Entries from Expedition Dispatches
It was a day. We awoke to a foot of snow and 30mph winds at
Aconcagua's Camp 2, brr! After a slow morning breaking down camp we headed uphill through wind and snow toward
Camp 3. It was hard going and the team had to dig deep to get to high camp, but everyone walked in together, heads high and looking forward to the next challenge. Tomorrow, we go for the summit!
RMI Guide Katrina Bloemsma
On The Map
Woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies up here at the
Cayambe hut with views of the mountain, Antisana in the distance, and a sea of clouds blanketing the lowlands. It was a bit of a rough night being our first evening sleeping at over 15,000' but everyone took it in steed and felt much better once we were moving around and enjoying a not so rustic breakfast. After downing breakfast burritos and coffee we packed up for a day of training and set out from the hut for the glacier. After about an hour and change of scrambling up a buttress, we hit the glacier and geared up with helmets, harnesses, ice axes, and crampons refreshing up on some of our basic climbing skills. Clouds came in and out, we chilled and boiled... Then headed back to the Refugio to eat dinner and get to bed early for tomorrow's alpine start. If the weather continues doing what it has been we should be poised for a good crack at the summit.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and the gang
On The Map
Hello from Mweka Camp,
We did it! The entire team made it to Uhuru Peak, the
Roof of Africa, this morning at 7:30 am. But there were no gimmes today, we fought hard for every step. What started out as fairly decent weather when we woke up, quickly changed as we were about two hours into our climb. At first, it began snowing lightly, but the higher we climbed, the harder the snow fell. The trail was completely covered by the time we reached 18,000'. By Stella Point, the crater rim, it was blowing about 30 mph and 4-6 inches of snow had fallen. Definitely not your typical summit day. Despite the challenges of the weather, the team did great today.
We left camp at 12:50 am and were on top at 7:30 am. We only spent about 10 minutes at the summit sign, and then it was time to get back down. The fresh snow made for an interesting descent, and new snow had fallen all the way back to high camp.
After changing out of our summit gear, we re-packed our duffels and headed down to
Mweka Camp, 5000' below us. We arrived in camp just before 5:00 PM, and our 17-hour day is now over. We are all tried, but in great spirits and looking forward to a good night's rest.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
On The Map
We woke not so early today (this mountaineering gig is rough) had a nice breakfast from the kind folks at Casa Sol and jumped in the bus for the famous Otavalo open air market. We spent a few hours cruising the stalls with food, jewelry, meats, produce, grains, spices, and of course handicrafts for sale. There's even a livestock market which is quite a sight (and smell). Clark and Garrett wanted to go looking for a live monkey to bring home but there was no such luck. I wonder what kind of papers a monkey needs to come back to the states. Anyway, we skipped Otavalo and finally headed for
Cayambe where we are settling in up at the hut over 15,000'. The air is thin but everyone's doing great so far. I'll let y'all know how that notorious first night at really high altitude goes...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Well after some long travel days getting to Mexico City the whole team met tonight, thus our adventure is underway! We are all excited to be here and get going. After introductions and a trip briefing we all went to La Opera, a beautiful restaurant in historic
Mexico City. Enchiladas con salsa verde were fantastic.
Now for some packing and prep for tomorrow and a good night sleep. I can already tell this is a great climbing team.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens
Hello from Barafu Camp,
We are at our high camp and ready for our summit attempt tomorrow! The team did great again today and everybody is excited to be here at 15,000'.
Today was a relatively short hiking day, climbing about 2,000' in just under three hours and reaching camp before noon. This is another great benefit to the Machame Route. Having a short day right before summit day allows us plenty of time to rest, hydrate, pack and get to bed early all in preparation of tomorrow. We'll have dinner at 5:00 and then hopefully be in bed by 6:30 at the latest. Most of us probably won't sleep much, but our bodies will get enough rest we need for the long day ahead.
