Hello from Mweka Camp on Kilimanjaro!
Horizontal in the tent is the place to be. We had a nice 15 hour stroll today and reached the summit of Kilimanjaro. We must be crazy huh? The reward in the end makes it all worth it and then some. We descended to Mweka Camp, 10,000', to our final camp and last night on the mountain. We shared another fine dinner and enjoyed each other's company until folks were starting to fall asleep in their chairs. Other than some sore muscles, the whole team is doing great. The climb went so well that I better warn all of you back home that this crew is ready for more.
In the morning we will take a short 3 hour to the Mweka gate where our ride will be waiting to transfer us back to the Dik Dik resort. It is just starting to rain on the tent right now, but we are tucked in warm and dry until morning.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
Hope you took some sweet selfies at the top, Connor!!!
Posted by: Laura (from work) on 8/14/2014 at 4:02 am
John, we hope you were able to enjoy all aspects of your journey and it sounds like the weather held out long enough to get a spectacular view. Enjoy the Safari and hopefully you aren’t getting too wet coming down from the mountain. Love, Katie, Liam and Aidan
Posted by: Katie Brown-Steinke on 8/13/2014 at 6:56 am
Jambo! Jambo! Mark Tucker calling you from the Roof of Africa. With incredible timing we stood on top the moment the sun rose. We had the top pretty much to ourselves. And I've got everybody here with me and couldn't ditch them. We're all standing up here on the summit of Kilimanjaro and everybody is doing great. We are finishing up with the photos. It's a little bit chilly a little bit breezy but we are all nice and comfy based upon our precision like accuracy with our clothing. All is well and I'll check in back at low camp. You can rest easy, everybody is looking strong, everybody is tight and together, a great climbing team. So we're all doing well. I'll check in later.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro
We had a nice relaxed departure from Karanga camp this morning. After just a few short hours on the trail we found our selves at our high camp on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Barafu Camp. We are moving well today and the same steady tight team pulled into camp. We already emptied our packs and adjusted the load to ready for our summit attempt tonight.
We have our food packed for the summit and enjoyed a hot lunch at camp. We are relaxing this afternoon and taking a rest before an early dinner. After dinner we will try to get a few hours of sleep before our midnight wake up call and game on! The weather continues to stay nice, just a few low clouds now and again but no complaints here. The local support staff has yet to miss a beat and we really appreciate the help. Go team Go. Will try and call you from the top.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hi Mark!
We missed your call—sorry. And it didn’t work when we tried to call you back. This experience sounds wonderful. We’re happy for you and we love you.
Mother & Daddy
Posted by: Maury & Eviemail Address * on 8/11/2014 at 4:20 pm
We are looking forward to seeing your celebration pics from the summit! Stay safe and enjoy!
Come on baby! A couple more nice weather days for us and it can storm all it wants up here in the high country of Tanzania. It all boils down to needing a bit of luck when climbing big peaks like Kilimanjaro; when the mountain says no you need to listen. Even on climbs when you do not get to the top of are filled with events and memories that stick with you. I have great confidence that this entire team will stand on the roof of Africa, with safety leading the way. It is such a unique thing we do up high, to be allowed to stand on the summit is really icing on the cake. We take away an immense feeling of satisfaction on all climbs. The team has checked off all the prerequisite to get this done.
When we leave Karanga Camp tomorrow morning, our summit push begins. We'll take a bit of a break at Barafu, the high camp, then up up and away! Man, this is exciting. All the prep work that has gone into this, the great support by all involved back home, is all making this last bunch of hours a reality. We promise to make you proud of what we do, impressed on how we did it, and thank for this beautiful mountain in supplying us this adventure. All is well at 13,000' on Kilimanjaro. We will check in with you tomorrow!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Yet another nice day. A bit breezy as we approached our high point of the trip so far. Altitude records for most, than a couple thousand feet descent into Barranco Camp home for the night. The team continues to do just what they should to move smooth and efficient. We pulled into camp nice and early, so much so that we even took a short hike to a waterfall and the base of the Barranco Wall, the first part of our climb tomorrow. Mixed in the team is a couple of families; fathers, daughters and sons, even an uncle. Great to see them out in the hills and having a gas. A few clouds have moved in obscuring a view of the upper mountain but we may get lucky in the next hour to get a few photos of the peak in the beautiful alpine glow condition we can be rewarded with for such an effort put forth.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
After a peaceful night at the Kikoti Lodge just East of the Tarangire National Park boundary, we had breakfast and ducked back into the park. As experienced safari aficionados, we no longer stopped the vehicles for common zebras and wildebeest. But we were happy to pull over to watch a monitor lizard cross the road. And seeing a lion guarding his fresh kill got our attention. The king of the savannah also got the attention of about twenty elephants on their way to the water. They trumpeted and snorted when they sensed his presence and -giving him some space, took a detour to reach the water. We saw a few thousand other animals and birds, baobab trees and acacias on our way back out to the main park exit. Then it was Tanzanian highway driving with a few stops for tourism and sightseeing on the way back to Arusha and the Dik Dik Hotel. All that remains now is a dinner together and a few shuttles to the airport over the next 24 hours as we split up and begin to circle the globe toward home.
