships we were about to face, and we had more than our share of mishaps during the climb. I took a tumble on a slope (luckily I was unhurt); one person got a twisted ankle with a hairline fracture, and had to be air-lifted out to town with her husband; another had severe altitude sickness; and a third had severe constipation and couldn’t eat much during the trip. The rest of us also had varying degrees of altitude sickness. In addition, the reluctance of going to bathroom among the rocks was a dissuasion from drinking enough water – all leading to varying degrees of trouble. However, the guides were there for us the whole time, attending the sick and encouraging the rest. Erick played a phenomenal part in organizing the helicopter lift for our injured friend. He and guide Roman were delayed until 3 PM at Barranco camp taking care of the air-lifting, a six- hour delay, but caught up with us about half way to the next (Barafu) camp. I often wondered if they really slept or took any rest.

The cooks were wonderful, and provided us delicious, hot food, and the servers compelled us to eat, for we were burning calories like crazy in the ascending journey. The hot soup and the ginger tea they served on the way were out of this world! A notable problem with altitude sickness is loss of appetite and thirst, but their gentle persuasion and good food more than compensated, compelling us (except for the constipated guy, who incidentally lost over ten lbs. in a week!) to eat well.

The four guides assigned to us were just great! No amount of praise would measure up to their patience, ever-present smile, and pleasing demeanor, even in those treacherous conditions with the tired, often disoriented, and less than cooperative clients. They told us how to take each step, held our hands, pulled us up, and even carried our backpacks (containing out water and bare essentials, like medications) over their own large rucksacks.

At one point, I refused Yahya’s offer to carry my back pack (he thought I was too tired.) He was philosophical, saying, “Mr. Menon, no one will ask you back home whether you carried your back pack to the summit. They will only ask if you reached the summit.”

Erick led us from behind, helping the weakest among us the entire time and prodding us on, until finally the remaining six of us made it to the top: three up to the Stella point and three to the Uhuru peak: a feat beyond our strength and endurance!

Folks, if you look at this Trip Advisor platform, you would find that pretty much all these tour companies are highly rated. No wonder they are; and I believe they are true ratings. Notwithstanding, I tell you, if you could hire Ascend Tanzania and get Erick and/or Yaki as your lead tour guides, you are extremely lucky. You couldn’t do better!

Thank you all at Ascend Tanzania!

‪I had no idea what I was signing up for when I decided, without any prior experience of a trek of this calibre, stupidly or bravely, to attempt the Kilimanjaro climb. I attribute my successful summit to the crew that @Ascend Tanzania assembled for us under the leadership of Chief Guide @Erick Ponera and assistant guides Yaki, Josephine and Roman. These guys inspired confidence in me from the get go. Everyone in the crew was so amazing, friendly, cheerful and always had a smile on their face. Erick gave me the most support, push and encouragement through out the climb and allowed me to hike at my own pace. He had seen me in my worst moments on Day 5 of the climb and the way he handled it with patience and dignity is very commendable. Huge respect ✊ Everyone in the Ascend team each contributed in their own way, on the climb itself, their experience was clear - they knew exactly what to do and how to support our team as a whole (we were group of 8) and yet understood each of our capabilities and tailored support accordingly. The porters, who do the hard work carrying all our supplies, cooked our food, ensured we had enough water at all times, were simply fantastic. They welcomed us into their group with such warmth and treated us like extended family. If you ask me the one thing that I have learnt from this trip is “How to treat people better”. I can't thank the team enough for making my first mountain trekking experience an amazing and safe one!‬! THANK YOU GUYS!! I would highly recommend Ascend Tanzania and Erick Ponera’s team to anyone who is looking to check off Mt.Kilimanjaro from their bucket list.