Entries from Expedition Dispatches

Hi Everyone,

We all summited Sahale Peak and Sharkfin Tower on August 8th in beautiful sunny weather and great climbing conditions. It took our team of five 11 hours round trip from camp. We all summited Forbidden Peak via the West Ridge in cloudy weather with a few moments of light drizzle and some moderate winds on the summit, but overall great conditions. Our summit push was 12 hours round trip from camp.

We had a strong team, and four days of great climbing!

RMI Guides Mike Walter, Henry Coppolillo & Team

 We awoke hours before the sun was up to begin our journey to the start of the Salkantay trek. Hours of winding Peruvian roads and a beautiful sunrise later, we arrived!

Our local guides and cooks made us a fantastic breakfast to start our trek off right. The first part of the trek began with a gradual uphill that gave us phenomenal views of the valley below. We followed an impressive trail alongside an aqueduct for several miles until we got to the town of Soraypampa. Here, we enjoyed the last porcelain throne that we would see for several days. Leaving town, we headed up a valley with soaring views of both, Tucarhuay and Salkantay peaks! The gradual ascent up the valley was difficult but rewarding as the beauty around us only increased as we got higher. Camp was graciously already set up for us by our guides and their assistants. We enjoyed a great dinner, drank cocoa, tea, and did our best to adjust to our new altitude of 14,300 feet. It was the highest most of us had ever slept, and it looked to be a cold night. Thankfully the cooks made us all wawa's (bladders of hot water) for bedtime!

Goodnight from the Andes!

Mike, Jack, and the team

The Four-Day climb led by Pete Van Deventer and Alex Halliday turned around at 12,300’ this morning. The teams were facing 45 mph gusts as a wet cloud cap descended on them. They reported that the weather at Camp Muir was far more favorable with a light breeze to welcome them.

The teams are on their descent back to Basecamp, with warm showers and good food in their sights.

A great day on Safari, according to our Kili climbing team.  We got out early (7:15 AM) on the drive to Ngorongoro Crater.  It takes a bit to drive the rough road up onto the crater rim, to cruise along that rim for miles and miles and then to drop down the steep road into the caldera itself.   Immediately upon hitting the valley floor, we saw two male lions a few hundred feet from the road.  But they might as well have been rocks.  They were sleeping so hard that we never even saw an ear twitch.   We moved on and began to encounter everything from wildebeest to jackals to hippos and Corey bustards.  The abundance of zebra and Cape buffalo and gazelles was stunning.  There were herds beyond herds stretching to the distant crater walls.  We cruised amongst the ostriches and wart hogs for hours, at one point getting great views of a Cerval Cat on the prowl.  Finally we stopped for a picnic lunch and then began our exit of the crater.  We stopped at a Maasai village on the crater rim and spent an hour with the villagers as they danced, sang, made fire, threw spears and generally explained why they choose to hang on to their traditional methods in a modern world.  Then we went back to that modern world, relaxing for the evening at the very comfortable Plantation Lodge. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Four Day Climbs August 7 - 10 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Ben Ammon reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  As of 7:30 am the teams were at 13,100' on their descent. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise.

The program will conclude this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today's climbers.

Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 6:00 pm PT

Greetings from south of the equator! Sorry for the delayed dispatch but life down here moves at a different pace and we've been enjoying it. The last few days have actually been a whirlwind of cultural sites, colorful markets and adorable fluffy alpacas. After the team flew into Cusco we got dinner and went to bed early to recover from the long travel day down to Peru.

The next day we met our local guides Chris and Javier. We went and explored the Sacred Valley outside of Cusco visiting the amazing Pisac Market and enjoyed some delicioso traditional empanadas. The second half of the day was spent wandering the ancient Inca site of Ollantaytambo. The size and perfection of the stone walls were hard to comprehend even when standing right in front of them! Some of the most impressive stone masonry the world has ever seen!

