This traverse of Mount Kenya combines an ascent on either the Sirimon route or the Naro Moru route on the western side to Point Lenana and a descent of the Chogoria route on the eastern side of the mountain. In total it takes five days and reaches a high point of 4985 metres over a trek of about 50 kilometres. It is not a technical climb to Lenana but there is some high altitude walking and scrambling just below the summit which is sometimes on snow and ice, and ascending the Naro Moru route allows you to tackle the worlds current highest via ferrata, which is past the Austrian Hut on the way to the summit.

The Sirimon route is considered a more gentle approach with its slightly longer path gaining altitude from the northwest of the mountain more slowly than the Naro Moru route. From the first camp at Old Moses the path then follows the line of the long classic glacial MacKinder Valley up to the high camp (Shiptons) under the summit spires of Batian and Nelion. The summit itself is reached on scree and rocky paths (leaving in the dark at about 2am), which eventually become snow covered as they edge alongside the Lewis Glacier. The final few metres requires a bit of a scramble to reach the shapely summit from where dawn shows the plains of Kenya far below and the amazing silhouette of the two main peaks of the mountain just close by.