The alarm is set for 11:45 pm, and the plan is to be walking out of camp around 12:45. About seven hours later, we should be standing on top of
Kilimanjaro. Wish us luck and we will try and give a call tomorrow from the summit.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
On The Map
Adversity. It's what high altitude climbing is all about. And here we are, sitting on a rest day at
18,000 feet in a snowstorm. It was predicted and we are actually glad. Because today is supposed to be the last day of adverse weather. Tomorrow is forecasted to be nice and as a matter of fact, the next four to five days. The team is feeling great so in the meantime,
Katrina and I have 36 quesadillas to make.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
After one last night in Babylon (Quito) the gang packed up and hit the road for what will become our journey to
Cayambe. We passed through several small towns on our way to the day's acclimatization hike on Cerro Fuya Fuya. A small hand-cobbled country road led us up into a deep caldera filled with a beautiful lake. From there we began our march upward through tall grass meadows towards Fuya Fuya's summit on the rim of the crater. A short couple hours of hiking and scrambling brought us to el cumbre at just above 4,100 m. Unfortunately, the views weren't quite as spectacular as our jaunt on Pichincha because of clouds, but they'd occasionally part and give us glimpses of the green slopes and the lake below. After a quick descent we hustled back to the bus and headed back towards Otavalo where we posted up for the night at the beautiful Casa Sol guest house. We're enjoying a last night in a real bed before heading for the big hill tomorrow.
Ciao...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
Happy Valentines Day from all the climbers to their loved ones! Today was another great day in the mountains. The team carried to Camp 3 at 19,600 feet in rather chilly temperatures. It was really the wind that gave us a bite on the cheek.
Arriving at
Camp 3 the team looked rather strong as they imagined what the final 3,000 feet looks like. I'm keeping it a secret for now.
The weather has moved back in and we are all lying in our tents drinking hots and listening to the snow fall on the tents. There's a little bit of thunder and lightning also to keep things interesting. It's safe to say we are all in siesta mode.
But first I'm gonna watch a movie....Roadhouse!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Valentine wishes from the team:
You R my Valentine Sweetie Pie! Love U Lots - Brenda xxooxxxoxox
Susie--love you and miss you like crazy! See you very soon. Love, Rich
Hey baby, made 19.6 today but would rather be snuggling with you on this Val Day! Love Ken
On The Map
Happy Valentine's Day from Karanga Camp. The Barranco Wall is now well behind us and the group powered right up it without any issues. We decided to switch gears a little with our departure time today. We opted to let the other climbing groups leave before us so we could take our time climbing up the Barranco Wall. It was the right call for today. As a result of the later start, we got to sleep in this morning, not rush through breakfast, and all enjoyed a little extra time in camp. Starting out, the trail is pretty steep, and there are a few rock sections that require some basic scrambling, but once through this section, it is very straightforward walking. We took a quick break about an hour up, then we took another 30 minutes before we were standing on top, looking down at our old camp 900' below. The clouds were blocking most of the views, but no one complained as we were very lucky to have only clouds and not rain. This would be our high point of the day, and then we continued traversing east towards
Karanga Camp. Along the way, we met a group of climbers called Kilimanjaro Warriors. It is a group of ten climbers, six of which are disabled veterans. Seeing these climbers today was both humbling and truly inspiring. For anyone to make this climb is a big accomplishment, but to do it without one leg, or even both legs, is remarkable. We wish them the best of luck with their climb.
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, here are a few wishes from
Kilimanjaro:
Happy Valentine's Day to my family, Tom and his family! Thank you for all the support. Sarah Sending love from Kili! Happy V-day J.W., family and friends. It's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined - of course I've cried every day. Ha!Ha! Tracey Thanks everyone for all the comments. They really help. We are feeling strong and looking forward to summiting in 2 days. We'll send our love from the top. xoxo. Have to go stretch now (Adam). Chris, Holly, & Eric.
Happy Valentine's Day Mom & Dad! Thanks for the good genes! Sue Still breathing! Happy Valentine's Day Meg! Don
Thanks again for all the comments. We will send an update from high camp tomorrow.
Best,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
On The Map
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Hi sweetie hope U had a nice day of relaxing! Looks like better weather will make the summit experience all the sweeter, Love you, miss you, Richie &. Sea Jay. Xxxxxxoooo
Posted by: Rich larscheid on 2/17/2014 at 7:46 pm
Hoping this email finds you full of thrills and cheers and at the summit! Keeping you and yours in my thought!
Stay safe and full-up with incredible memories…Diane
Posted by: Diane Hart on 2/17/2014 at 1:56 pm
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