Mount Kenya

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Mount Kenya <tr><td style="border-top:1px solid #999966; text-align: center;" colspan=2>Image:Sunrise over Mount Kenya.jpg Sunrise over Mt. Kenya</td></tr>
Elevation	5,199 metres (17,058 feet)
Location	Kenya <tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Prominence</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">3,825 m Ranked 32nd</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Coordinates</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">0°9′S 37°18′E</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Type</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">Stratovolcano (extinct)</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Last eruption</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">2.6-3.1 Ma</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">First ascent</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">1899 by Halford Mackinder</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Easiest route</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">rock climb</td></tr>

Mount Kenya

<tr><td style="border-top:1px solid #999966; text-align: center;" colspan=2>Image:Sunrise over Mount Kenya.jpg
Sunrise over Mt. Kenya</td></tr>

Elevation

5,199 metres (17,058 feet)

Location

Kenya

<tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Prominence</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">3,825 m Ranked 32nd</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Coordinates</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">0°9′S 37°18′E</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Type</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">Stratovolcano (extinct)</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Last eruption</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">2.6-3.1 Ma</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">First ascent</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">1899 by Halford Mackinder</td></tr><tr><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; border-right: 1px solid #999966; background: #e7dcc3; width: 85px">Easiest route</td><td style="border-top: 1px solid #999966; width: 220px">rock climb</td></tr>

Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya, and the second-highest in Africa (after Mount Kilimanjaro). The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (5,199 m), Nelion (5,188 m) and Lenana (4,985 m). Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, over 100 miles northeast of Nairobi.

The mountain is an extinct (dead) volcano standing alone, which last erupted between 2.6 and 3.1 million years ago. Its slopes include several different biomes; the lowest parts are dry upland forest, changing to montane forest of juniper and podocarpus at about 2,000 m, with a belt of bamboo at 2,500 m that changes to an upper forest of smaller trees covered with moss and "goat's beard" lichen. Above a distinct timberline at about 3,500m (11,000 feet), there is an afroalpine zone, with its characteristic giant rosette plants. Twelve small (and rapidly shrinking) glaciers may be found scattered among the complex of seven named peaks, of which Batian and Nelion are the highest.

The area around the mountain is protected in the Mount Kenya National Park.

The Kĩkũyũ people traditionally held that their supreme being Ngai lived on Mount Kenya, which they call Kirinyaga.

The missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf was the first European to report a sighting of Mount Kenya, in 1849. The first recorded ascent of Mount Kenya was made by Halford John Mackinder, C. Ollier and J. Brocherel on 13 September 1899. The highest point (Batian) is a technical climb; the classic Diamond Couloir climbing route is a Grade IV of about 20 pitches, up to YDS 5.9 in difficulty. Nelion was first climbed by Eric Shipton in 1929, and Shipton and Bill Tilman completed the traverse of the ridge between the two highest peaks. Point Lenana, at 4,985 metres (16,354 ft), can be reached by a hiking trail. Mount Kenya is best climbed in January or February on the south side and August or September on the north side.

Image:Kenya-relief-map-towns.jpg

Mount Kenya is home to one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric monitoring stations.

On July 21 2003, a South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya at Point Lenana: nobody survived. This was not the first aircraft lost on the mountain; there is also the wreckage of at least one helicopter that crashed before 1972.