Lava Tower

This peculiar formation (as if anything on Kili isn’t!) sits high on the south-western flanks of huge and glaciated Kibo, Kilimanjaro’s main summit. It is usually approached by a long climb from the Shira and Shira 2 camps on the east of the Shira Plateau to the junction of the Northern and Southern Circuits, and then an interesting upward traverse to the tower on a route which climbs to the fearsome Western Breach summit route.

The initial stage is a long slog up in Alpine shrublands: lovely, vivid vegetation softening the harsh outcrops of old lava flows. At the junction where the Northern and Southern circuits meet, you turn east and later branch off uphill to make a gorgeous undulating traverse, just on the vegetation line, so alternating between small shrubs and bare Alpine desert, then a climb towards a long lava cliff, with the Lava Tower dominating the middle horizon. Round beyond the cliff, a final exhausting climb gets you to the busy platform below the chunky but perhaps slightly disappointing tower. The platform is likely to be covered with tents (you can camp here, and it isn’t a bad staging post, albeit high). 

You should enjoy amazing views out over the Shira plateau towards the looming silhouette of Mt Meru, especially if starting promptly in the morning.

The altitude is likely to tell, and you will find the ups increasingly laborious.

Over the years, increasing numbers of people are making a longer trek of Kilimanjaro for better acclimatization, approaching from the west to the Shira Plateau, as Walkopedia did, then swinging round on one of two routes round Kibo (the Northern and Southern Circuits), before attacking the summit.  The circuits’ western junction is above Shira and Shira 2 camps.

The Lava Tower is a useful acclimatization walk, and a time-filler on an otherwise short day if heading on to the Muir Hut camp on the Northern Circuit  in its deep, harshly beautiful, once-glacial valley. It can also  be a side jaunt if heading east on the Southern Circuit, but it could make a very a long day anyway, so this won’t be for everyone, although you can camp at the tower.

See William Mackesy’s account (below) of this walk.

The altitude will be tough, so physical fitness and mental preparation, as well as ample time for proper acclimatisation, will make for a more enjoyable (and safer) day. 

www.tourdust.com organise an expedition including a Lava Tower walk: we have travelled with Tourdust, and were delighted.

See our Kilimanjaro Massif page for further walks, photos and general information on Kili.