Meet Follow Alice's awesome Kilimanjaro mountain crew

Chris looking calm and collected as always!

The Follow Alice Kilimanjaro team is headed by the highly capable brothers Chris and Robert Sichalwe. Chris and Robert, who were born and grew up in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, have put together a fantastic team that wins over climbers time and time again with their impressive work ethic and friendly, supportive attitudes.

Chris started Follow Alice with Swiss friends Reto and Daniel after he lead the two up Kilimanjaro on a 2014 climb (he was working as a lead guide for a different company back then) and the three hit it off and decided to run with Chris's dream of helming his own Kilimanjaro trekking company.

Chris has proved himself to be not only a great lead guide – he's ranked among the top 10 lead guides on Kilimanjaro out of a pool of about 300 – but also a great business team leader.

Robert doing his annual medical training refresher course

Robert, Chris's younger brother, affectionately called Bobu, is also a true gem. Robert has been a Kilimanjaro guide for over a decade, and loves his job. He especially enjoys meeting new people from around the world, and how they make each climb unique. His favourite routes to climb are the Lemosho and Northern Circuit, as they're so varied and scenic.

This pic of clients and crew shows how many people are needed to make a trek happen!

The rest of our Kilimanjaro crew consists of men and women from all over Tanzania. Kilimanjaro climbs are an important source of income to the Kilimanjaro region and Tanzania as a whole, and we're so pleased to be part of this thriving industry that benefits both locals and climbers in such meaningful ways.

Three of our epic porters taking a literal load off for a moment on the side of Kilimanjaro

We're not just saying this, but our porters are among the very best on Kilimanjaro! These men and women consistently blow us away with their commitment, hard work and cheerful attitude. The porters often stride on ahead of the climbers and guides each day to set up camp before you reach it. In this way you arrive at camp and chairs and your cosy tent are ready and waiting for you!

Porters' duties extend beyond portage and camp setup, however. Some porters are helping porters, individuals with extra responsibilities such as looking after the toilet tent, waitering at meals, and washing up the dishes.

Florence is one of our fabulous guides!

Guides are so important on a Kilimanjaro climb, as they're there to literally walk alongside you, encourage you, answer your questions, and monitor your health. Each trek has a lead guide, whose main job is everyone's safety, but who's also there to encourage you, answer your questions and more.

Each trek group also has one or more assistant guides depending on its size. These guides do as their title suggests – they assist the lead guide in whatever ways are needed, from monitoring your health to answering your questions, supporting you when necessary, and so on.

All of our guides speak fluent English and are licensed by the Kilimanjaro National Park to operate as guides on the mountain. They are trained to deal with acute mountain sickness (also known as altitude sickness) and administer mountain first aid. Importantly, they're familiar with the network of shortcuts down the mountain should they need to quickly escort a climber suffering from altitude sickness down to safety.

Lastly, your guides often become your friends, as you can get to know each other pretty well during your week spent on the mountain together!

Our head cook Raja (sporting the brown-and-white beanie) serves up popcorn

Rajabu (or Raja) Hamza is our lead Follow Alice Kilimanjaro cook. A local from the Kilimanjaro region, he's a real wizard, consistently whipping up incredibly tasty and nourishing meals in an environment where most of us would be impressed with ourselves for boiling some two-minute noodles!

Importantly, all of our cooks know what's needed to sustain trekkers during this very physical adventure. So they always serve up varied, hearty and nutritious meals, plenty of snacks, hot drinks, and lots of purified water for drinking.

Their assistant is present at all times to serve up the food, which includes hot drinks in bed when you're woken up in the morning!

We hope you get to meet our wonderful Kilimanjaro mountain crew for yourself someday soon! If you're keen to book a Kilimanjaro trek with us, please check out our exciting Kilimanjaro tour packages.