Who is on your crew?
- Lead guide — a licensed mountain guide who leads the climb, sets the pace, monitors everyone's health and makes the safety decisions, including whether to continue or turn back.
- Assistant guides — climb with the group, so that if one climber needs to slow down or descend, a guide goes with them while the others continue.
- Cook — prepares three meals a day plus snacks and hot drinks, often in a small mess tent.
- Porters — carry the tents, food, water, cooking equipment and your main bag, and set up camp before you arrive.
- Others — some climbs have a camp manager, a waiter or a porter who carries a portable toilet.
How big is the crew?
It depends on the route, the number of days and the size of your group. As a guide, expect about three to four crew members per climber, so even a couple may climb with a team of eight or more. Longer routes need more porters because there is more food and water to carry.
Load limits
The national park limits the load a porter may carry for climbers to around 20 kg, checked at the gate. Porters also carry their own clothing and sleeping kit. You help by packing light: keep your duffel well under the limit, and leave anything you will not need at your hotel.
Treating your crew well
Porters do the hardest physical work on the mountain. Good practice — and what you should expect from any operator — means:
- Fair wages, paid in full
- Loads within the park limit
- Proper food and a place to sleep in a tent
- Warm clothing, boots and rain gear suited to the conditions
- Care and evacuation if a porter becomes sick or injured
The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) is an independent organisation that works to improve porters' working conditions; its website is a good place to learn more.
Tipping the crew
Tips are an important part of crew members' income. They are usually given at a small ceremony on the last morning, often with songs. Many groups put the tips in one envelope per crew role, and some hand them to each crew member directly so everyone receives their share. Ask us for a guideline for your route and group size, and see tipping in Tanzania.
Getting to know them
Learn a few words of Swahili — "Jambo", "Asante sana", "Pole pole". Many guides and porters live in the villages around the mountain, and the songs, the singing and the celebration at the end of the climb are among the moments climbers remember most.
