Marangu Route

The oldest and most marketed route, and on the published KINAPA numbers the worst choice on the mountain: 27% summit success on the five-day itinerary, meaning nearly three in four climbers turn back. The failure is structural, not physical. Marangu is the only route with dormitory huts instead of tents, the only one that ascends and descends the same path, and the only one whose profile never once goes down — gate 1,879m, Mandara 2,720m, Horombo 3,720m, Kibo 4,709m, summit 5,895m, every night higher than the last. There is no Lava Tower, no Barranco descent, nothing that lets the body recover. Adding the sixth day as an acclimatisation day at Horombo lifts the odds to roughly 50–70%, which is still the weakest number of any route at comparable length. Summit night leaves Kibo Huts around midnight for Gilman's Point on the crater rim, then a further hour along the rim past Stella Point to Uhuru.