Update August 14th at 10:56 am PST: The nights are long in this part of the world... approaching 12 hours. My Kilimanjaro climbing team knows this all too well after today’s climb to the tippy top. We set out from high camp at 12:40 AM and it was nearly six hours before the sun made an appearance. Our first few hours of climbing weren’t so bad... it was pitch dark -with no moon- but it was also nice and calm. When we reached 17,000 ft though, a 20 mph wind found us and stayed with us, dropping temps and making us all crave sunshine. When we got it -at around 18,500 ft- the sunrise itself was gorgeous, and the winds dropped away, but only until we hit Stella Point on the crater rim at 7:15. Our victory lap along the rim to Uhuru was made in winds up to 35 or 40 mph. That certainly made it tough to do much sightseeing. We each just concentrated on walking and breathing. We hit Uhuru, the true summit, at 8:20 and stayed exactly eight minutes. That was long enough for a few high fives, hugs and hero shots... and then we boogied. We got out of the worst of the wind when we left the crater rim and temperatures got reasonable. We skied the scree to get lower fast. The goal was obviously to get off the mountain safely, but it was also to get back down to the altitudes that don’t hurt one’s head and rile one’s stomach. Our great Barking Zebra staff helped us immensely in getting home to Barafu in good time. We were there at 11:30 AM just in time for brunch in the dining tent. Then -although we were all in the mood for naps- we packed up and got walking down for another 3.5 hours. We shed another 5,000 vertical feet to reach Mweka Camp down in the trees at the 10,000 ft level. It turns out that the days are pretty long in these parts too... in any case, we’re all looking forward to a long night’s sleep tonight. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn [audio transcription] Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the Kilimanjaro Climb. We made the summit today. We're back at high camp now at Barafu at 15,000 feet. At 8:20 this morning we were at Uhuru,19341 feet above sea level, highest point in Africa. It was a windy cold morning. It was a hard climb, but we did it and we're safely back at high camp and we're going to head down to Mweka Camp, 10,000 feet to finish the day. All for now. Bye. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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