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AFRICA MAP
  Pico del Teide
  Jebel Toubkal
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  Mount Cameroon
  Mount Stanley
  Karisimbi
  Mount Elgon
  Mount Kenya
  Mount Meru
  Kilimanjaro





| Mount Kenya massif from NW; peaks left to right are Tereri,
Pt. Lenana (with snow on it), Nelion, Batian, Pt. Pigott
(photo by John Cleare)

Mount Kenya
    17058 ft (5199 m)     Highest point in Kenya .
Major Peaks:
Batian:     17058 ft (5199 m)
Nelion:     17022 ft (5188 m)
Location: Central Kenya,
110 miles (175 km) N of Nairobi
Lat / Long: 0.1° S, 37.3° E
Volcanic Type: Dissected stratovolcano
Volcanic Status: Extinct
First Ascent: Batian: H. J. MacKinder, C. Ollier, and J. Brocherel, 1899
Nelion: E. E. Shipton and P. Wyn Harris, 1929
First Ski Descent:
Skiable Vertical: up to 2000 ft (600 m)



Mount Kenya is the second highest mountain in Africa, another of the great isolated stratovolcanoes which dominate the horizons from the plains of East Africa. Mount Kenya may once have been higher than Kilimanjaro, although claims made in certain sources that it once reached 25000+ feet (7600+ m) are surely exaggerated. Eruptive activity ceased over 2.5 million years ago, and since then glacial erosion has eradicated all traces of the summit crater or caldera and removed much of the mass from the upper slopes of the mountain. The current summit region is a series of sharp ridges interspersed with glaciers which surround the twin summits, the rock towers of Batian and Nelion, separated a gap known as the Gate of the Mists. Like all glaciers in Africa, those on Mount Kenya are in retreat, and seven of the 18 glaciers which were first named in the 19th century have since disappeared entirely. During the Ice Ages large glaciers reached down below 10000 ft (3000 m) elevation, but the terminus of the Lewis Glacier (the largest current glacier) now reaches only to 15000 ft (4600 m). The glaciers of Mount Kenya have been skied and snowboarded numerous times, including an extreme descent from the Gate of the Mists down the Diamond Glacier, which is normally considered the finest ice climb on the mountain.


| Topographic map of the summit of Mount Kenya
(1:25,000 scale)     <click to enlarge>
Some useful links:  

    Mountain Club of Kenya (extensive general info)
    Mount Kenya (extensive general info)
    KenyaWeb: Mount Kenya National Park (general info)
   

Topographic map of Mount Kenya (1:500,000 scale)
    from Tactical Pilotage Chart M-5B
    <click to enlarge>


        More photos and info about routes, access, etc. may be added in the future ...


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