Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We had it pretty good on the mountain... but it sure was nice to sleep in beds last night and to take showers this morning. We breakfasted at the Arumeru River Lodge and then hit the road at 8 AM with our drivers/naturalists/guides Francis and Michael. We didn’t do too badly in the rush hour traffic skirting Arusha. Before very long we were out in open and dry country, pushing west into lands dominated by the Maasai tribes. We saw plenty of cattle herds being brought to or from water by Maasai herdsmen in their distinctive Tartan blankets. We reached Lake Manyara National Park a little before midday and popped the tops of our two stretch Landcruisers. We then stood with our heads and cameras out the roofs of the vehicles, looking for what might be hiding. We found monkeys and baboons, of course. But also Cape Buffalo and Elephant families and a hippopotamus momma and child lounging in water lilies a few feet from the road. There were hundreds of exotic birds for Keith, there were distant giraffes for Guillaume. We got a little used to seeing wildebeest and zebra and impala. We looked up in the branches of every tree we came to, searching for lions, but they weren’t available today. As the afternoon went along, the animals -and our expeditioners- got sleepy and so Michael and Francis pointed the Landcruisers toward the cushy Plantation Lodge. We sipped sundowners while watching the sun go down, dipped in the pool and generally lived the good life in this perfectly laid out compound of accommodations and gardens. We got together for a fine dinner -with many noting that it was almost as good as Tosha’s 15,000 ft fare- and we hatched plans for a pre-dawn start in the morning.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Casey Grom, Leon Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
It's another beautiful day with clear skies and light winds on the upper flanks of Mt. Rainier. RMI Guides Casey Grom and Leon Davis led their Four Day Climb August 24 - 27 to the summit this morning. The teams enjoyed the views and took photos for almost an hour before starting their descent from the crater rim. They will conclude their adventure this afternoon with a celebration of their accomplishments.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
After such a massive and intensely challenging day as our summit bid, today was cruiser... and downhill cruising at that. We woke at 6 AM in the forest, commenting to one another that 10,000 feet was sure an easier altitude for sleeping than 15,000. We enjoyed one last excellent breakfast on the mountain and came out into the morning sunshine for the "gratitude ceremony". Our entire fifty-man staff assembled and began singing. They danced and clapped through the Jambo song, and the Bomba song, then assistant cook Benson took them -laughing- through the Churra song. The laughing became uncontrollable when Peter showed his Minnesota dance moves. Then we did a few small speeches and handed gratuities to each of the staff along with handshakes and “Asante Sanas”. We thanked them very much for helping and befriending us. Minutes later, at 8 AM, we were on the trail and heading down into the rain forest. It took just a few hours to walk carefully down the four thousand vertical feet of slippery trail past some giant trees and a few Colobus monkeys. We shared the track with porters from a number of other expeditions, running at top speed with big loads balanced on their heads. Everybody was ready for the finish. The gang assembled for a final group picture at the Mweka Gate trail sign around 11 AM. Then we dutifully lined up to sign the park service ledger and loaded onto our bus for a short ride to a picnic area. Tosha and our camp waiters, John, Alfredy and Damien, served us an excellent lunch out in the strong sunshine. We said our goodbyes and got on the bus for the big (2.5 hour) ride through the Tanzanian countryside back to Usa River and our lodge. Folks were understandably ready for showers and internet and an easy afternoon of getting ready for Safari. We celebrated over a victory dinner, outside with the monkeys and Dik Diks. The Arumeru staff honored the team with a surprise cake and a song. Finally, we did our toasts and our goodbyes to Joe, who’ll be winging his way home tomorrow while we continue the adventure.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Eric Frank, Jenny Konway
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guide Eric Frank thinks it's a beautiful day to climb Mt. Rainier. Eric along with RMI Guide Jenny Konway and the Four Day Climb August 23 -26 reached the summit just before 7 AM today. The team reported clear skies but with strong winds from the top of Disappointment Cleaver to the summit. The teams enjoyed almost an hour in the crater enjoying the views before starting their descent. Once back at Camp Muir they will repack and get ready for the final descent to Paradise. Their program will conclude with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Marlena, you are my hero!
Posted by: Angela Gordon on 8/26/2019 at 5:44 pm
Congratulations, Emmy, well done! One more down on your Bucket List!!
Love you!
Evie
Posted by: Evie D on 8/26/2019 at 10:46 am
We’re down at Mweka Camp, in the trees at close to 10,000 ft. A long way from this morning’s summit. And an even greater leap from where we started the day at Barafu Camp.
