Mount Stanley

A 5,109-metre peak in the Rwenzori range, on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the third-highest mountain in Africa. The Rwenzori — historically called the Mountains of the Moon, after Ptolemy's reference in the 2nd century to a snow-capped range thought to be the source of the Nile — are unique among African mountains in that they are not volcanic. The Rwenzori are uplifted block mountains, geologically more similar to the Sierra Nevada than to Kilimanjaro or Mount Kenya. Mount Stanley itself is the highest peak of the range, with two principal summits — Margherita at 5,109 metres and Alexandra at 5,091 metres.

The first ascent came in 1906 by an Italian expedition led by the Duke of the Abruzzi — the same explorer-mountaineer who had climbed Saint Elias in Alaska eight years earlier. Margherita was named for Queen Margherita of Italy, Alexandra for Queen Alexandra of Britain, in keeping with the political and royal naming conventions of the era. The expedition reached the summit on June 18, 1906, after a multi-week approach through the dense rainforest of the lower Rwenzori. The duke's account of the expedition, published in 1907, remains a primary document of early African mountaineering.

The technical difficulty of the standard route is moderate. The climb involves a long approach through the lower forest zones, glacier travel on the upper mountain, and a final summit ridge with several technical sections. The route is typically completed over six to seven days. The Rwenzori glaciers have retreated substantially in recent decades — by some measurements, more than 80 percent of the glacial ice that existed in 1906 has been lost. The character of the climb has changed correspondingly; the upper mountain that the duke's expedition climbed in firm glacial conditions is now substantially rock and rubble for parts of the year.

What separates Stanley from Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya is the approach. The Rwenzori are among the wettest mountain ranges in the world, with rainfall on the lower slopes in excess of 4,000 millimetres per year. The lower forest zones include some of the most distinctive vegetation in equatorial Africa — giant heather, giant lobelia, giant groundsel, all forms that exist only at this altitude in this rainfall regime. The biological and geographic distinctiveness of the Rwenzori has given Mount Stanley a position in African mountaineering that the higher peaks of the continent do not match.