Northern Circuit

The longest route on the mountain, the most expensive, the least known, and by every published figure the best odds — 90–98% summit success. It shares Lemosho's western start and its first three days, then instead of turning south toward Barranco it keeps going and wraps the entire northern face, a 46km traverse no other route offers. That buys two extra days between 3,800m and 4,200m before the summit push, so most climbers arrive at School Hut having slept six nights above 3,500m. The cost is roughly $280 more in park fees than a 7-day Machame and $500–1,000 more in operator price. Whether that is worth 20–30 percentage points of summit probability is arithmetic, not opinion. The northern flank is also the emptiest ground on Kilimanjaro — days at a time without another group, and the only 360° circuit of the summit cone.