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Posts for Kilimanjaro from 09/2012

Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Safari in the company of Elephants

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Hello everyone.

We just had another wonderful day here in Tanzania!

Today we visited Tarangire National park that is home to more than 6000 elephants. So needless to say we saw plenty, in fact, they were everywhere we looked. We even had one cross the road just a few feet behind our vehicle and saw one about a week old that everyone wanted to bring home. We witnessed the usual suspects of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, antelope, a few lions and even managed to spot a cheetah enjoying a little shade beneath a tree.

Tomorrow will be our last day here. We’ll make our way back through the park, take a quick shower at the Dik Dik lodge and then head to the airport. I’m sure the whole team is looking forward to getting home and sharing their stories and pictures from this astonishing adventure.

Thanks for following our team!

RMI GUIDE Casey Grom and Team

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Visit the Ngorongoro Crater

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 26, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater. It’s a 1.2 million year-old caldera full of wildlife trapped by the steep outer walls.

We saw more than our share of lions today! So close that the lions were literally under our vehicles. It was moderately hot and the lions cooled themselves in the shade of our cars. We also visited a working Masai village and were amazed at their simple yet hard life that they live.

The whole team had a wonderful day and are looking forward to even more safari tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team - Day One of Safari

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 25, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Day one of our safari brought us to Lake Manyara, known for its famous pink flamingos and tree climbing lions. It took us about two hours to get there from our hotel. The drive took us through the vast open plains of Africa inhabited mostly by the Maasai people. Once in the park we rolled the tops of our land-cruisers back and drove through while standing up. It’s currently the dry season and the lake was mostly gone for now, but we saw many animals- elephants, water bucks, Thompson giselles, impalas, dik diks, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, and too many birds to name. No big cats today but hopefully tomorrow we’ll see plenty.
 
Everyone enjoyed the day and we are currently resting at the fabulous Plantation Lodge. See for yourself. We will be headed out early tomorrow to try and beat the heat and catch the animals at breakfast, so to speak.

It’s off to bed for now,
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Team Finishes Climb

Posted by: | September 24, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Back safe and sound!
Today we hiked the last few miles off of the mountain and are all freshly showered (thankfully) and are awaiting the feast that the Dik Dik Hotel is preparing for us. Everyone is happy to be back off the mountain and are looking forward to sleeping in beds, hot showers in the morning, cotton clothes and fresh coffee!

We have had a great last few days with the whole team getting to stand on the summit of Kilimanjaro. It was a wonderful, if maybe just a little exhausting, week full of beautiful views and amazing weather.

We’ll spend the night resting here then we will be off again in the morning to enjoy the rest of this beautiful country on safari.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew.

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Kilimanjaro: Teams Returns to High Camp

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 23, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 15,000'

Hello everyone back home this is Casey Grom checking in from our Kilimanjaro trip. Just wanted to report that we are all safely back at high camp and we had a 100% reach the summit today. Pretty amazing day. Weather was still perfect again for us going up. Little chilly, so we’re having to do a little dancing to keep our fingers and toes warm but all in all the group did fantastic. As I said we returned to high camp, we’re packing up and we’re actually going to be descending a few more thousand feet to our last camp, Mweka Camp.  If I get a chance I’ll try to send in a written dispatch. And if not we’ll certainly check in sometime tomorrow when we get off the mountain. That’s all for now, everyone’s doing great and look forward to trying to share few photos in a couple days with you guys.

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Kilimanjaro: Team Summits with 100%

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 23, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 19,340'

RMI Guide Casey Grom checked in via satellite phone on Saturday night, September 22 at 10:01 p.m. PT from the summit of Kilimanjaro, The Roof of Africa.  Casey was very happy to report that all team members had reached the summit it was a perfect day, sunny and beautiful.  “It is a fantastic day up here” Casey said.

After spending some time enjoying the views the team will descend to the 10,000’ Mweka Camp for their last night on the mountain. 

Congratulations to Casey Grom and all of the Kilimanjaro September 15th team members!

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Kilimanjaro: Team Reaches High Camp ready for Summit Bid

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 22, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 15,000'

Hi Everyone,

The team did a great job again on the short hike up to our high camp. It’s been a long journey but everyone is in good spirits and we are all excited about tonight’s climb.Our plan is to wake at midnight, have a quick breakfast and then be walking by 1am. If all goes according to plan then we hope to be on the summit just after sunrise.We will spend the next few hours resting, preparing our gear and hopefully getting a little sleep too.

The climb will break down into one hour stretches with 10-15 min. breaks between each hour. Our pace will be slow but steady with lots of breathing as we ascend to “The Roof of Africa” 19’340ft above sea level. We’ll do our best and will try to call from the summit.

Wish us luck!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew

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Kilimanjaro: Team Ascends to Karanga Camp

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 21, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 14,500'

Hello again from Africa.
All is well here as we continue to have fantastic weather for our climb. Once again the team impressed me with their performance on the 1,500’ high Barranco wall in just over a hour. We were one of the first groups out of camp and had most of the trail to ourselves with only a few porters passing along the way. Those that did impressed us with how they scaled the near vertical wall with 50 lbs balanced on their heads.

We then traversed over to the Karanga Valley and descended a few hundred feet and then climbed back up and are now resting comfortably at camp. Its a beautiful camp with the summit of Kilimanjaro above us and the Karanga Valley below and we can see the forest that surrounds the mountain and the savannah beyond that. Quite a sight to say the least!

The entire team is doing great and I believe everyone is in awe over the fact that we leave camp each morning still standing and yet we always arrive with the new camp set up and waiting on our arrival.
Enjoying the good life and looking forward to moving to high camp tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Settle in at the Base of Barranco Wall

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 20, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 12,800'

It was another wonderful day here on Kilimanjaro with clear skies to start the day. We hiked for just about six hours all total today starting at 12,200’ and then climbed up to 15,300’ and then descended back down to 12,800’. Everyone did great and thoroughly enjoyed the climb and many of the team members set new altitude records for themselves. The climb took us up across the Shira Plateau, traversed over to Lava Tower and then underneath the Arrow Glacier. We then descended into a valley that sits at the base of the Great Barranco Wall. Along the way we stopped and admired the unique vegetation that is only found in the high altitude of Africa. We saw many giant lobelias, groundsels and hundreds of Senicio trees that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

The team is now resting comfortably in camp and are looking forward to climbing the Barranco Wall tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Team Ascends to Shira Plateau

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 19, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 12,200'

We were greeted by crystal clear skies this morning which allowed some amazing views of Kilimanjaro and the route ahead. The team did a great job this morning getting packed up and hitting the trail after a breakfast full of fresh bread, fresh fruits and fried eggs. Not to mention the 10 hours of sleep we had!

The trail out of camp slowly climbed out of the forest and up onto the Shira Plateau. We watched in amazement as the porters moved past us with ease while balancing loads on their heads. Our crew certainly out did themselves by having prepared another feast for lunch about half way up the climb. It was a nice surprise to arrive at lunch with the tables and chairs waiting on us.

It took us about five hours to reach our next camp on the plateau and again camp was set up and our group was happily awaiting our arrival.
Needless to say the team had a wonderful day and everyone is doing great. We will rest here at 12,200’ for the night to help with acclimatization and will head up again tomorrow morning.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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