A responsible climbing company should provide you with a competent medically
trained guide. Tusker Trail does just that.

Each year 5-15 climbers die on Mount Kilimanjaro, and many more suffer high altitude emergencies. A lot of these problems could be avoided if all guides underwent high-altitude medical training and carried oxygen and a portable hyperbaric bag. Sadly, this is not the case. There are no minimum safety requirements for companies climbing Kilimanjaro, so very few guides undergo definitive safety training.

Tusker's Medical Training

Since his first climb in 1977, Eddie Frank has been innovating ways to climb Kilimanjaro safely. Tusker's summit success rate is 98%. That's because Tusker guides are the most highly trained on Kilimanjaro. Eddie has succeeded in building his 18 guides into the finest medically trained team on the mountain.

Eddie has designed an intensive 8-day course that trains and certifies the Tusker guides in mountain medicine, emergencies and high altitude rescue. Only Tusker guides are permitted to take the course, and each of them must pass this course annually as a precondition for their ongoing employment. Each guide is certified as a HAFR (High Altitude First Responder). This is the only medical certification course specifically designed for guides on Kilimanjaro.

With small groups our ratio of climbers-to-guides is 2-to-1 and with larger groups the ratio is 5-to-1. All other companies on Kilimanjaro use one head guide, no matter the size of the group. And the majority of these guides do not have any medical training whatsoever.

This means that on a Tusker climb, in the event you must be evacuated, you will be cared for and evacuated by a medically trained Tusker guide, carrying oxygen. You will never be evacuated by a porter.

Twice a day, your Kilimanjaro guides will monitor your lungs, your heart and your oxygen saturation rate. They accomplish this by using a stethoscope and a pulse-OXIMETER. Combined with their intensive mountain medical training, and the professional use of OXYGEN, and PORTABLE HYPERBARIC BAG, Tusker guides allow you to climb Kilimanjaro with peace of mind.

Each guide also carries a mobile phone for regular contact with our base in Moshi, as well as a handheld radio for contact with other Tusker groups on the mountain.