Hello!
Mark Tucker checking in from the Barranco Camp, situated at 12,992’ on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We had great conditions for our hike today. Sunny and a little bit of clouds down in the low lands. Our conditions were just perfect. Everyone on the team, except for myself, had record breaking altitudes. We got up to 15,272’ was our high point and then descended back to his camp at 12,900’.
It is a wonderful night out. A little breezy, clear and lots of stars. A half moon is illuminating quite a bit of snow cover up there on the summit, not the true summit but up to about 18,500’. A really pretty night tonight, that we are all enjoying.
We had a birthday celebration, one of our team members Carlos, turned 50 today. So, we had a cake, candles and the local staff did a sing-song and a beautiful red-rose covered card all signed by the team. He had quite a day.
We are staring at the Barranco Wall which is our challenge in the morning. It is more intimidating than the actual effort it takes to climb it. It is usually one of the more fun parts of the whole climb. [Call connection lost]
Well, checking back in had a dropped call there. On a satellite phone here so sometimes it does that.
The team wanted to give a shout out a big “hello” to everyone back home. Everyone is doing just fine. Rumor has it there have been some comments made to the Blog site which we are unable to check. But we look forward to taking a look at them when we get back to some computer access. Much appreciated by everybody sending their best wishes. Thanks for following. We will be in touch.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Barranco Camp on Kilimanjaro.
Mark Tucker checking in from the Shira Plateau Camp at 12,500’ on Kilimanjaro. The high today was about 80 degrees and mostly clear skies. There were some cloud layers below but it has mostly cleared out and there are beautiful views of the mountain most of the day.
This evening the crescent moon was illuminating the southern and northern ice fields. It’s been a fabulous night and we had a great dinner. The team is doing well and having so much fun. Wishing you were all here.
We are in the area of one of the three principal volcanoes that make up Kilimanjaro. The Shira Plateau has a bunch of parasitic cones that we are all staring at and getting some great pictures of.
We are looking forward to a big day tomorrow to hit a high point of over 15,500’ feet and then we’ll drop back down to the Barranco Camp which will be situated at about 15,000’. So, we have our work cut out for us but it will be good. We’ll be just fine and will check in tomorrow when possible.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Shira Plateau on Kilimanjaro
Hello!
Mark Tucker checking in with an update from Tanzania, Africa. We are on our day one of the ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro with RMI Expeditions. We started under clear skies and beautiful weather with a high temperature of close to 80 degrees throughout the day.
We arrived our Camp 1, Machame Camp, around 10,000’ and everybody is in good shape. Attitudes are very, very well. We just finished a nice chicken dinner and we are getting ready to crawl into our tents.
Being a clear evening, I anticipate that it will probably get down to about freezing maybe a little frost on the tents in the morning. But everybody’s gear is checking out and will be tucked into warm sleeping bags and we are looking forward to a good night’s rest. We are still a little tired from our flights from the US. Everyone is doing very well and excited to be here.
We will check in tomorrow with another update. All the best from Tanzania.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Machame Camp on Kilimanjaro.
Happy birthday to your 50th’s from the EU Team! Hopefully you’ll be able to find a piece of cake of your way up today! (Who knows, maybe Scott brought some?)
All the best for you and the team for the way up!
Posted by: Daniel on 7/25/2012 at 11:34 pm
Hello Dennis, Eric and Milbraths,
We are glad to hear that everyone is safe and having a great time. We are sure that you are seeing some amazing sights. We’ll relive it with you when you share the many hours of video that will surely come back with you. ;-) Hope the Go-Pro’s hanging in there! Tomorrow sounds like a challenge - stay safe and enjoy. Love, Kim, Sarah & Danny
Jambo!
Our team has arrived in Tanzania. We had our first team meeting this morning after breakfast at the beautiful Dik Dik Hotel.
After that we spread out gear and checked that everyone brought the necessary items. The team took the equipment list to heart and everyone is thoroughly prepared for our adventure.
the temperature is in the 70s with clear skies. We are enjoying a relaxing afternoon and recovering from our long flights and the new time zone. Some folks spent some time lounging by the pool.
We had a nice team dinner and everyone has headed to their cabanas to do some final trip prep.
