Here is a truth we have watched play out for years: more Kilimanjaro dreams are killed by other people's calendars than by altitude. You mention the mountain, friends say "definitely, someday", the group chat goes quiet, and the dream sits in committee for a decade. So this piece is for the person considering the braver, simpler option: going alone

The final comparison in this series is the closest to our hearts, because these two mountains share a horizon. Mount Meru stands barely seventy kilometres from Kilimanjaro, close enough that from Meru's summit ridge at dawn you watch the sun rise directly behind the Roof of Africa, floating on the clouds across the plain.

There is no official public register of deaths on Kilimanjaro, so treat any precise figure you read online with caution. What is commonly reported is this: tens of thousands of people climb the mountain every year, and in a typical year a small number of deaths are recorded among climbers, most linked to severe altitude illness or to underlying heart conditions revealed by exertion at altitude.

There are six main ways up Kilimanjaro, and choosing between them is the single biggest decision of your climb. It shapes what you see, how busy your trail is, where you sleep, and, more than anything, your chance of standing on the summit.