Entries from Kilimanjaro

Howdy everyone back home.

All is well in Tanzania. We’ve had great weather and the team is humming along really well.

We hit the trail just after 8 am and hiked for an hour before taking our usual 15 minute break, then back on the trail for another hour and so on. In total today we hiked for just over 7 hours before reaching Barranco camp. Our gracious Kilimanjaro porters and staff have been working very hard and we arrived once again to a camp set up and ready for us.

Along the way we passed around the famous Lava Tower reaching just over 15,000ft setting new altitude records for many. We also passed by many of the giant groundsels and towering Senecio trees that made us feel as if we were in some crazy Dr. Zuess story.

The team is in good spirits and doing great.

RMI Guide Casey and the Kili crew

Friday, September 4, 2025 - 10:11 pm PT

Hello again everyone 

The team had a really nice day here on Kilimanjaro today, waking to clear skies and a beautiful view of Kili right above camp. We had a light cloud layer which helped keep us cool while on the trail, which was nice as the sun can be quite intense here near the equator.

We started the day waking at 6:30 to start packing up before moving into our dining tent for a nice breakfast with porridge, fried eggs, toast, avocado and even some fresh fruit, and most importantly plenty of hot Tanzanian coffee. 

We hit the trail shortly after 8 am and slowly made our way up the rocky trail with occasional views of Kili above, while sharing the trail with all the porters. 

The trail climbed up a blunted ridge and eventually out of the trees and allowed for some truly spectacular views of the valley below. The team hiked for a little more than four hours before reaching out next camp that sits on the Shira plateau, which is the remnant of an ancient lava flow. 

Everyone is doing very well and we are currently relaxing in camp. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

Today the team had an early start and left behind our incredibly comfortable lodge as we have headed to the mountain towards the start of the climb. We left around 8am and drove along the rural country side passing small villages for 1.5 hours before reaching the park entrance called Machame. We also had great views on the drive of Kilimanjaro looming high in the distance, intimidating and exciting at the same time. 

Once we arrived at the park gate we had all of our gear weighed and divided into loads for our 51 porters and other staff to carry before hitting the trail. With everything in order we’ll start our climb slowly make our way up the winding trail that ascends continuously through the thick forest. Thankfully the overhead canopy of the surrounding forest will provide a huge relief from the hot sun overhead. 

We are about to start our six hour hike to camp that sits around 10,000ft and most likely won’t have reception so I’m sending this from the entrance. 

Everyone is doing well and looking forward to starting this adventure. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew

Hello from Tanzania! 

Everyone has safely arrived in Tanzania and the team is doing well and in good spirits after some very long flights. Nearly 20+ hours for many of us. 

It was a short and quiet ride to our Lodge that is nestled in between Arusha and Moshi and not so far from the base of Kilimanjaro. The team had a quick dinner and headed for bed as the time change had us all feeling just a little off and pretty tired after all the traveling yesterday. 

Today we had a leisurely morning and then rolled into our group meeting after breakfast, where we did a round of introductions and then discussed the upcoming program for the days ahead. The team spent the remainder of the day getting our gear packed up, exploring the grounds of our peaceful Lodge and dodging the gaggle of monkeys patrolling the grounds. 

We wrapped up the evening with a delicious meal and plenty of friendly conversations.

Everyone is doing well, excited to be here and looking forward to stretching our legs tomorrow as we head to the mountain. 

Casey and the Kili crew!

Hate to brag, but our days just keep getting better.  Tarangire National Park is delivering.  We are still in the park -by the way- in a tent camp miles and miles away from the park entrance.  There are no fences between our tents and the animals we were lucky enough to see all day long.  Supposedly, the lions haven’t figured out how a zipper works yet, so we’ve got that going for us. 

We saw good lions today, but they were the sleepy kind.  Five lionesses taking naps in a riverbed.  We saw distant and sleepy cheetahs -two of them- but they were too far away and too sleepy for photography.  Just when we were thinking that was a little unfair, we got to see a mother cheetah feeding a gazelle to two of her pups… up close.  It was stunning.  Our team enjoyed giraffes up close.  We particularly liked elephant families frolicking in mud.  The team got used to seeing massive baobab trees, easily sixty feet around and possibly thousands of years old.  A high point of the day, for certain, was when Johnson took us along an immense swamp shoreline at the golden hour when the light was magical before sundown.  None of us could believe how many animals and birds we were seeing and how few humans.  We’d given all the other cars the slip and Africa was beautiful all around us.  It is our final night of Safari… we still haven’t seen a leopard but we are certainly open to a little luck for the morning commute. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Elephants are among the “Big Five” most dangerous animals to hunt—if you’re into that kind of thing. We simply wanted to see the five, and Ngorongoro Crater was our best chance of accomplishing that. So there we were, up on the rim of the giant caldera, bouncing like crazy in the Land Cruiser on a washboard road. We came around a blind corner in the fog and skidded to a stop because an enormous bull elephant was squarely in the middle of the road—and not inclined to move for us. In fact, he made it quite clear that we needed to show some deference to resolve the situation. Johnson, our driver and guide, wisely put the cruiser in reverse while the big guy took a victory walk. So we had one of the five before even dropping into the gigantic “crater” full of wildlife.

