I heard back from Intrepid Travel on Wednesday, and at this point not enough people are signed up to guarantee the departure of the Kilimanjaro trek I’d been planning on joining.
Now, I’m looking at other options.
I submitted an inquiry on Thursday with another guiding outfitter that looks like an outstanding option — as long as they can guarantee departure. That outfitter, climbmountkilimanjaro.com, is headed by Henry Stedman, the author of “Kilimanjaro: The Trekking Guide to Africa’s Highest Mountain.” It’s widely considered to be the definitive guide to climbing the mountain, and the possibility of climbing with the author or one of his hand-picked guides is very appealing.
Unfortunately, he’s on the mountain as I type this, so communication is a bit slow. My hope, of course, is that it will be worth the wait.
Chris Wristen 