Kilimanjaro Ice Climbing: Will Gadd on the Summit Glaciers in 2014

In late October 2014 the Canadian ice climber Will Gadd climbed the last glaciers on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, 5,895 m above the plains of Tanzania. Photographer Christian Pondella followed him with a camera, and the pictures show something few trekkers expect in Africa: free-standing walls of blue-white ice rising out of bare volcanic gravel.

Will Gadd’s Kilimanjaro ice climb in 2014

Gadd is one of the most accomplished ice climbers of his generation, and National Geographic named him one of its Adventurers of the Year for 2015, alongside Gavin McClurg, for their paragliding traverse of the Canadian Rockies. His Kilimanjaro trip was something different: a climb on ice that is disappearing.

On the summit plateau he worked on the vertical edges of the remaining ice fields, including the Furtwängler Glacier near the crater. He described it as “like climbing icebergs in an ocean of sand”.

What it is like to climb Kilimanjaro’s summit ice

The ice on Kibo is very old and very brittle. “The ice is really old, so it fractures very dynamically and easily—it’s scary, surprising, and beautiful,” Gadd told National Geographic. Air temperatures on the summit swung from about −10 °C to +20 °C, so a wall that felt solid in the morning could shed chunks by afternoon.

That changed how he climbed. In an interview with The Guardian, he said the team was climbing ice that would not be there the following week. Asked whether a feature he climbed still existed, he told National Geographic: “I’d be very surprised if [the ice] were still there now.”

Kilimanjaro’s shrinking glaciers in numbers

Ice has crowned Kilimanjaro for more than 10,000 years, at times ringing the whole crater. The modern retreat is fast:

• In 1912 the summit carried about 11.4 km² of ice. By 2011 less than 1 km² was left, a loss of roughly 85%.
• The Furtwängler Glacier covered about 113,000 m² in 1976, around 60,000 m² in 2000 and only 11,000 m² in 2018. A hole that opened in 2006 split it in two by 2007.
• The northern ice field, holed since the 1970s, divided completely in 2012, according to NASA’s historical account and satellite imagery.

Warming plays a part, but scientists point mainly to drier air over East Africa. Less moisture means less fresh snow to feed the ice and fewer clouds to shade it, so the strong equatorial sun eats away at the walls from the side. A 2013 study projected that most of the ice would be gone by 2040 and that none would likely remain after 2060.

Kilimanjaro facts for trekkers

Kilimanjaro has three volcanic cones: Kibo, the highest, whose summit is Uhuru Peak; Mawenzi at 5,149 m; and Shira at 4,005 m. Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller made the first recorded ascent on 6 October 1889, and the mountain has been protected as Kilimanjaro National Park since 1973.

About 50,000 people attempt the summit each year on routes such as Machame (6–7 days), Marangu (about 6 days), Rongai and Lemosho. The main rains fall from March to May and around November, so most trekkers aim for the drier months outside those windows. Take a longer itinerary: extra days on the mountain greatly improve acclimatisation and the chance of reaching the top.

For Gadd’s next big ice project, see his Niagara ascent with Sarah Hueniken. For people dwarfed by mountains, explore Jakub Polomski’s The Scale of Nature, and for another adventure on glacier ice, see David Carlier’s Aletsch expedition photographs. Heading to the Tanzanian coast after the climb? Try The Rock Restaurant, Zanzibar: A Table Above the Tide.

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