Are you thinking about how you ‘do your business’ on Kilimanjaro? Look no further, here is all the information you need about toilets on Mount Kilimanjaro.

While climbing Kilimanjaro, there are always going to be public toilets at each camp site. These are known as ‘long drop’ toilets. They are wooden permanent buildings that look like…Well normal public restrooms.

Long drop public toilet facilities are provided and maintained by the Kilimanjaro National Park.

Private portable toilet

For the comfort of our guests we provide private portable toilets. This is a simple chemical toilet or in some cases a bag attached to a toilet drum and seat that sits inside a private toilet tent.

Private toilets are just for you and your own group. A porter is tasked with carrying the toilet and toilet tent from camp to camp, and makes sure it is clean and sanitary.

Kilimanjaro rescue procedures happens when a climber is sick or injured and requires medical attention. In such instances, you will be assisted by our  Medical Trained Guide head or assistant guide to return back to the gate.

Air Ambulance

We recommend our guests to Intensive Care Air Ambulance (ICAA) AMREF Flying Doctor who can evacuate you in case of any severe problems. We usually use the following four areas which have helicopter landing pads on the site:

• Shira
• Barranco
• Saddle
• Horombo

There are two possible evacuation sites; BARAFU at 15000ft/4570m amsl and KIBO at 15,500ft/4724m amsl. Please note that these sites are very high and can be extremely dangerous during evacuation.

As such, an evacuation out of the two sites will be conducted on pilots discretion and exceptionally good weather.

Stretcher evacuation

Mountain evacuation is always complicated, and Kilimanjaro is no exception. Thankfully, it is rare that climbers need to be evacuated from Kilimanjaro due to severe altitude sickness or injury. Much more common is mild altitude sickness triggering a precautionary evacuation.

Evacuation from Kilimanjaro is initially on foot (if able) or by stretcher, until the point that can be reached by a rescue car or helicopter.

Rescue Car

The National Park authorities provide a rescue car for these situations, and there are ranger posts on the mountain with radio contact to the park authority headquarters. Once in a vehicle, the sick climber can then be transferred directly to a hospital (KCMC Hospital in Moshi or ALMC Hospital, AAR Clinic or Aga Khan Clinic in Arusha), or if, as is often the case, they are already recovering from altitude sickness, to their lodge.

There are a number of quick descent routes on Kilimanjaro meaning that evacuation can be completed in a day from just about any point on the mountain. We have a well-staffed climb team that include sufficient staff to allow an assistant or lead guide to travel with the sick climber without affecting the rest of the group.