All news: 7 March 2012

On March 7, the day before International Women’s Day, Russia’s main spring holiday, our team is sending Ludmila Korobeshko off to perform great feats on the equator! The second mountain in our project is located in a place that just about everybody dreams of someday seeing.

For those who haven’t read Hemingway’s description of the famous snows of Kilimanjaro… the great snowy giant, at the foot of which elephants and rhinoceroses roam free and the sun sets over endless jungle where troops of wild monkeys migrate from one place to the next.

So the Alpari team is flying off to Nairobi, which is the capital of Kenya, for those who don’t remember.

Of course we’re a little worried about our crew — they say that yellow fever had been rampant in Kenya. The Russian Health Ministry does actually recommend getting a yellow fever vaccination. Entering Tanzania is generally safe.

Bearing the nickname the “Roof of Africa”, Mount Kilimanjaro is considered the highest freestanding mountain in the world and will be the object of our attention for the next couple of weeks.

Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania near the border with Kenya and is a mere 300 km from the equator.

The mountain has three separate peaks: Shira in the west (3962 m), Mawenzi in the east (5149 m) and the highest of the three, Kibo (5895). There is a glacier on both the northern and southern faces of Kibo, yet tropical jungle at the foot! The highest point on Kibo (and therefore the highest summit of the mountain) is the peak Uhuru.

Having scarecely had time to collect their thoughts after Argentina, our team is already packing for Africa where the temperature is currently +29-30 in the day, cooling off to +17 at night.