In the morning we will load the vans and drive to the trail head of Kilimanjaro. After so many months of preparing for our Kilimanjaro, the time is finally here. Tomorrow we start the climb!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hello from Kikoti Camp,
We had a bit more leisurely start to our day today and we were on the road by 9:00 heading to Tarangire National Park. En route there was a huge downpour, but all the rain stopped by the time we reached the entrance gate. From there, we worked our way south, stopping at every opportunity to view the animals. After yesterday, it seemed like we were in a dry spell because nothing can really compare to the amount of animals you see in one day in Ngorongoro Crater. In Tarangire, you have to find them! The usual suspects were all present, but the day was coming close to an end and we had still not seen a leopard. Then our safari driver decided to take a little detour, and 15 minutes later we were stopped in front of a tree with a leopard resting on a branch about 10 feet off the ground. Our viewing of the "Big Five" was complete. The last sighting of the day was a baby elephant, just a week old, with his mother spraying water on the both of them to help cool off in the afternoon sun. It was incredible.
Now we are at the Kikoti Camp, sitting out on the porch, looking out over the African landscape and listening to all the sounds around us. We're going to take a short hike before dinner and go out and watch the sun set, and take a few customary "sun downers" to enjoy as the sun dips below the horizon.
Unfortunately, this adventure comes to an end tomorrow, and we start to make our way home. It has been a great trip and we have enjoyed it. Thanks to all of you who posted comments and gave your support for us safely reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro.
RMI Guide Jeff Martin & Team Simba Sita
Yay, Heidi and David! It has been so fun following your amazing adventures through this blog. Can’t wait to see you upon your return….travel safe! Smooches, Jules
Posted by: Julie Gregory on 2/23/2012 at 4:01 pm
What a besutiful sunset! Can’t wait to hear more details and see photos….hurry home Jim/Daddy - we miss you!! Safe travels home everyone. XOXO, P, j & c
Jambo from Plantation Lodge,
When you see Ngorongoro Crater for the first time, it almost leaves you speechless. It is massive; the crater is 26 miles in diameter, and you look down almost 2,000' to the crater floor. There are countless little black spots scattered throughout the 125 square miles of the crater floor. You can't really make out what animals they are from this distance, but there are thousands of them, with most estimates claiming 25,000 residents.
We have to drive about 1/2 way around the crater rim before we come to the "descent" road, with impressive views the whole way down.
The luck from yesterday continued today as we saw so many interesting animals. From new born wildebeest and zebras, warthogs, lions and lion cubs, cheetah, cape buffalo, black rhinos, ostrich, elephants, to hippos, and gazelles, we were very fortunate to see them all.
We ended the day with a visit to a Masai village and then headed back to the lodge for a little relaxing time before dinner.
Tomorrow is our last stop on the safari circuit, ending at Tarangire National Park. While not too far away, it is very different from the first two parks we have visited, and should give us our best chance of seeing leopard.
Good night,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
Hello from Plantation Lodge,
Today we had to say good bye again to the wonderful Dik Dik Hotel and headed out on our safari. First stop on the safari circuit was Lake Manyara National Park. It's not talked about as much as some other parks in Tanzania, but it has a lot of game viewing and is the perfect introduction to safari. I have heard for many years that this park is most well known for the tree climbing lions, and after many trips without ever seeing one, I was beginning to think that this was all made up. To my surprise, this would be the day that we saw not just one, but six tree climbing lions. The lions will climb the trees to seek refuge from the hot afternoon sun and they are really hard to spot because only a leg or a tail will be hanging down from the tree branch. It had been over two years since our driver had seen one, so we were definitely lucky.
The entire park sits right below the Great Rift Wall, and as we continued to tour around the park, we saw lots of elephants, impalas, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, and giraffes. We left the park feeling very good about the day's sightings.
Tomorrow is Ngorongoro Crater with its 25,000 resident animals. It going to be a big day and people are excited to see this natural wonder.
RMI Guide Jeff Martin & Team Simba Sita
Wow! I can’t believe I saw Kims white legs on the last picture. It is good that Kim is letting her hair down. Way to go Bob and Kim.. Can’t wait to hear and see more when you get back!!