We’d barely hit the crater floor before notching up numbers two and three. We immediately saw Cape buffalo and sleepy lions. Then came gazelles, zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, jackals, hyenas, ostriches, and hippos. It was a bit overwhelming.

By afternoon, we were trying hard to spot rhinos. We scored number four by spotting four sleeping rhinoceroses at a distance. Full disclosure: we saw them because a bunch of other Land Cruisers were stopped and pointing. But we also got to see a rhino that no one else saw, thanks to Arthur’s sharp eyes.

We tried to find a leopard—number five—on our way back out of the crater, but didn’t luck out. A visit to a Maasai village on the rim rounded out our big day.

Best regards,
Dave

The first day of Safari delivered. We changed over from a team of disciplined mountain climbers to a gang of slacker tourists. Lake Manyara National Park had plenty for us to see and our driver/guide/naturalist Johnson made sure we saw it all. Elephants, big and small, were everywhere. They came quite close to our Land Cruiser. A tower of giraffes by the lakeshore was a bonus. A pair of mingling pythons surprised us. Monkeys, baboons, hippos and mongooses came to the party. We finished out the afternoon and made it up to the ultra comfortable Plantation Lodge for sunset and a fine dining experience. 

--RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The team was smiling right from the start today.  Excited to have had such a wonderful summit day, and energized by a full night’s sleep at the relatively low altitude of 10,000 ft.  We finished with a morning in the rain forest.  Thankfully it wasn’t raining as we carefully picked our way down the steep and muddy track for 4,000 vertical feet.  We were entertained and amazed by the many porters running down the same track at high speed with heavy loads.  As we made our way through the giant camphor trees, we saw a few shy monkeys and hyraxes.  Above and beyond expectations since our wildlife safari doesn’t officially begin until tomorrow.  At the gate, we signed out with Kilimanjaro National Park and then went a short distance to have a last lunch with our mountain staff.  They sang, we danced and expressed our deep gratitude for the help and friendship they extended.  And then we said goodbye and boarded our bus for the rough ride back to Rivertrees -our hotel in Usariver.  We’d earned showers and clean clothes, a celebration dinner and a night in a bed.  But the trip isn’t at all over.  Safari starts in the morning. 

Best
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The biggest day of the trip was enormous.  We were up at 11 last night and walking uphill from our 15,200 ft camp just after midnight.  Conditions were perfect.  It was cold but dead calm.  And we had most of the moon shining, so headlights were helpful but not essential.  We targeted an ascent lasting about seven hours but as it turned out we were a little faster than that -unintentionally.  We stopped for rest a few times, naturally, but the cold and the traffic on the route (all teams were basically on the same schedule) meant our breaks needed to be darn quick.  The team was up to the task.  Our guides threaded us through the “crowds” and helped us in a million ways, singing to entertain us as we trudged up endless, steep paths through the rock and scree.  It was still dark when we hit the crater rim at Stella Point but a cold wind with a wisp of cloud made us skip the normal rest break there.  We just marched along the rim -the roof of Africa- as the light and colors came up in a magical display.  The entire team hit Uhuru -the summit- at 6:50 AM.  19,341 ft never felt so good.  We loved it… and we loved that the sun was starting to warm things up.  Our descent to high camp was completed at 10 AM and we tried to wrap our heads around the idea that we still had to climb all the way down to 10,000 ft to finish the day.  Tosha and Michael, our world class chefs made it all possible by serving us pizza for brunch and fortifying us for the four hour journey.  Clouds had come in to Barafu Camp and at noon, we were eager to get walking as it had gotten quite cold.  We ducked out of those clouds in the first hour and by the time we reached Mweka Camp it was sunshine and blue sky again.  We’re breathing thick air again and relaxing… and still a little amazed that we reached the highest point in Africa this morning. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Now it gets exciting—we are at 15,200 ft in Barafu (Ice) Camp.

The team had no trouble coming up from Karanga this morning. The clouds and murk of yesterday afternoon and evening were nowhere to be found by this morning. We came up in calm and sunny conditions, with unlimited views of the big volcano we’ve been spiraling in toward. We reached high camp in the late morning and spent our time eating, resting, and preparing to climb. Clouds came over again in the afternoon, but they’ve cleared away again this evening, just as we’ve all tucked in for an early (6:30 PM) bedtime. Before too long, we’ll be going high.

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

PC: Dave Hahn