It has been a chock full couple of weeks in Africa. Thank you for keeping track of our team!
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Oups, this cool elephant picture was taken by Seth Waterfall, but that’s OK, your great sense of capturing moment in this wilderness is well sufficient to let our imagination understanding the beauty of this surrounding nature. With all my respect and admiration. Chrystel, the little dreamer !
Posted by: Chrystel on 8/9/2014 at 8:59 am
Thank you, Dave Hahn, for the richly detailed journals that you write for each trip. I love following the daily adventures of you and your team.
Safe travels to all! ~Andrea
Shira Camp is our new home for the night. At 12,500 ft it is nice to still see bushes and grasses. Don't let life forms other than humans fool you, it is a very harsh place to be. Unlike places like Alaska where the latitude away from the Equator keeps plant life well below here.
It was nice to see the whole team at breakfast this morning healthy and happy . For some, it was was a new experience spending the night in a tent at 10,000 ft. Before we turned in, a discussion about strategy for the night and talk of what we can do to help adjust to the altitude paid off. Another day of perfect weather for the climb and it couldn't have gone smoother. Incorporating the same techniques used on all these big hills went very well with a team of strong climbers arriving at Camp 2 right on schedule.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Sounds incredible! XO to Sarah, Adam, Larry and Jeff!
Good luck- enjoy!!!!
Posted by: Shari on 8/9/2014 at 8:34 am
Sounds like another perfect day for our two boys, Steve and Connor! Can’t wait to hear all about your trip! Have a fabulous time and enjoy the Roof of Africa! Sending all of our love your way! - Shari & Judy
Another day, another incredible Tanzanian National Park. Today we visited Tarangire... A system of rivers, swamps and savannas that host a mind-blowing number of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, giraffes and just about every other East African animal you can think of. We were particularly interested in the big cats today. As luck would have it, we spied a cheetah, a lioness up a tree, and finally a big and beautiful leopard in an Acacia tree at sunset. The elephants of Tarangire were everywhere and their signs of passage were everywhere else. We could see where they'd been scraping bark from the giant baobab trees in search of moisture, and flat out destroying smaller trees in other places. In terms of bird-life, we saw everything from an African Fish Eagle (eerily similar to an American Bald Eagle) to the ubiquitous superb starlings with their incandescent colors. It was just getting dark when Joseph and Clement brought our Landcruisers in to Kikoti, a hotel of screened in cabins with a luxurious and open-planned center dining room and bar just to one side of the national park. This will be our last evening together and our last out in the wild, but we look forward to a final day's journey back through the park and "home" to Arusha.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
What a great day in the mountains. The team was like clock work getting out of the lowlands. A pleasant drive to the Machame Gate where our climb began. Not too hot or cold, no rain just some broken clouds as we moved up the mountain in great style and all arriving at Camp 1 in fine shape. The usual perfect support by our fabulous outfitter the Dik Dik, best outfitter for a climb of Killimanjaro. We worked a lot on technique, and talked about strategy for the future throughout the day. We are all fed and down for the night. Awesome moon above and the summit clear and calling. How many times can I climb this beast and still get such a thrill. It's crazy, you have to make the time to do this one for sure!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker and Team called to check in from the Dik Dik Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania. The team has enjoyed a little R & R after long international flights; everyone is well rested and ready to start trekking. After a gear check this afternoon the bags are packed and ready to hit the trail in the morning.
Follow along with us on the RMI Blog and they make their way to the Roof of Africa!
Hi Steve and Connor! Hope you have a safe trip up the mountain and back! Take lots of pics to share! ~Audrey
Posted by: Audrey on 8/7/2014 at 7:00 am
Connor!! It’s Ash from work!! Hope your having a blast!! I’m still jealous! Any-whos guess whos back working here?! Molly is back so that’s pretty sweet and makes work more entertaining! Oh and guess which vote won for the united way t-shirt design?! Yours! They have long sleeve and short sleeve. Does your dad want one too? Anyways have an amazing hike! -Ashley & Molly :)
Hope you took some sweet selfies at the top, Connor!!!
Posted by: Laura (from work) on 8/14/2014 at 4:02 am
John, we hope you were able to enjoy all aspects of your journey and it sounds like the weather held out long enough to get a spectacular view. Enjoy the Safari and hopefully you aren’t getting too wet coming down from the mountain. Love, Katie, Liam and Aidan
Posted by: Katie Brown-Steinke on 8/13/2014 at 6:56 am
View All Comments