Tracking your Friends and Family as They Climb Kilimanjaro
The vast majority of our climbers have loved ones back home who are concerned about
their safety and happiness while away in Africa. For family and friends of a climber
it can be worrying to imagine them struggling against altitude, the elements, and
objective risks associated with climbing a mountain, and to have no information or
updates about how they are faring. It is with these concerns in mind that we have
developed a system of live-time reporting - both with photos sent directly from the
mountain, and with our GoogleMap tracking feature.
Track a Kilimanjaro climber now >>>
Choosing to Climb with Team Kilimanjaro
We understand that a very significant factor in the decision of many adventurers
to climb Kilimanjaro with us is that we control everything directly ourselves, not
relying on any middlemen or local tour operators to dilute the integrity of sometimes
very sensitive and specific information as it passes down through the chain of command.
Consequently, our climbers expect near-perfect communication between management and
our staff on the ground on Kilimanjaro, and swift and ready access to information
pertaining to all aspects to their booking. While we believe that the nature of Team
Kilimanjaro’s operational structure affords us a very great advantage in this sense,
we would however, like to caution climbers that they should please understand the
limitations of the hardware that we use on Kilimanjaro, and - more significantly
- the limitations of the cellular network provider to supply consistent signal across
the mountain. With such concerns in mind, we would suggest that while climbers may
rightly expect TK to enjoy the highest standards of communication realistically available,
we regret that such are the objective limitations that lie outside our control, that
climbers should certainly not base their decision to climb with us on the assumption
that we will unfailingly be capable of providing photographs of their climb sent
in live-time direct from the mountain on every day of their climb.
Limitations of Data Availability on Cellular Networks on Kilimanjaro
Indeed, prospective climbers should please appreciate that while we have a very transparent
blog site that ought to provide clear evidence of what our teams are able to achieve
in terms of live reporting from the mountain from Kilimanjaro, nonetheless, the following
factors may disappoint climbers that expect faultless and comprehensive photo reports:
- Currently, only around 20 of our top climb teams are equipped with iPhones and supplied
with 2 x 5,000mAh mobile re-chargers. Those of our guides who have not been issued
with iPhones will therefore only be able to send SMS reports
- There are several areas on the mountain which enjoy cellular coverage for voice calls
but which lack adequate data packet saturation, necessary to send images of an average
size of 50KB from Kilimanjaro. This means that on certain days on certain routes,
it is entirely impossible to provide live photo reports
- Even in zones where we ordinarily enjoy adequate voice and data signal coverage,
from time to time we encounter periods of as long as three consecutive days, in which
cellular coverage is simply absent. We understand this to be attributable either
to maintenance, system upgrades, hardware failure or damage, or power supply issues
- From time to time our guides may commit human errors, such as allowing their phone
to become damaged or wet. Where such (rare) events occur, our guides will usually
use the phone of one of their fellow team members to send SMS reports or will attempt
to liaise with other iPhone-equipped TK groups on the mountain. This is often not
possible, however
In short, we would ask climbers to please appreciate the fact that we aim to achieve
an ongoing high standard of communication and reporting amongst our teams, and we
believe that the service we provide in this regard is second to none that is elsewhere
available. That said, we ask climbers to understand that the provision of such services
is not to be understood to be an ‘inclusive’ component of the service we provide
or in any way a contractual obligation on our parts. We hope therefore that friends
and family will enjoy tracking their loved ones on Kilimanjaro, but assert unequivocally,
that this facility should not be depended on and that this service should be expected
to be intermittent and subject to many uncontrollable limitations, including those
already described.
Following Kilimanjaro Climbers on a Google Satellite Map
The mapping feature below allows those who are interested to track the movements
of any climbers who are climbing with us (unless they have asked for their movements
to remain unpublished). We very much hope that you enjoy using it.
To preserve the anonymity of people who do not necessarily want to be found (except
by those they know), rather than using climbers’ names, we use a four digit code
to identify a groups. Please contact us to ascertain the code of the group that you
wish to track.
How to Use Our Interactive Kilimanjaro Climber Tracking Map
Once you have opened the tracking map in full on Google Maps:
- 1. Search the left hand column for the climb group that you wish to track.
Group names are derived from the first two letters of the first name and surname
of the main correspondent that planned the climb with us on their group’s behalf.
For example, John Smith and his three fellow climbers will be referred to as JOSM
x 4. Click on the blue underlined title.
- 2. Use the Google Map zoom function pictured right.
Zoom in on the climbing group until you have the level of detail that you require.
- 3. The position of a climbing group is indicated by the icon representing two green
coloured walkers.
Our climb coordinators receive SMS messages directly from the guide leading each
trip. Bad weather and weak signal can prevent reception on same days. In this event,
our coordinator will indicae that no message has been received, and will move the
group’s icon to the location at which the group is expected to be.
- 4. If a viewer wishes to change the map view...
... so as to, for example, be able to study the shape of the ground and better understand
the topography that the climbing group will be incorporating into their acclimatisation
strategy, please toggle between ‘satellite’ and ‘terrain’ using the buttons at top
right.
Note: on around 1 day in 2 or 3, poor signal prevents the sending of text messages
from the mountain. Where this happens, ‘no news’ should be considered to be ‘good
news’, as, if a medical emergency arises, we will be contacted via radio relay from
one of the ranger’s huts and will post information advising friends and family to
contact us directly for a more detailed report.
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