UKC

My son is doing the trek up in February and I said id buy him some boots....any guidance about what type of boots? It looks to me as though its all pretty straightforward but may be cold on the last couple of days?

He has a decent down jacket so if he's layered well underneath it should be ok? 

I was thinking decent gloves/ socks as he tends to chill quickly but will he need a winter rated sleeping bag?

Any advice greatly appreciated...

A good winter bag is a must in my opinion, and preferably synthetic if possible. When I went as part of a big group, a lot of stuff among the walkers got wet.  Going through the tropic zone, it rained a lot and some of the tents leaked causing some uncomfortable nights sleep.

As for boots, I had a good quality boot that could stand up to anything a Scottish Winter could throw at me.  I never made summit day as I was too Ill from the effects of altitude sickness. My mates said it was fekin cold and appreciated warm gloves, socks and down jackets, provided they were dry.

I did it about 5 years ago at the same time of year.

I used a 4 season synthetic sleeping bag that was about £120 + silk liner. The boots were the most expensive purchase and are still serving me well now - Meindl Bhutans.

A down jacket will be fine and probably will only be used in the evenings and on the last day or so of the ascent. Handy to keep it at the top of the rucksack as if he's with a party that has frequent and lengthy breaks it's good to have it at hand.

Good luck

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/expedition+alpine/kilimanjaro_clothing-63...

You might get some decent advice on this thread from a few years ago. 

Hi

When I did it a few years back I had 3 layers on my legs and 5 layers on top half. As for boots  I wore 3 season leather hiking boots with thick winter grade socks.

Hi

When I did it a few years back I had 3 layers on my legs and 5 layers on top half. As for boots  I wore 3 season leather hiking boots with thick winter grade socks.

Hi when I did it I had 5 layers on top half for the final night and 3 layers on my legs.

Normal good qualitly 3 season leather walking boots with thick socks.

2 pairs of gloves and Balacalava with beanie and my hood.

I did it in February many years ago. For me a good pair of walking boots, plus a good warm [not deep winter] sleeping bag, plus a down jacket, were fine. The last day was very cold, but I didn't get cold huffing & puffing up the steep scree slope in the small hours, and put my down jacket in my bag. Dawn on the crater rim and the hike through the crater to the summit were amazing, in fact the whole climb was great. There were about 7 of us but all of them apart from me dropped out (some from altitude sickness like Lemming, others from tiredness) and went down long before the summit - on the other hand none of them had climbed much before or been to altitude before and I had

That's an appalling success rate. 11 out of 12 of us made it but we had done mt Meru to acclimatize first. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. Cheap expeditions which take 5 days or so have a 50% failure rate.

I didn't know that. On Kilimanjaro I'd only previously been at altitude with other climbers, who were well prepared. On Kilimanjaro the others had never been up high before (at least nothing like that high), didn't really know what they were doing (while I did), and were not at all acclimatized