Climbing in Kenya

Hello - my friends just moved to Nairobi and I'm curious if it's a good landing for good trad climbing. Is Mt. Kenya the only real prominent feature worth traveling for?

Thanks!

Mount kenya is a great one to tick off but theres other great climbing so close to nairobi! A place called Hells Gate national park. You camp on the naivasha lake and can hire bicycles to cycle to the park. Climbing is great. Mainly trad. Really good crack climbing with top bolts. And you're climbing above zebra and buffalo its great :) 

Your friends are in luck - Kenya is a premier climbing destination, and pretty much all of the climbing is on gear. Check out the MP page for Kenya - it has the highlights of the main climbing areas, and a tiny tiny sample of the routes. Around Nairobi, Lukenya and Hell's Gate are within 1-1.5 hrs drive and are world-class destinations, with dozens of adventurous multipitch routes on basalt at Hell's Gate (not just the cragging with bolted anchors. though those routes are popular) and hundreds of single pitch routes at Lukenya of all grades and styles. The whole country is covered in rock, however, and there is everything from incredible granite boulders in the west (and around Nairobi), to huge rarely-climbed big walls in the north, and of course Mt Kenya has a huge number of world-class routes. There's also enormous potential for FAs all over the place!

Tell your friends to reach out to the Mountain Club of Kenya (MCK) on their website or facebook page, as its really easy to get plugged in with the active climbers and get out almost every weekend!

Catherine Atkinson wrote: Mount kenya is a great one to tick off but theres other great climbing so close to nairobi! A place called Hells Gate national park. You camp on the naivasha lake and can hire bicycles to cycle to the park. Climbing is great. Mainly trad. Really good crack climbing with top bolts. And you're climbing above zebra and buffalo its great :) 

Catherine,  the climbing in hells gate is more than the 10 metre routes you describe as having abseil bolts. In fact, most of the climbing is on Main Wall, where 100 + metre routes await the adventurous climber.