Afritrex - The Mountains
As part of the challenge we’ve chosen to climb the highest peaks of the five highest mountain ranges of Africa. The experience will vary widely from ascent to ascent, from the well climbed Kilimanjaro, to the little explored and hard-to-get-to Mount Stanley, or Ruwenzori in the DRC which involves a three day trek through jungle and marsh just to get to the base. Each ascent will expose us to very different climates and environments, starting with Toubkal in Moroccan mid winter, deep snow and temperatures well below zero, Mount Cameroon just before the rainy season arrives and ending with Ras Dashen as the autumn arrives in Ethiopia giving typically hot African temperatures.
Africa, with 30.258.010 Km² has one fifth of Earth's land's surface, but surprisingly few major mountains and ranges. The great Sahara Desert, the rainforests of the Congo basin, and the high savannas of Eastern and Southern Africa take up most of Africa's land area, and the continent's equatorial position means very little snow, glaciation, and alpine mountain landscape.
However, there are still mountains in Africa for those willing to search and their isolation adds to the experience and difficulty of the ascents. Most of the mountaineering interest in Africa is centered on the three massifs rising above the East African savanna: from Tanzania's Kilimanjaro (5895m), the highest point on the continent; to the smaller Mount Kenya to the compact Ruwenzori Range rising to 5109m with Pic Marguerite on the Uganda-Congo border, the Legendary mountains of the moon, clouded in mystery and drizzly mist. The Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria rise to 4165m at Jebel Toubkal and they offer some interesting scrambling and, in winter, even some skiing. Ethiopia is an extremely mountainous country, most of it an expansive high plateau with deep canyons, rising gently to the 4620m peak of Ras Dashen, the highest mountain in Africa outside the three famous massifs. West Africa offers little in the way of mountains outside of the massive, dominant cone of Mount Cameroon(4100m), right on the Gulf of Guinea in its namesake country.
Principal Mountains
| Mountain | Mountain chain |
Height(m) | Country/countries |
| Kilimanjaro | Rift Valley | 5895 | Tanzania |
| Mount Kenya | Rift Valley | 5199 | Kenya |
| Ruwenzori* | Mitumba |
5119 | Uganda/Dem. Rep.of Congo |
| Ras Dashen | Simen Mountains |
4620 | Ethiopia |
| Karisimbi | Mitumba Mountains |
4507 | Rwanda |
| Jebel Toubkal | High Atlas | 4167 | Morocco |
| Mont Cameroun | Adamoua | 4070 | Cameroon |
*another name for Mount Stanley, whose peak is Pic Marguerite.
As you will see there are two mountains here that are not on our schedule to be climbed: Mount Kenya and Karisimbi. Though both admirable summits, they fall within ranges that boast a bigger brother; Mount Kenya's Kilimanjaro and Karisimbi's Ruwenzori, specifically Pic Margherite. Apart from this forced preference, we are taking all the highest peaks of Africa and mounting the summits of all Africa's major mountain ranges.
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