About ALPO Guided Expeditions
A Kilimanjaro company run by an Everest and K2 climber
and a guide with more than 220 ascents of the mountain
Who we are
ALPO Guided Expeditions is a Kilimanjaro climbing and safari company based in Arusha, Tanzania. We guide small groups on six routes: Machame, Lemosho, Marangu, Rongai, Londorossi (Shira) and the Northern Circuit. The guides and cooks are our own permanent crew, and most of our porters are regulars. Off the mountain, we run safaris in five parks and reserves and one- and two-day hikes on the Marangu side, and we arrange time on Zanzibar for climbers who want a week by the ocean afterward.
ALPO was founded by two people: Yevgen Staroselskiy, a mountaineer who has summited Everest and K2, and Liberaty Victor Mato, a Kilimanjaro guide who started on this mountain as a porter in 2001. Most of our guides and porters have worked with us for years, and most of our climbers come to us on the recommendation of someone who climbed with us.
Two co-founders, two kinds of experience
Yevgen Staroselskiy
Co-Founder at ALPO GUIDED EXPEDITIONS
Master of Sport in Mountaineering
Title holder “Snow Leopard” #376 (13 peaks over 7000m)
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Yevgen Staroselskiy has made 130+ ascents, completed the Seven Summits, Everest among them, and summited K2. He has been on 25+ Kilimanjaro expeditions since 2018. The altitude plan behind ALPO's programs is his: how many days each route takes, how high you sleep and when.
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Liberaty Victor Mato
Co-Founder at ALPO GUIDED EXPEDITIONS
Porter from 2001 to 2003
Guiding from 2004
Climbed over 220
Certificate: WFR
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Liberaty Victor Mato started on Kilimanjaro as a porter in 2001, became a guide in 2004, and has climbed the mountain more than 220 times. He is a Wilderness First Responder and leads most of our expeditions himself. He also hires and manages the crew. He carried loads before he led groups, and he hires on the terms he would have wanted then.
They split the work. Liberaty is on the mountain most weeks of the season. Yevgen joins select expeditions and spends the rest of his time on how the next ones will run. They built the itineraries together. Yevgen brought what he learned about altitude on 8,000-meter (26,000 ft) peaks, and the standard he was held to there. Liberaty fitted it to Kilimanjaro: which camps to use, what the weather does, and what a crew needs to work well.
Our people
The founders are the smallest part of the team. A group of ten climbers is supported by a crew of about 35 guides, cooks, and porters, and they are the people you will remember most when you get home.
Festo Kennedy Moshi
Porter from 2006
Guiding from 2008
Climbed over 150
Certificate: WFR
Brendan Aloyce Kitaly
Porter from 1994
Guiding from 1997
Climbed over 255
Certificate: WFR
Ernest Julius Kamasho
The best chef in Tanzania
Chef from 1999
Climbed over 210
Joseph Kitali
Age 29 years
Climbed 95 times
Speaks German
Deo Mtui
Chef from 2010
Age 47
Climbed 187 times
Brendan Aloyce Kitaly first carried a load up Kilimanjaro in 1994, has guided since 1997, and has climbed the mountain more than 255 times. Festo Kennedy Moshi started as a porter in 2006, became a guide in 2008, and has made more than 150 climbs. Both are Wilderness First Responders. Ernest Julius Kamasho has cooked on this mountain since 1999 and has been up it more than 210 times; his dinners at 4,000 m come in three courses. Deo Mtui has worked in the kitchen tent since 2010 and has 187 climbs. Joseph Kitali, one of our younger guides, has 95 climbs behind him and speaks German.
Nothing on this mountain moves without porters. Ours are paid at the top of the Tanzanian range, carry no more than 15 kg, and eat cooked meals in their own mess tent. They come back season after season, and there is a waiting list of porters who want to work with ALPO. On Kilimanjaro, that is a fair measure of a company.
How we work with the mountain crew, in detail →
An hour on the mountain
What we do
Most of our work is on Kilimanjaro. We run group climbs on set dates across all six routes, and private climbs on whatever dates suit you, whether you're a party of twelve or on your own. Machame is our signature route, and the one Yevgen recommends to most people. If you want more days to acclimatize, look at the eight-day Lemosho or the Northern Circuit.
You can also bring family members who don't want to climb. Usually one person heads for the summit while the others do a one- or two-day hike through the rainforest to Mandara Hut, or up onto the moorland at Horombo Hut, then go back to the hotel. Everyone meets up again for the safari. We run these hikes ourselves, with our own guides, not through a subcontractor.
About two-thirds of our climbers add a safari after the mountain. We go to Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Lake Manyara and Arusha National Park, and every itinerary, even the two-day one, includes Ngorongoro Crater. We also guide Mount Meru, either as a climb of its own or as acclimatization before Kilimanjaro, and we think it's the best preparation there is. If you'd like a week on the beach in Zanzibar afterward, we can arrange that too.
Your hotel nights on either side of the climb are part of the package. The night before, you stay in Moshi, where we hold the briefing and check your gear. When you come down, you stay at the 4★ Kibo Palace Hotel in Arusha. We've worked with the same team there for years, and it's where you'll have your first shower after the mountain.
Our mission
Our job is to get you up Kilimanjaro and back down safely, and to ensure the days in between are worth remembering. We want you to reach the summit if your body allows it on the day, and to come down still liking mountains.
That is why the team stays with you every step of the way. Our guides have years of summits and safaris behind them. They set the pace, check you twice a day, tell you what the altitude is doing to your body, bring hot tea to your tent and keep you going when it gets hard, so that all you have to think about is the climb and the view. A climber who is rushed, cold, underfed, or frightened can reach the top and never go near altitude again. Plenty of our clients have gone on to Elbrus, to Aconcagua, to their own Seven Summits.
We also want ALPO to be a company that lasts on this mountain. That means the same crew every season instead of whoever is at the gate, wages porters can plan a life on, and no attempt to be the cheapest operator on Kilimanjaro. We would rather be the one people recommend.
Karibu is the first word our team will say to you in Tanzania. It means welcome!
Write to us with a date and a route in mind, or with no plan at all. Either way, the answer comes from someone who has been up there.