Sunday, August 13, 2023 - 7:24 am PT

We had an extremely nice day for going to the top of Africa. Waking at 11 last night it was dead calm and when we unzipped the tents and looked out, the lights of Moshi and a hundred other towns and villages in Tanzania were winking up at us.  The ever-present cloud deck wasn't present. Overhead, the Milky Way dazzled us.  We ate a quick "breakfast" and got climbing by midnight. The cold temps were a challenge, but less so without wind. We marched up through the night, taking quick hourly breaks in the lava, gravel and pumice.  We were at Stella Point on the crater rim when the sun rose at 6:35 and magically it was still calm on the mountaintop.  It was a beautiful walk in the morning light over to Uhuru, the summit of Kilimanjaro.  We celebrated up top and took plenty of pictures. We'd just begun walking down when one of the remaining summit glaciers calved with a thunderous crash into a pool of meltwater. We were stunned by the action, but also by the fact that a sizable pool of unfrozen water existed at 19,000 ft. We slid down the rock scree of our ascent route, reaching high camp just after 10 AM. Our staff sang and danced to give us a memorable and fun welcome. We finished the day with a rugged hike down to Mweka Camp at 10,000 ft, arriving at 3:30 PM under sunny skies. The team is getting set for a final night on the mountain. Our team did well, placing seven of nine climbers on top and crucially nine of nine safely down afterward. Our support team blew our minds with the quality and quantity of help they provided as we pursued our dream summit. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Sunday, August 13, 2023 - 1:10 AM PT

A quick check in from RMI Guide Dave Hahn with the photo above to let us know the team reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro at 7:15 am local time.  The team has safely descended back to High Camp, Barafu, as of 10:15 am local time.  They will continue their descent to Mweka Camp, their final mountain camp of the trip.

Congratulations team!