For decades, Mount Kilimanjaro has occupied a unique position in African mountaineering. At 5,895 metres it is the highest mountain on the continent, yet its normal routes require remarkably little technical climbing ability. For most expedition companies, Kilimanjaro is therefore described not as a mountaineering objective but as a high-altitude trekking peak.
Almost 800 kilometres to the northwest lies a very different mountain environment.
Straddling the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Rwenzori Mountains — the legendary Mountains of the Moon — rise to 5,109 metres at Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley. They are lower than Kilimanjaro, yet considerably more difficult to travel through and climb.
This raises an interesting question.
Why have the Rwenzori never developed into a trekking destination comparable with Kilimanjaro — and could they become one?
Kilimanjaro: A Mountain Built for Trekking
The extraordinary popularity of Kilimanjaro owes much to geography.
Kilimanjaro is an enormous volcanic massif. Although individual routes vary, the basic challenge involves progressively walking uphill through a series of ecological zones until reaching the high volcanic plateau and ultimately Uhuru Peak.
The greatest obstacle is altitude.
A trekker attempting Kilimanjaro must cope with decreasing oxygen levels, cold, exhaustion and the possibility of acute mountain sickness. Yet under normal conditions the standard routes do not require conventional mountaineering techniques.
There is normally no glacier travel.
There are no significant crevasse systems to negotiate.
Ropes, harnesses, ice axes and crampons are not normally required.
Consequently, a physically fit person with no previous climbing experience can realistically stand on the summit of Africa.
That accessibility has allowed an enormous trekking industry to develop around Kilimanjaro.
The Rwenzori present an entirely different problem.
A Mountain Range Rather Than a Mountain
One of the fundamental differences is geological.
Kilimanjaro is essentially a giant volcanic cone.
The Rwenzori are a fault-block mountain range, consisting of multiple massifs separated by deep valleys, rivers, cliffs, ridges and high passes.
The principal massifs — including Mount Stanley, Mount Speke and Mount Baker — create extraordinarily complicated terrain.
Progress therefore rarely consists simply of walking progressively uphill.
Trekkers repeatedly climb and descend through valleys and passes before approaching the higher mountains.
The Rwenzori are consequently better understood as a mountain journey rather than a single mountain ascent.
Ironically, this may ultimately prove to be their greatest advantage.
The Real Enemy: Water
Altitude is not necessarily the greatest difficulty encountered in the Rwenzori.
Water is.
The mountains receive enormous quantities of rainfall. Combined with their unusual vegetation and geology, this produces extensive peat bogs, mud, streams and waterlogged ground.
Progress through apparently straightforward valleys can become exhausting.
Boots disappear into mud. Vegetation becomes saturated. Rocks become extremely slippery and relatively short distances can require hours of physical effort.
This produces one of the great paradoxes of African mountaineering:
Kilimanjaro is principally an altitude problem.
The Rwenzori are principally a terrain problem.
For an experienced mountaineer, difficult terrain may simply form part of the expedition.
For the international trekking market, however, kilometres of deep mud are considerably harder to sell.
Margherita Peak Changes Everything
The second major difficulty is the summit itself.
Margherita Peak, the highest point of Mount Stanley and the Rwenzori, reaches approximately 5,109 metres.
Unlike Uhuru Peak on Kilimanjaro, it cannot currently be regarded simply as the end of a long walk.
The normal ascent involves steep ground, fixed ropes and glacier travel. Depending upon conditions, climbers require equipment including harnesses, helmets, crampons and ice axes.
Crevasses add another objective hazard.
The vulnerability of the route was demonstrated dramatically in May 2024, when the Uganda Wildlife Authority temporarily suspended ascents of Margherita after a dangerous crevasse developed on the glacier.
The route subsequently reopened after additional safety measures were installed.
The episode illustrates the fundamental difference between the two mountains.
On Kilimanjaro the environment is difficult primarily because of altitude and weather.
On Margherita the physical structure of the route itself can change.
That makes it mountaineering rather than conventional trekking.
Climate Change Will Not Necessarily Make the Mountain Easier
The glaciers of the Rwenzori have retreated dramatically and may eventually disappear.
It would be easy to assume that removing the ice will automatically make Margherita easier.
That is not necessarily the case.
Retreating glaciers can expose polished rock, unstable moraine and steep terrain previously covered by snow and ice. Glacier margins can become increasingly complicated as the ice fragments.
A disappearing glacier therefore does not automatically transform a mountaineering route into a walking route.
Indeed, during the transitional period it may make the route more difficult.
There is also a powerful argument against attempting to artificially engineer Margherita into a trekking summit.
Its mountaineering character is part of what makes it special.
Perhaps the mistake is assuming that Margherita needs to become another Kilimanjaro at all.
