vans Mwangi was 18 when he carried his first load up Mount Kenya in 1989. He worked his way up from porter to cook to guide, and today he runs his own company, Go To Mount Kenya. In this conversation with host Sierd van der Bij, he talks about a life spent on Africa’s second-highest mountain, what each of those jobs taught him, and why Chogoria is still his favourite way up.

They also talk about the people who live around the mountain, what trekking means for local porters and guides, and how Mount Kenya compares to its better-known neighbour, Kilimanjaro.

Two stories from the mountain’s history also come up. On the night of independence in December 1963, Kisoi Munyao planted the Kenyan flag on Batian. In 1943, three Italian prisoners of war escaped a camp near Nanyuki to climb the mountain. Read their story in No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Benuzzi: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1121565.No_Picnic_on_Mount_Kenya

Trek Mount Kenya with Bookatrekking: https://bookatrekking.com/en/trekking/kenya/

00:00 Evans’s 37 years on Mount Kenya
01:13 Starting out as a porter
06:11 From porter to mountain cook
09:34 East Africa and visitors’ expectations
11:23 Local names and the story of Kirinyaga
15:34 Why Chogoria is his favorite route
22:16 Mount Kenya compared with Kilimanjaro
24:19 Altitude and the role of the guide
32:15 The Chogoria-to-Sirimon trek
36:29 The summit push to Point Lenana
48:10 The Italian POW story
51:19 The shrinking glacier
54:07 Why the work is about people