Kilimanjaro is a deceptive mountain. It doesn’t require technical mountaineering, but it absolutely brings people to their knees—medical evacuations run constantly, and altitude can wreck you fast. In this video I take you with me on a 7-day Machame Route climb right before the rainy season shuts things down. We start at Machame Gate around 5,800 ft and push hard up toward 10,000 ft on day one, then spend the next several days doing the classic “climb high, sleep low” acclimatization strategy—like hitting Lava Tower over 15,000 ft before dropping back down to camp. This year was especially insane: storms, hail, lightning (very “spicy up here”), and crowds that were way heavier than normal—our guide Freddy said canceled trips from last year got bunched into the same window, and it turned sections of the route into a full-on traffic jam. The hard part isn’t just the hiking—it’s managing altitude sickness as a group. We had multiple people forced to descend, including a helicopter evacuation, and it was a sobering reminder that safety has to win. Summit night from Barafu (“Barf Camp”) is a midnight grind in the cold and dark, but sunrise up high is one of my favorite things on earth. We finally hit Uhuru Peak at 19,343 ft—the highest point in Africa—tired, emotional, and insanely grateful for our team, especially guides like Freddy and Hami, plus the porters who make the whole operation possible.