RMI Expeditions Blog

Close Encounters

We came down into the great rift valley today and made our way to Tarangire National Park.  The place is known for elephants, Baobab trees and a great chance for nearly every thing else.  It wasn’t a big cat day for us… we saw a couple below a tree, but they were sleepy.  But it was a big day for elephants.  Close up and personal elephants.  Well one at least.  We’d stopped to watch a family of pachyderms cross the road.  They all crossed; moms, babies, aunts, sisters.  Except for one big bull who, instead of crossing, suddenly came to check out one of our Landcruisers.  We were trying to guess his intentions as his trunk found its way into the car. He then pulled back a step, took a rumbling dinosaur deep breath and shook his head violently a few feet from the car.  Then he stared down into it good and hard before pushing a tusk against the window.  Richard, our driver/guide turned the key and pressed smoothly on the gas at the same time, quickly moving us to safety as the big bull elephant then danced into the road.  We couldn’t believe how close we’d been to an enormous and confused animal.  It was a little terrifying and thrilling all at once. 

We then went on our way, deeper into the park, enjoying seeing giraffes and hyrax’s and elands.  Our lodge for the night is a tent camp way out in the wilds of Africa.  We shall see what beasts wander through. 

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

We fought through weather & cold conditions on Mt. Baker this weekend,  but had a successful summit day followed by beautiful sunshine on our decent from Baker! 

RMI Guide Hannah Blum

The August 28 - 1 September Glacier Peak climb led by RMI Guide Avery Stolte reached the summit this morning around 9 am.  The entire team stood on top today.  Nice work team! The group will descend to camp and spend another night on the mountain. Tomorrow they will return to the trailhead and conclude their program.

The day started out just so-so.  It was cloudy, it was raining.  When we drove up onto the rim of the Ngorongoro caldera it was still raining, still cloudy and the road was rough.  Down in the immense valley it was still a little miserable but at least we were seeing wildlife.  Then it got amazing. 
We considered ourselves lucky to have spied a few lions at some distance.  But then we started coming on prides of them at close range.  When three rhinos walked toward our vehicles, we were over the moon.  Such a thing doesn’t happen.  And it did.  They came into iPhone range.  Whole trips pass without a rhino even at great distance.  We moved a few miles away and considered ourselves ridiculously lucky then to see a different pride of lions on a zebra kill. And then a rhino casually walked within a few feet of the pride and the kill… again, so close that a phone was all the camera needed for capturing it.  Our guides had never seen such a thing before.  We were simply amazed.  We drove off to the lunchtime picnic grounds shaking our heads in wonder.   After lunch we made our way up to the crater rim again and stopped in for a tour of a Maasai village.  We danced we watched them throw spears and make fire. We toured their homes and tried to understand their traditional way of life in an otherwise modern world. 
Then we drove back down the bumpy roads to Plantation Lodge and the lap of luxury for another evening. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Rivertrees beds were comfy last night after a week sleeping on the ground.  But we got up early anyway to get started on our Safari. It took about an hour to get through Arusha and out into the wide open country to the west. But then we cruised through arid farmland, seeing herd after herd of Maasai cattle being shifted from one watering hole to another.  By midday we’d reached Lake Manyara National Park and our guides, Richard and Stephen, got us in and started showing us around.  Before long we were right up close to elephants and baboons. One car even got lucky enough to see a leopard up a tree.  Eventually we were getting used to seeing giraffes and hippos and impala.  There were hornbills and hawks. Three lonely zebra and a few waterbucks caught our eye.  It was a fine start to safari life and then we were checking in to the ultra comfortable Plantation Lodge in the Ngorongoro highlands outside Karatu.  The team enjoyed a very relaxing evening in the beautiful bar and dining room as we plotted out tomorrow’s itinerary in Ngorongoro Crater. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Five Day Climb team, August 27–30, led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Joe Crawford, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning!

Pete reported a beautiful day overall, with light winds as the team reached 13,800' around 7:30 a.m. Winds increased as they climbed higher, but the team continued upward and reached the summit around 8:00 a.m.

They are currently descending from the crater rim and will return to Camp Muir for a quick break before continuing down to Paradise later this afternoon.

Their patience yesterday in waiting out the storm paid off, as did having two nights on the mountain, which allowed for a more flexible itinerary. The team was able to take advantage of improved conditions and stand on top of Mt. Rainier today.

Nice work, team!

We are back at Rivertrees Country Inn, showered, well fed and celebrating our climb.  Waking at 10,000 ft in the forest this morning was relatively easy, but we all were thinking how much more comfortable we’d be off the mountain.  The trail down to 6000 ft was a tricky one.  There were steep and muddy sections, despite the fact that we were doing it in perfectly dry weather.  There were several hundred porters flying down the track at flank speed.  Every step required concentration.  But there were some pretty vistas, some beautiful trees and we were lucky enough to see colobus monkeys.  We reached the end of the hike at 11:30 and then had to check out of the National Park.  We then sat down to a farewell lunch with our 51 Barking Zebra mountain staff.  After which there was singing and dancing and a brief tip ceremony in which we tried to express our gratitude to our local guides, chefs, waiters, camp staff and porters.  They did a fabulous job and treated us as old friends. 

We then boarded the bus and headed for the showers.  We prepared for Safari, had a mountain climbing victory dinner this evening and said goodbye to Tim who will be heading home. 

Our journey continues. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn, Dominic Cifelli & Team

Coppolillo and team summited Mt. Baker via the Coleman-Deming route to wrap up their 6 day skills seminar. They reported a cold but beautful day and the entire team made it to the top! The team is now off the mountain and celebrating in Sedro Woolley.

What a day! What a mountain!  What a team!  It all came together today, perfect weather and the entire team ready to take advantage of it.  We got 100% of the team to the summit.  We got walking from Barafu camp at midnight and climbed through the cold and dark for what seemed like forever.  It was a full moon night and dead calm… but it was still quite cold.  The sun rose close to 6:30 as we were just below the crater rim. By 7:52 we were at Uhuru… the true summit and the highest point in Africa.  Basically, we then spent the rest of the day climbing down.  The journey from 19,341' ft to 10,000' ft was broken up with a wonderful brunch back at our 15,200 ft high camp.  The team made it down to Mweka Camp at the respectable hour of 4:30, just in time for tea and then a last dinner on the mountain.

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

Congratulations to the Four Day Climb team, led by RMI Guides Stella Johnson and Dustin Wittmier, on reaching the 14,410-foot summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning!

Despite cold temperatures and strong winds, the team was rewarded with clear skies above the cloud layer surrounding Paradise. They are currently descending and expect to arrive back at Camp Muir shortly.

Well done, Team!