Entries from Expedition Dispatches
The
Four Day Summit Climb reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The team reported great route conditions and warm, sunny weather. The team is making their way to Camp Muir where they will rest and refuel before returning to Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
Today we visited the famous
Ngorongoro Crater, believed by many to be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a two million year old collapsed caldera that is home to more than 25,000 large mammals, and has a dense population of lions.
We spent nearly the entire day driving around looking at all the animals and waiting at times for either the wildebeest, or zebras to get out of our way. We saw about a dozen lions, a far off black rhino, thousands of pink flamingos and many others. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great day.
We finished off the day with a quick visit to a working Maasai Village to see how this semi-nomadic group of people still live the way they have for thousands of years.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll catch a glimpse of a cheetah and leopard to round out the safari.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On our first day of safari we headed south to
Lake Manyara, which is know for its colorful flamingos and tree climbing lions. It wasn't long before we spotted our first of many elephants to come. In fact we stopped just short of a mother and her baby and watched them cross between our two safari vehicles. It was surreal to see them so close and feel as if we could almost touch them, while they barely noticed us. We then headed off to our normal lunch spot but had to find another place as several lions had beaten us there. We think we counted 5 all together, two young males and a few females, but it was a little tough to tell as they were trying to stay cool in the bush.
After a nice hot meal provide by our traveling chef Michael, we headed off to see other animals and a quick visit to the hippo pond. Along the way we spotted a huge Monitor (giant lizard) in a creek and spotted many zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, bush bucks, and a few warthogs too.
All in all it was a pretty rewarding first day on safari.
We are spending the night overlooking the lake in a nice tented camp called Kirurumu. Everyone is doing great and excited for what tomorrow might bring.
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and Crew
Our
Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir led by RMI Guides
Mike Walter and
Jake Beren reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported great route conditions, warm temperatures and clear skies. The team is now en route to Camp Muir and will spend the spend the rest of their time at Camp Muir training before returning to RMI Basecamp tomorrow.
Congratulations to today's team!
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir September 9 - 13 led by RMI Guides Jake Beren and Mike Walter continue their training at Camp Muir. The teams ascended on Monday from Paradise to Camp Muir. They have been working on their mountaineering skills including cramponing, rope travel, running belays and ice axe arrest. The teams have been enjoying beautiful weather and spending time on the mountain. They plan to make their summit attempt this evening.
We wish them luck!
After a short hike today we finally arrived at the exit gate of
Kilimanjaro National Park and meet up with more of the Dik Dik staff who had prepared a wonderful lunch for us. It took about two hours to reach the Lodge where we greeted by all of the lodge staff outside awaiting our arrival singing and dancing. It was a very warm welcome and left everyone with big smiles.
As you can guess there were hot showers for all and a few naps too. We finished the evening with a celebration dinner and handed out summit certificates to everyone.
Now it's time to enjoy the success and do a little animal watching!
Safari starts tomorrow!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
9/10/13 6:49 am PT
Hello all -
The team has finally made it all the way down to Mweka camp situated around 10,000' and are resting after such a big day.
We had a wonderful day for climbing today with clear skies, moderate temps and very little wind. Everyone did a great job of taking care of themselves the entire day and really impressed me by making the summit in a little over 6 hours. We spent about a half hour taking in the spectacular views and getting the obligatory summit photos, then headed back down to high camp. After a brief rest we packed up and headed further down valley to tonight's camp.
Everyone is doing well and I'm sure will sleep well tonight.
Looking forward to hot showers and clean clothes tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
9/10/13 3:10 am PT - Success!
Our entire team reached the summit of
Mt. Kilimanjaro today.
We have safely returned to high camp and are getting packed up for our descent.
We'll try to update this evening.
On The Map
Hello again everyone.
Day 5 and we have arrived at
Kilimanjaro's high camp, 15,000ft!
The team once again did a great job of getting to camp in just under our 3-hour target time. It was another nice day here this morning and now we are sitting in the clouds, which will make for perfect napping temperatures.
We have just finished another enjoyable lunch and have discussed the plans for our upcoming climb. Everyone seems excited and as usual, a little nervous too.
Our plan is to wake up at midnight, have breakfast at 12:30 p.m., and hopefully start our climb around 1 a.m. If all goes according to plan, we should reach the summit somewhere around 7 - 9 a.m. EAT (5 - 7 a.m. PST).
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides
Dave Hahn and
Leon Davis reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver before route conditions forced them to turn around. When Dave called to check-in around 7:15 am, the teams were descending the lower third of the Cleaver en route to Camp Muir. They will be back in Ashford later this afternoon.
Hello all.
It was a beautiful day here on
Kilimanjaro today. Clear skies and relatively warm weather made for an enjoyable day.
The team easily climbed the 1,000-foot high and intimidating
Barranco Wall on our way to camp today. We made our way via a series of broken ledges and small steps and we were in awe of how easily the porters climbed this wall while still balancing their loads on their heads.
We are currently resting at Karanga Camp, which sits above the great Karanga Valley and has views of the towns far below.
Everyone is doing well and we are in good spirits!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Thanks RMI guides for getting the team safely to the summit! Congratulations Jason and the whole team! We are so PROUD of you Jay for Hiking for the Hungry.
Linda Friedman
Ps.
Would you bring us some snow? We haven’t seen any here in NJ since the 2013-14 winter from hell!
Posted by: Linda Friedman on 9/14/2014 at 9:30 am
Ajaz I am soo sooo proud of you!!!! love you
Posted by: sadaf on 9/15/2013 at 11:49 pm
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