The Rwenzori Do Not Need Margherita
This is where the Mountains of the Moon become particularly interesting.
There are numerous high points within the range which don’t require the same degree of technical climbing.
Weismann’s Peak, at approximately 4,620 metres, provides perhaps the clearest example. It can already be reached as a high-altitude trekking objective without crossing the glaciers of Mount Stanley.
A trekker standing at more than 4,600 metres amongst the extraordinary landscape of the Rwenzori has completed a substantial high-altitude expedition regardless of whether they have climbed Margherita.
The trekking objective therefore does not have to be:
“Climb the highest mountain.”
It could instead become:
“Cross the Mountains of the Moon.”
That subtle change completely alters how the Rwenzori could be developed and marketed.
Building a Mountains of the Moon Trek
The foundations already exist.
Routes such as the Central Circuit and Kilembe Trail penetrate deep into the mountains and connect valleys, high passes, huts and different massifs.
What is lacking is infrastructure comparable with established international trekking destinations.
That does not require turning the Rwenzori into a sanitised tourist attraction.
Carefully constructed boardwalks across the worst peat bogs could dramatically improve accessibility while simultaneously reducing environmental damage caused by trekkers attempting to walk around impassable sections.
Drainage could stabilise heavily travelled paths.
Simple bridges could replace hazardous river crossings.
Stone pitching could protect steep sections from erosion.
Existing huts could progressively be improved while retaining their basic mountain character.
The objective should not be to remove the wilderness.
It should be to make travelling through that wilderness sustainable.
A Three-Tier Rwenzori System
The Rwenzori could ultimately support several clearly differentiated levels of expedition.
Mountains of the Moon Trek
A six-to-eight-day high-altitude trek through the Rwenzori, reaching perhaps 4,000–4,600 metres.
No technical climbing experience would be required.
The objective would be experiencing the range rather than climbing its highest mountain.
Mountains of the Moon High Peaks Trek
A longer seven-to-ten-day expedition incorporating one or more accessible high summits such as Weismann’s Peak.
This could provide trekkers with a genuine African summit approaching 4,700 metres without requiring glacier travel.
Rwenzori Mountaineering Expedition
Margherita Peak and the more technical objectives would remain exactly what they should be:
mountaineering objectives.
Participants would require appropriate equipment, guides and technical preparation.
Such a system would separate trekking from mountaineering rather than pretending that the two activities are interchangeable.
Something Kilimanjaro Cannot Offer
Paradoxically, the Rwenzori may ultimately possess a stronger trekking proposition than Kilimanjaro.
Kilimanjaro is overwhelmingly focused upon one objective:
the summit.
The Rwenzori offer something quite different.
A journey through the Mountains of the Moon passes through equatorial rainforest, bamboo forest, giant heather, extraordinary lobelia and giant groundsel, peat bogs, glacial lakes, alpine valleys, high passes and finally the remaining equatorial glaciers.
The landscape itself becomes the expedition.
That distinction is important.
Kilimanjaro asks:
Can I reach the summit?
The Rwenzori can ask:
Can I cross the Mountains of the Moon?
The second proposition arguably offers a much richer expedition experience.
Conclusion
The Rwenzori Mountains are unlikely ever to become another Kilimanjaro — and perhaps they shouldn’t.
Margherita Peak remains a genuine mountaineering objective involving technical terrain and glacier travel. Attempting to transform it artificially into a walk-up summit would diminish precisely the characteristics that make the mountain exceptional.
But Margherita Peak and trekking the Mountains of the Moon do not need to mean the same thing.
The Rwenzori already possess most of the ingredients required for one of the world’s great high-altitude trekking routes: extraordinary scenery, enormous ecological diversity, elevations exceeding 4,500 metres, established trails, mountain huts and a name — the Mountains of the Moon — possessing an almost unparalleled sense of exploration.
What is missing is principally infrastructure, clearly graded routes and international recognition.
Improved boardwalks, drainage, bridges and huts could make the existing trail network considerably more accessible while simultaneously protecting the fragile mountain environment.
Non-technical peaks such as Weismann’s could provide achievable high-altitude objectives, while Mount Stanley and Margherita could remain the preserve of properly equipped mountaineering expeditions.
The ambition therefore should not be to create another Kilimanjaro.
It should be considerably more imaginative.
Develop the Rwenzori as Africa’s great high-altitude mountain traverse — a journey through the Mountains of the Moon.
Kilimanjaro would remain the mountain that almost anyone can aspire to climb.
The Rwenzori could become the mountain range that trekkers aspire to cross.
And in doing so, the Mountains of the Moon could occupy a unique position in African adventure: somewhere between the commercial trekking routes of Kilimanjaro and the technical mountaineering expeditions of the greater ranges.