Posted by: Bradley Hegman on 2/23/2012 at 9:42 am
Lucky! I had stopped believing in them. Nice one team.
Hello from Arusha,
We are safely off the mountain and back at the Dik Dik hotel. The team did great yesterday and everybody in the group made it to 19,340', Uhuru Peak. The day started at 11:45 pm and we were walking out of camp by 1:00 am. It was a solid six hours of climbing to reach Stella Point, and at 8:15 am we were standing on the Roof of Africa. Our timing was perfect and we pretty much had the summit to ourselves, a rarity on Kilimanjaro. The Park Service recently replaced the old summit sign with a new larger green and yellow sign. Consensus amongst most climbers is that they like the old sign better, but either way, it marks the spot of the highest free-standing mountain in the world. We took a bunch of summit photos, and then we started our descent back to high camp.
This summit day was a little tougher than the usual. What started out as some light winds, soon turned into a solid 30 mph wind by the time we reached 17,000'. As the eastern horizon turned orange as the sun began to rise, the winds picked up to 40 mph. We slowly climbed onward, but it was soon becoming apparent that we might not even make the summit today. We added our shells, covered up our faces, and decided to keep going for another stretch. An hour passed and without any relief from the wind. Without stopping, we climbed for another hour and fortunately, the winds lessened as we approached the crater rim. By now it was looking a little more optimistic that we would reach the top despite the winds. We were cold and tired, but with the summit in view, we added our down parkas, and made it the last hour to Uhuru peak.
We quickly descended back to HighCamp and were greeted by congratulations and a table loaded with fresh fruit and french toast. Re-fueled and re-packed, we headed down to Mweka Camp for the night. This morning we completed the trek down to the Mweka gate and then back to the Dik Dik Hotel.
Now we get to put our climbing gear away and focus on the next part of our adventure - 4 days on safari. First up, Lake Manyara National Park.
RMI Guide Jeff Martin & Team Simba Sita
RMI Guide Jeff Martin called from Mweka Camp (10,000') after the team's summit day.
The entire team reached the summit of Kilimanjaro today in great style. They left Barafu Camp after midnight with their headlamps lighting the way and reached the "Roof of Africa" as the day broke over Tanzania. After a quick celebration on top the team began their descent back to high camp where they were greeted with drinks and breakfast. They continued down to Mweka Camp and the thick air of 10,000' tired but in great spirits.
Congratulations to the team!
Jambo from Barafu Camp,
The team did great today on our move up to high camp. The hard work over the last five days has paid off and we are now ready for our summit attempt. Today was our shortest day of hiking so far, and we made it to Barafu Camp in just under 3 hours. Now we have the whole afternoon to rest up and sort through our gear one last time, just to make sure we have everything we need for tomorrow.
You would not be able guess we are at 15,000' right now. The sun is finally winning out over the clouds and it is warm, especially inside the tents. It won't last long, but we'll take it while it does.
An early dinner is the plan for tonight and hopefully we will be horizontal by 6:30 pm. The alarm is already set for 11:45 pm, and hope to be walking by 1:00 am. We should be arriving at the crater rim around sunrise and then one final stretch up to Uhuru Peak, the Roof of Africa.
Our group is really strong and up for the challenge of tomorrow. Thanks the positive comments on the blog.
Will try and check-in from the summit tomorrow, or when we get down to Mweka Camp.
RMI Guide Jeff Martin and Team Simba Sita
Heidi and David. Excited to follow your daily progress.
Look forward to hearing that you have reached the summit
and accomplished your objective! All the best! Stay safe and
be strong. XOXO Dad
Posted by: Craig Berkman on 2/18/2012 at 8:53 pm
Great to follow your amazing advendure through the blog and photos! Hope today’s ascent exceeds your expectations and that the Roof Of Africa was as phenomenal as it sounds. See you when you return home. Safe travels and have fun!
Jambo, Tuck! I wish I was there, too. Have a great trip!
Steve Evans
Posted by: Steve Evans on 7/26/2012 at 9:44 am
Hi Mitch,
I hope things are going well for you and Dion. I have no doubt that you’re doing great. Wishing you both a safe, successful experience.
Posted by: Darlene Silvestri on 7/26/2012 at 7:49 am
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