Tuesday, August 07, 2007


Map of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa
This map is another trip / journey map. In June of 2007, my wife and I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with 12 other people. It was a major undertaking and accomplishment for us so when we got back, I immediately started a map of our trip. There are 3 or 4 major routes up the mountain so I wanted to understand our route relative to the others. People often ask me what map did I use as a base map. I have scans of all of my base maps and my finished maps usually bare little resemblance to my source maps. For my Kilimanjaro Map, I relied on a very cheap and poor tourist map that I bought at a hotel gift shop, some aerial photographs and a few map details that I found on the Internet. The trickiest part was figuring out how to render the mountain which is really a large cinder cone sitting on top of a giant volcanic dome. The dome appears quite smooth and regular from a distance so after several attempts at rendering more detail, I settled on some very simple blends and shading. I realized I could use the same technique to create an elevation view of the mountain so I added that in which gives a better sense of the scale of the mountain. In addition to the summit peak itself, there were two other major geographic features along our journey, Cathedral Spires and Mwenzi Peak. Seeing them in both the map and the elevation makes it easier to understand the various summit routes. There were also key landmarks on our journey so capturing them on the map was key. The map documents not just our route but dates and campsites as well as a few minor details such as the route taken by one of our climbers who got sick and had to hike out on Day 4. The cartouche contains a slightly personalized description of the mountain in the fine type. I also created a decorative border for this map based on a traditional African pattern... something I might try more of in future maps. If any of you are planning to climb the mountain and want more details, please feel free to contact me.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello

I would like to know if it possible to a have a very clear version of kilimanjaro map (paper or file)

philippe.ciavaldini@airbus.com

2:40 AM  
Blogger soobeedoo said...

Lovely map. Great color scheme, and the whole thing has the strange (but not bad) effect - at the size shown on screen - of being a photo of 2 models: 1 viewed in profile (bottom) and 1 viewed in plan, like hanging above the lower one.
Am I crazy?

11:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Andy,

Found your map of Kilimanjro on a google search and really like it!

I would be interested in finding out if we would be able to use/purchase your map for route maps....please get in touch to discuss.

Regards,

Phil

littlepie1@hotmail.com

4:12 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Andy,
Lovely design, came across it as we assemble our trip memories from an ascent of the western breach last month.

I saw the higher rez version on your Flickr page but would still like to have more detail. If you're willing to share the source file (Illustrator perhaps?), I'd like to tweak it to better reflect our route and frame with our certificates.

Regards,
Wayne
wdj298@gmail.com

5:28 PM  

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