Mt Kenya January 2012

I'm in the planning stage of a two week trip to Kenya in January. Mt. Kenya will be the primary focus, but I'm interested in finding other climbing areas to visit as well (though 2 weeks won't allow too much spare time). It would be great to hear from someone who has been lately.

I've not been able to find much consistent information about routes on Mt Kenya. Frankly, different [internet] sources seem to have different names for the same routes. From what I’ve gathered so far, we’ll want to do a route on the south aspect of the mountain given the timing. The MacKinders Route (5.7?) appears to be somewhat of a south aspect standard route to the Nelion summit and looks to be about the right level of difficulty. I’d be interested in doing the traverse to Batian (highest summit). I’ve encountered a significant shortage of beta on the traverse. All I’ve read so far is a quick blurb about being more difficult and having to negotiate steep snow. Even if you can just point me to some good information sources I'd be grateful!

There is a general travel warning on the State Department website, but it doesn't seem to strongly discourage travel to Kenya - just relays the importance of being vigilant and not walking around after dark by yourself or being anywhere near the Somalia border. To quote the Travel Warning: “those considering travel to Kenya should evaluate their personal security situation in light of continuing threats from terrorism and the high rate of violent crime”. Advice? Recommendations? I would be willing to spend some additional money for safer transportation/accommodations while not on the mountain.

Although I’m not specifically looking for a partner at this time, the partner I’ve been talking with is not certain he can go. If you’d be interested in joining please let me know!