Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Daybreak and moonset at Kikoti were just as wonderful as sunset had been yesterday evening. The team enjoyed a quiet and excellent breakfast before hitting the road at 8 AM. We were right back onto the rough dirt tracks of Tarangire National Park. There was plenty of great exploring over the following four hours... Lots more elephants, zebras, giraffes, vultures and eagles. We scanned gullies and great plains, looked high and low. No more big cats, but we all figured it was ok to save some things for our next safari. This one wrapped up at noon as we started eastward on the road back toward Arusha. We made one stop at the cultural heritage center on Arusha's outskirts. Everybody was getting more and more "time conscious" though -as is natural with an international flight looming. We got back to the quiet grounds of the Dik Dik in time for some repacking and freshening up. Then we enjoyed a final -excellent- dinner together. The ride to the airport began just after sunset and the team cheered to see Kilimanjaro's 19,000 ft heights glowing above a few low clouds. It has been an exciting couple of weeks in Africa.
By now the gang is on the wing, homeward bound. I'll hang out for another round of Kili climbing and looking for cats. Thanks for keeping tabs on us.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, JM Gorum
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Northside
Our Elbrus Northside trip concluded in one of my favorite towns to visit in Europe, St. Petersburg. Finally sleeping in to a leisurely hour, we met our tour guide and bus at 10 am and departed on a circuitous path through the history filled city to see the sites. St. Petersburg is home to some of the more stunning cathedrals in Russia, and those were a primary focus of the tour, passing by the Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood, St. Nicholas’ Cathedral (a cathedral dedicated to the Saint of travel and maritime navigation, which is of huge significance in a city founded to be the maritime capitol of Russia, and the home of it’s navy), and St. Issac’s Cathedral. The massive scale of St. Issac’s is something to behold, and on one side, its huge columns still bare the scars left from mortar and artillery shells fired at the city during its 600-day siege in World War II. We also passed the warship that fired the symbolic first shot that began the Bolshevik takeover of Russia’s government, and found ourselves finally at the Hermitage.
The Hermitage is comprised of the former winter palace of the Romanov dynasty, as well as several buildings that were added on later by different emperors and empresses, and is home to an art collection in excess of 2.7 million pieces. Our guide spent an hour taking us through the buildings, pointing out some highlights, a Michelangelo, two paintings by DaVinci, and several by Rembrandt. After the hour, our tour guide released us to wander through the stunning rooms ourselves at our own pace. That evening we regrouped for a canal boat tour, beginning on the river Nevski, which runs through the heart of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the days of recent rain (many of which we had experienced!), had swollen the rivers and canals, so that the boat was unable to make its way through the usual circuit of canals that run through the heart of the city, as the passages under the bridges were too low, but we still were able to see the summer gardens and several more palaces from the unique perspective of the canal.
That led us to our final dinner as a group. The Jerome presented the perfect destination, and when the chef came out to show us the special — a beautifully marbled cut of local prime rib weighing almost a kg, everyone was sold. Delicious local beef, and several bottles of Spanish Rioja provided the perfect ending celebration to a really special trip that everyone enjoyed. We were sad to part ways the following morning, some of us very early, for flights back to the US. This was a special group of climbers to work with, and JM and I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and incredible perseverance and positive attitudes. We look forward to running into everyone in the mountains again soon, and thanks to all who followed along on our adventure!
Signing off,
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and JM Gorum
The Expedition Skill Seminar - Paradise met in Ashford on Sunday to being their week of training. After a full day on the grounds of Rainier BaseCamp getting ready for their trip, they left early the following morning to begin their climb. The weather was beautiful and the team spent their days training on the glacier of Mt. Rainier. Yesterday the team ascend to Camp Muir where they spent the night. With an alpine start they left Camp Muir to make their summit attempt. The team enjoyed the views from the top of Mt. Rainier with clear skies and light winds. Nick and team will return to Camp Muir to re-pack their gear and make their final descent to Paradise. Congratulations to the Paradise Seminar Team!
Posted by: Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 18,871'
We are safely back at base camp after our entire team made the summit of our final peak of the trip, Pisco Oeste. Pisco was the third summit of the trip and the team is feeling accomplished with everyone making summits on Ishinca and Urus as well. It was a great effort for the team and the camaraderie put forth to make it a successful trip for everyone was incredible.
While we're all smiles now, this morning was a different story. We woke to thick clouds and light snow falling on our 16,000' high camp. We shrugged it off and began our breakfast routine. By the time we were packed and ready to climb the snow had abated and the clouds showed signs if parting. An hour into the climb and we were staring at beautiful stars and moonlit mountain faces.
For a couple hours we had nothing but blue skies. Then as we neared the top, winds picked up and clouds began to build on the summit. We climbed on bundled up in puffy jackets. On top we were in and out of clouds, the weather parting for summit photos and glimpses of the famous peaks of the Cordillera Blanca, Alpamayo and Artesonraju.
It was an absolutely phenomenal climb and the way down was fast and smooth.
We're grateful for the help of our local guide William, our porters and our astonishing cook Helario, who makes masterpieces out of anything. It's been a great ride and I can't wait for my next opportunity to come back to the 'Blanca!
Cheers!
RMI Guide Zeb Blais
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We tore ourselves away from the luxurious Plantation Lodge this morning in search of more animals. Tarangire National Park has delivered nicely. We spent the day looking at hundreds of elephants, thousands of Zebra and wildebeest, eagles, vultures, superb starlings and dik diks. Certainly the high point was watching seven lions... Including several generations of cubs, turning a wildebeest into an all-you-can-eat buffet. They were absolutely ruling the waterhole -until a band of thirsty elephants moved in. The lions dragged their carcass a discreet distance into the shrubs and stayed away from the happy elephants. We watched it all. We then went exploring, enjoying the vastness of Tarangire. We scanned every boabab and acacia tree for leopards but haven't yet seen them... Same with the cheetahs. We know they are out there though and we'll hope to see them tomorrow morning.
