The Snows of Kilimanjaro: A Climate Journey From Rainforests to Summit

摘要

In the eastern half of equatorial Africa lies one of the most majestic and romanticized mountains in the world, the great Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Kilimanjaro is a volcanic mountain rising 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level, making it the highest mountain on the African continent, or as many call it, "the Roof of Africa." Thousands of people each year attempt to climb this formidable peak with varying degrees of success (normally only about 66%-75% of trekkers actually make it to the summit). In December of 2019, we participated in an eight-day attempt at the reaching the summit with 13 other adventurers-surprisingly (at least to us), we actually managed to summit the mountain on Christmas Day. Of particular interest to us, as geoscien-tists, were the varying environments and weather of this intriguing mammoth national park in Tanzania.