How many people have died on Kilimanjaro?

Nobody publishes an official count. The national park does not release figures, and the numbers that circulate online are estimates that cannot be checked. What is clear is that several people die on Kilimanjaro every year, climbers and porters, and that most of those deaths are caused by the altitude, not by falls.

Why people die on a walk-up mountain

Kilimanjaro needs no climbing skill, so it draws people who have never been at altitude, on itineraries the park allows that are too short to acclimatize. Going from 1,800 m5.906 ft to 5,895 m19.341 ft in five days is how fluid builds up in the lungs or the brain (HAPE and HACE), and both kill if the climber is not taken down at once. Heart problems, hypothermia and the cold on summit night account for others. Porters, who carry loads up the same mountain often in thin clothing and on low pay, die too, and their deaths are the least reported of all.

Which route on Kilimanjaro is the most dangerous?

The one route where falling rock, not altitude, is the real killer is the Western Breach, the steep, direct line to the crater rim used by a minority of Lemosho, Machame and Umbwe climbers. In January 2006 a rockfall released from the base of the Arrow Glacier swept over a group below Arrow Glacier Camp, killing three American climbers and injuring others.

The park closed the route and only reopened it, with a revised line and early-morning timing meant to cross the exposed section while the rock is still frozen in place, after an investigation.

In September 2015 another rockfall on the same route killed US climber Scott Dinsmore on the sixth day of his trek. Because the glaciers above the Breach Wall keep retreating and releasing rock they once held in place, the route has been closed by the park again since, including a closure still in force in 2025 and into 2026 with no reopening date given.

Most operators now avoid the Western Breach for this reason, and a climber choosing it should ask directly whether it is currently open and how the operator manages the rockfall-exposed section.

How to keep the risk small

Take seven days or more on the mountain, walk slowly, tell your guide how you feel, and turn round when the symptoms get worse instead of better. Choose an operator whose guides carry oxygen and a pulse oximeter and check you twice a day, and one that treats its porters properly. Done that way, Kilimanjaro is no more dangerous than any other high walk.

The guide chapter Health and safety covers the illnesses and their warning signs, and How hard is it to climb Kilimanjaro? what makes the climb demanding. Each of the 7 summits' main dangers is in The 7 summits in order of difficulty.