NDOTO MOUNTAINS

The Ndotos are a remote cluster of mountains in the deserts of northern Kenya. Getting there is a grueling two-day drive through unruly country, but once you arrive you find yourself in one of the most beautiful and untouched places in the world. This area has many cliffs over 400 meters high, and has Kenya’s biggest cliff, Poi, which stands a proud 700 meters tall.The northern Ndoto Mountains around the town of Ngurunit are large forested or brush-covered hills with enormous gold and red gneiss blocks parked on top. There are a dozen or so cliff faces that exceed 300 meters in height, and many of these are as high as 500-600 meters and easily a kilometer wide. It is a hard hike to the base of many of these cliffs. This is because you need to walk uphill, in very warm humid weather (up to 35° Celsius in December), through some very thick thorny scrub, and then through forest to get to the bottom of the cliff. In addition to the dozen bigger walls, there are many smaller cliffs with easier approaches. There is also lots of bouldering. You could live in this area for three life times and not do the half of what is here.Despite its amazing cliffs, the Ndotos region has received scant attention from climbers. This is for two reasons. First, the Ndoto Mountains are very remote. To get there you either need an expensive airplane charter or a two-day car drive through beautiful but harsh and uncompromising land. Second, the quality of the rock is not as good as it is in other adventure areas such as Greenland and Baffin Island. This makes the climbing a little on the dangerous side, and new routes require much cleaning.