Tonight we are quite comfortable in the tent cabins of Kikoti Lodge out on the beautiful estate boundary of Tarangire. The team enjoyed the end of their last full day in Africa by watching the sun set over a campfire. Tomorrow we'll have that last chance at the cats as we spend the morning going back through the park before hitting the highway for Arusha and Usa River.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Jasna and Jason
I haven’t been able to follow your whole trip but I just read/caught up and wow! Can’t wait to hear all about it! Safe travels friends.
~JanieMac
Posted by: JanieMac on 8/18/2016 at 5:59 pm
Kate and Ben, How exciting to see nature at its finest. We can’t even imagine what it was like to see all those magnificent animals in their element. Enjoy your last day. Seems like your adventure had just begun. Looking forward to seeing all your pictures. Safe travels. Love mom and Ted.
Posted by: Janet Armentrout on 8/18/2016 at 4:42 pm
Posted by: Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 16,000'
This is Zeb Blais and team checking in from 16,000-foot, Moraine Camp on Pisco Oeste. We had a great day today moving up to camp- pretty leisurely. We are now tucked in, fueled up and ready to make a charge on Pisco Oeste early in the morning. So we'll check in when we get back. Until then.
RMI Guide Zeb Blais
RMI Guide Zeb Blais checking in from Pisco Oeste, Peru.
Zeb, hope you and the team are enjoying yourselves - safe climbing and looking forward to hearing about this one when you are back!
Posted by: C. Riordan on 8/18/2016 at 7:11 am
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons Team led by RMI Guide Geoff Schellens reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Geoff and team had a great day of climbing with warm temps and clear skies. The team will spend the remaining time on the mountain training before returning to Rainier Basecamp tomorrow afternoon.
Congratulations to today's team!
Very excited for you! Can’t wait to see pics & hear the tales of your epic journey.
Posted by: Jean Plew on 8/18/2016 at 3:54 am
Congrats CousYs. Cannot wait to hear all about it. XX
Posted by: Michelle on 8/18/2016 at 2:57 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
After a luxurious night at the Plantation Lodge, we were well-rested and ready to charge off for day two of our game-viewing Safari. A short drive brought us to the entrance of the Ngorongoro conservation area. Our drivers got us safely up the rugged road to the rim of a great collapsed volcanic caldera. For a time, as we drove around the cloudy rim, the "crater" was hidden from view, but eventually we started down into the bowl and could see the full extent of the valley. Joseph and Erik took us on the network of rough dirt roads around the interior of the crater until we'd seen our fill of wildebeest and zebra, hippos and gazelles, warthogs and Cape buffalo. We spied one of the rare black rhinos from some distance -they are shy- and kept our eyes peeled for more. We caught ostriches sharing a private moment, and then topped that experience by witnessing a pair of lions getting to know one another. The day was pretty magical... there were a few stray elephants thrown into the vast mix of wildlife. Today we were seeing full herds of animals rather than ones and twos of a species and that meant that we were often surrounded in our land cruisers... happily so.
We left the crater and visited a traditional Masai "boma" This village on the rim housed a nomadic extended family. We watched traditional dances and toured the simple homes formed of sticks and dung. It was a view into a vastly different world than our own and we tried to understand how these herdsmen lived in the land of lions and leopards with only spears for protection. We were back at our own nomadic village -The Plantation Lodge, before sundown and enjoying the garden like setting and warm hospitality.
Tomorrow we'll head for Tarrangire National Park.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
Perfect. Delighted the big cats did not disappoint.
Posted by: JH on 8/18/2016 at 5:51 am
What chance and pleasure Jasna ! Finally you have seen the TRUE HIPPOS (your hippos) Good return to home and pleasant trip , Jason and Jasna .
With love mama Rada
Posted by: mama Rada on 8/17/2016 at 11:46 pm
Posted by: Mike King, Steve Gately
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Summit Climb Teams August 14 - 17, 2016 enjoyed beautiful weather during their time in Mt. Rainier National Park. Today was no different as the teams got an early start from Camp Muir and were able to enjoy the views from the summit of Mt. Rainier. The teams, led by RMI Guides Mike King & Steve Gately, reported light winds and perfect weather. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Proud sister, right here! Congrats, all (especially Rich S. & Mike H.)!
Posted by: Kristen on 8/17/2016 at 5:09 pm
CONGRATS MATTHEW! ♥
Posted by: hannah on 8/17/2016 at 2:48 pm
Posted by: Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 15,300'
After a brief layover in Huaraz to shower, shave and eat a few meals at low elevation we're back at it. Today we moved up to 15,300' Pisco Oeste Base Camp.
While we waited for our burros and arrieros to deliver our gear, we took a short detour to Refugio Peru just above our camp. By the time we had finished off some cappuccino and chocolate cake, our burros had arrived and it was time to set camp.
Our camp lies in a beautiful alpine meadow surrounded by the massive peaks of Huandoy, Huascaran, Yanapaccha and our objective, Pisco Oeste. We're primed to pack up tomorrow and move to our high camp before our summit attempt the following day. The team is doing great and we're fired up for our next summit bid.
RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson and team
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Well Done to the entire team!
Posted by: Richard Bergey/Bonnie Bergey on 8/18/2016 at 5:38 pm
So glad the clouds parted for the team, blessed! The food sounds fantastic, lucky you are working off the calories. Safe journey back home, can’t wait to hear the stories.
Posted by: Debbie Z on 8/18/2016 at 5:14 pm
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