Introduction and Features
Rwenzori mountaineering services (RMS) will guide you to incredible breath taking landscapes, fresh waters, flora and fauna that make Rwenzori a unique world heritage site. A trip to the RwenzoriMountains is a memorable experience to last a life time. Rwenzori Mountaineering Services founded in year 1987 by the Bakonzo community who inhabit the foothills and are custodian of RwenzoriMountains (a cradle of their genesis).
Main objectives of Rwenzori mountaineering services (RMS)
To conserve, preserve and protect the mountain environment for sustainable ecotourism. Rwenzori Mountaineering Services obtained a concession contract from Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to manage tourism activities on Mt.Rwenzori. The community benefits through provision of services to travelers who chose Rwenzori as their destination. RwenzoriMountains having permanent snow and glacier lies 40 North of the equator. Mt.Rwenzori national park gazetted in 1991 is a range covering 996km. It stretches Mt Stanley with Alexandra and Margharita as the highest peak 16763ft (5109m), Mt.Speke - Vittorio Emmanuele (4889m), Mt Emin (4791m) and Mt.Luigi de Savoia (4626m). Ptolemy an explorer of 150 AD called Rwenzoris the mountains of the moon and said their snow feed the source of the MightyRiverNile.
Climate on the Rwenzori Mountains
Rainfall, cold temperatures, boggy areas, the type of terrain, mud trail and high altitude make it a challenging trip even to experienced hikers. Adequate clothing is a must as it always rains all year round. The periods of June – September and November – March are dry and are the best seasons to trek. However, it is still possible to trek in other unmentioned months. During any season, rain gear, warm sleeping bag, sleeping mat, warm hat, warm gloves, heavy socks, rubber boots, warm jackets, gaiters and a walking stick for balance on boulders and tussocks are recommended.
From the earliest recorded history reference has been make to the snows of the Nile, the mystical 'Mountains of the Moon' that hide for months at a time in the clouds of the Western Rift Valley. There is no other range that captured the imagination of Ptolemy and the old world philosophers in quite the same way.
Forest elephant and wild chimpanzees crash through the undergrowth in the lower slopes, shy bushbuck hide amidst giant lobelia forests and the elusive endemic Turaco cuts a dash across the thundering streams.
Clouds hide the range for most of the year (it took Stanley over three months to see the peaks despite camping 50kms them), torrential rains drench the Ugandan side of the range and the icefields are hidden from all but the hardiest of creatures. However, a trek up the deep valleys of the Rwenzori is an immersion in a different world. The vegetation that thrives on this rain-soaked massif is nothing short of phenomenal and with each gain in altitude it changes.
Nature does its best to hide the secrets of these mountains from us because even when the cloud lifts, remarkable plants cling to sheer rock walls, giant heathers, draped with 'old mens beard' grow from amidst slippery boulders and vivid green mosses blanket the range.
The further we climb the Rwenzoris, the more awed we become with what has been hidden from us.
Leaving steamy tropical rainforest we hike through mist shrouded bamboo, past hidden lakes, marvel at thundering waterfalls and eventually traverse an equatorial icefield to the snow capped peak of Marguerita at 5109m on Mt. Stanley.
'It felt as though we had emerged from a world of fantasy, where nothing was real but only a wild and lovely flight of imagination. I think perhaps the range is unique. It is well named the Mountains of the Moon' Eric Shipton, Upon that Mountain