Today we continued to immerse ourselves in Incan culture by visiting the Qorikancha. This Inca temple of the sun was partially destroyed and a Spanish church built on top of it. Next we drove up to see the lovely Saqsawaman! Yes it's pronounced like it looks. This site has the largest stones of any Inca site, with one that is estimated to weigh 122 tons! The next stop was a traditional weaving market that had all 4 types of Andean camels, llama, alpaca, vicuña, and guanaco! They were adorable, very soft to pet and their wool makes beautiful garments. The final stop was the Catedral del Cusco, it was full of baroque style art and decorations. 

Tonight we pack for the beginning of the Salkantay Trek that we will begin at 4am tomorrow! It's a long drive to the start of the hike but spirits are high and we can't wait to get on the trail!

Buenas noches!

RMI Guides Mike King, Jack Delaney and the team

Jambo from Safari Day One.  We left the Rivertrees Inn just past 7:30 this morning with our safari guides (and drivers) Simon and Nixon.  It took nearly an hour to break free of the big city of Arusha and to get traveling through the arid countryside to the west.  Before long we were seeing herds of cattle tended by Maasai in their distinctive tartan blankets.  We peppered our guides with questions about Tanzanian history, society and life in general.  By the time we reached Lake Manyara at 11 AM we were considerably smarter.  We entered the forest and the National Park all at once and began looking for wildlife.  Monkeys and Baboons were first up.  We began to see some great birds as well.  There weren’t great numbers of animals but eventually we were finding elephants, giraffes and Cape buffalo.  Simon and Nixon were clearly on a mission following our picnic lunch.  They were chasing clues that took us farther and farther into the park, basically a strip of forest between the gigantic lake and a steep escarpment of the Great Rift Valley.  Finally, we hit a small jackpot.   There were a family of elephants on one side of the dirt road we sat on -and three lions lounging amid trees on the other side.  About a hundred feet separated these two factions of the “big five” (and we were directly between them).  The lions (a big male and two females) were napping, but it was the kind of napping where they put their heads up to watch every move the elephants made.   Eventually we bid them goodbye as it was getting a little late and we had some distance to go to reach the town of Karatu and The Plantation Lodge hidden away back in the farmland.  We pulled in just before 7PM and quickly made ourselves at home.  Tomorrow we’ll get an early start on our journey into Ngorongoro Crater. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Four Day All Women's Climb August 6 - 9 was unable to summit due to weather.  RMI Guides Emma Lyddan, Hannah Smith and Lily Emerson turned the climbers around at 12,800' due to lightning, ice and rain. The teams returned safely back to Camp Muir. They will descend the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise later this morning and conclude their program at Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.

Photos: Hannah Smith

More than a few of us got up this morning saying we’d slept better than on any other night on the mountain. 

Mweka Camp was calm and quiet… except for the now familiar sounds of our kitchen crew going to work to get breakfast on.  We enjoyed one last meal on the mountain and then threw packs on for the final walk down.  We needed to get rid of four thousand feet of elevation.  Almost immediately, we were into the rain forest and the trail was slick and a little treacherous as a result.  We picked our way carefully down muddy stairs as porters from various expeditions ran at full speed a few inches to one side of our team. We reached the Mweka Gate at 11:15 a.m. and signed out with the Kilimanjaro National Park.  A short bus ride took us to our celebration lunch hosted by our fabulous mountain staff. They sang a few traditional songs and got our gang dancing.  We took the opportunity to distribute tips and thank the entire team of hard working men. 

A two hour bus ride got us back to Rivertrees Inn and showers and fresh clothing.  We relaxed and started the process of shifting gears from climbing to safari-going. 

We’ll head out first thing tomorrow to see what we can see at Lake Manyara. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and team

The Four Day Climb August 5 - 8, 2022 led by RMI Guides Alan Davis and Matias Francis reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning.  The teams reported windy conditions.  They left the crater rim around 5:20 am and as of 7 am were at the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent.  Once back at Camp Muir the teams will have a quick break before continuing the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise.  They will then conclude their program this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today's climbers!