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Posts for Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team at Machame Camp

Posted by: Casey Grom | January 29, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 9,800'

The team was up by 6:30 and out the door by 7:30 after a quick breakfast. We loaded up all the gear and food then drove for just over a hour to Kilimanjaro National Park. Once we were at the park entrance we registered our team and picked the 20+ porters to help us along the way. We were the first team to start walking thankfully, as a team of 100 showed up and began picking their 300+ porters. It was busy at the gate but we managed to stay out front all the way to camp. It was far from a perfect day here on Kilimanjaro. We encountered a very heavy rain after about two hours of hiking that soaked us almost to the bone. Everyone did great and remained positive despite the less than ideal weather.

We are currently relaxing in our tents now that the rain has subsided and are getting ready for dinner. Tomorrow we’ll have more than a few items hanging from our pack to dry in the sun.

Enjoying the adventure!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Casey Grom and Team Arrive in Africa

Posted by: Casey Grom | January 28, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Jambo (Hello) from Africa,

The team arrived late last night after some very long flights (18hrs). We wasted no time getting back to the hotel and called it a night after a quick dinner. This morning we had our team meeting and discussed the upcoming climb and gear needed. We then took a break and enjoyed a little sunshine by the pool. Its basically summer here and most of us are on vacation after all. After lunch we took a short ride into Arusha and did a little sightseeing. Arusha is busy city of 300’000+ with a very rural and simple feeling. The team has just finished a wonderful 5 course meal provided by the Dik Dik Hotel and are headed off to bed.

We’ll be getting up early and headed for the trailhead tomorrow so that all for tonight.

RMI Guide Casey Grom & Team

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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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