We actually started the day yesterday -at 11:30 PM. As usual, we didn’t all get great sleep ahead of the summit bid. Those of us lying awake in our pitch black tent interiors got to listen to persistent rain showers rattling on our shelters. When the alarms went off and we got outside, we found ourselves in a wet cloud... but very near the top of it since we could see stars overhead. We ate our midnight “breakfast” and got walking behind Naiman at 12:35 AM. The clouds washed in and out at our level a few more times in that first hour of climbing, but ultimately we got above it all and had a fabulous night for stars. The moon came up as a perfectly oriented smile on the horizon. We had no ability to capture the image, so it was just something to enjoy thoroughly in the moment as we trudged in line up the rough rock path. As expected, life got colder as we climbed higher. We took short rest breaks and put on every stitch of clothing we had. The sun finally came up once we were hitting 18,000 ft and life got easier (and more beautiful) as we reached the crater rim at Stella Pt by 7:05 AM. The walk along the crater to Uhuru was amazing. Rain in the area had cleared the ever-present haze and so we could see a good chunk of Tanzania that normally stays hidden from above. We hit Uhuru at 8 AM and our timing was excellent. We had the top to ourselves -another rarity- which we took full advantage of. Twenty five minutes later we were headed downhill. The descent was smooth and we made fine progress (with ample help from our amazing staff). We got back to High Camp at 11 AM. Tosha cooked us up a great “brunch” which fortified us for packing and bailing out of high camp by 12:40. The descent to Mweka was mostly in murky cloud, and it must be admitted that we all just wanted it to be done, the trail is rocky and requires a ton of concentration (tough to come by 15 hours into a summit day). We rolled in just after 4 PM and the fine camp waiting for us made every inch of the descent worth it. This will be our last night on the mountain... it seems likely that nobody will have trouble sleeping.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Congratulations to all! Enjoy the party before you leave camp in the morning. Watch out for the frog going up the mountain. Hopefully, he remembered to pack everything.
Posted by: Jeff Tracy on 8/26/2019 at 2:51 am
Congratulations on a successful clime to the top! I don’t know most of you, but I’m proud of all of you anyway! I pray that your trip down is as successful as the ascent. And many thanks to Dave for his wonderful blog describing your adventure. It was almost like being there you paint such a great picture with words. God bless you all, Kathy
Posted by: Kathy Ward on 8/25/2019 at 1:48 pm
Posted by: Brent Okita, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guide Brent Okita reported windy conditions on Mt. Rainier from High Break to the summit crater. The teams spent a little time to make any clothing adjustments, get a bit of food and water and then started their descent from the crater rim around 7:30 AM. We look forward to seeing all the climbers at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to all climbers!
RMI Guide Ben Ammon and his team were 100% on the Mt. Shuksan summit! The team is currently working their way back to high camp.
Congratulations to the Mt. Shuksan team!
The weather changed overnight. It was still perfectly calm and reasonable at Karanga Camp this morning, but the upper mountain was caught in a cloud cap and we could see there’d been a dusting of new snow from about 16,000 ft up. Some of our team reported being aware of a short-lived shower of some sort rattling on the tents in the darkness. We went for the same lazy start as yesterday because today’s expected time on the trail was even less. At 9 AM Naiman led the team upward on gently sloping, wide open terrain. The vegetation didn’t last very long, in fact it was mostly played out by our first rest break at 14,000 ft. We were under cloud for a good chunk of the walk (with the usual solid cloud layer forming a floor below us) but conditions weren’t bad at all for walking. Things steepened some just before we reached camp, but our now seasoned team of ten tough climbers just chugged right on up without much trouble, arriving at 15,200 ft Barafu Camp at 12:15 PM. The altitude didn’t seem to give Tosha, our chef, any problems, he put out a fine lunch at 1:30. In a sign that they are all doing quite well, our team ate every last bit of that fine lunch.
The afternoon was spent resting and prepping to climb. We’re headed for an early dinner and an early bedtime, although it might be tough to take our eyes off the sunset. We’ll be getting up early (or more properly -late tonight) There is a mountain to climb!
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
It seems to be quite a mindblowing journey. Be courageous. Enjoy!
Posted by: Bertrand Lambotte on 8/25/2019 at 5:20 am
Climb like the wind!
Posted by: Jeff Tracy on 8/25/2019 at 4:22 am
The Four Day Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Mike King and JT Schmitt reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Mike reported clear skies with wind gusts of 45 mph and sustained winds at 35 mph. The teams have started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Hope Jeremy Wallace and friend are on this climb. Congrats to all and have a safe descent.
Posted by: Robert Wallace on 8/24/2019 at 11:33 am
Friday, August 23, 2019 7:11 PM PTThe rains came shortly after we finished our breakfast this morning, and refused to let up until 3 o'clock this afternoon. We spent the majority of the day passing the time in our tents before finally getting out for a little training this evening. The views cleared in time for us to enjoy them while eating dinner, and we're all ready to head for the summit tomorrow! RMI Guide Ben Ammon & Team
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Congrats Suz and Donna! What an unbelievably, beautiful sunny day to summit the mountain and what a great achievement!!! Way to Go! Kirsten & Frank
Posted by: Kirsten on 8/27/2019 at 5:26 pm
Congratulations to Donna and Suzanne and the rest of the Team ... Well done!!!
Posted by: Binotto Family on 8/27/2019 at 2:05 pm
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