John Furneaux guides on Mount Kenya including the more technical Batian Route for Canada West Mountain School.

http://www.themountainschool.com/expedi ... kenya.html

Send me an email and I can give you his email and home phone number.

This is a very good topo for the north face normal route:
http://www.summitpost.org/route/260890/ ... route.html


Or this is a very good, but not up to date guidebook:
Guide to Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro, edited by Iain Allan, Mountain Club of Kenya, 1990.

Cheers
Laci

Lots of trekking companies in Nairobi will fix you up with a trekking guide to get you to austrian hut and will arrange for a technical guide to meet you there for the ascent of Nelion and Batian.

Before I left Jan 2009, I'd made arrangements with a trekking company but no money changed hands til I got to NBO. Got his name around here somewhere. I also talked to the trekking agent at the hostel I used, Upper Hill Campsite, and his price and service was almost identical to the other. Probably would have ended up with the same guide for the summit. I'm guessing better food, too.

My guide for Nelion was named Simon and I highly recommend him. I asked for an email address but he didn't have one so I don't have contact information for him. There seems to be a small number of professional guides so it shouldn't be difficult to find him.

Anyway, the research I did before leaving CO made it sound like it would be a lot harder to arrange than it actually was. Pm or email me if you want more info.

Hello Peter,

My name is Teri and I am a mountain guide in Kilimanjaro, but I have several times climbed Mt. Kenya.

My friend and guide in Mt. kenya is Charles. He has been a mountaineer for the past 20 years in this mountain and knowns the mountain better than anyone.
This is his email address chachamus2003@yahoo.com

Please contact him if you are serious about Batian. He is a great person and will be able to help you with anything you need in Kenya including safaris. He is a free lance guide...also specks fluent English...I highly recommend him. Hope you do contact him.

Have a great day

Teri

mtnjim: which trekking co. did you use to arrange your mt. kenya climb and how much did they charge for the nelion climb w/ tech. climbing guide named simon? how many days and which route?? did you have to use mountaineering boots w/ crampons & axe on your route during the season you did it? any info. or help would be much appreciated. thank you.

Hi deep6,

I used Jeremiah Gathu, mountsafaris@hotmail.com. I heard of him from someone on Thorn Tree who had used his outfit the year before. No office, I emailed several times before leaving here, then met him at the Stanley Hotel coffeeshop. everything went smoothly enough. No real problems except the food which was basically tasteless. The trekking guide was an okay guy but not much of a cook. There was only one porter. That poor guy must have been carrying 80 to 100 pounds, BIG pack, one hand carrying a food bag, a kerosene container in the other to balance him out. Definitely more than the rules allow.

I'm thinking the fee was $950 for a 6 day Chogoria-Sirimon trek with Nelion in the middle. We actually went out Naro Moru. It snowed a couple of days in a row, fortunately the day after Nelion. 8 inches one morning, the same the next, and I chose to wait an extra day at Austrian. It melted quickly enough but I'm sure that none of the locals would be guiding a snow-covered Nelion.
The other company I'd talked to in NBO quoted a price of $980 and I think they were a litttle more established. Both prices are without tips. I think one could bargain hard and get the price down a bit. That's the same I paid for Kili and the park fees in Tanzania are, what?, twice as much or more?

In January you don't need mountaineering boots for the climb. It's all rock. BUT you do need crampons and an axe to get across the glacier to the start of the climb. It's possible to drop down below the glacier and cross to the start of the route but that's a lot of extra effort and time. Really less effort to tote the crampons up, then just leave them at the start of the route for your return. i used some hiking boots on the route but would have been happier with some good sticky rubber approach shoes. That's really all you need for the trek. Except for summit day, I wore running shoes on both Kili and Mt. Kenya. Nothing on the glacier is remotely technical, just a stroll across angled ice and snow.

Hope this helps.
Jim