Lemosho Route

The western approach, and the route most experienced guides recommend privately: roughly 85% summit success at seven days and 90% at eight. You register at Londorosi Gate (2,250m), then drive on to the Lemosho Glades trailhead at 2,100m for two quiet days of untracked rainforest — genuine buffalo and elephant country, and the only part of any standard route where you may not see another group. From the Shira Plateau it merges with the Machame path and inherits everything good about it: the Lava Tower climb-high-sleep-low, the Barranco Wall, Karanga, Barafu. The advantage is purely the front end — three days spent building between 2,100m and 3,850m before the mountain starts asking hard questions. The eighth day, spent at Shira or Karanga, is what buys the last five points of summit probability.