Almost as if to make up for rain and sloppy conditions yesterday evening, today we were granted a perfect morning. We made good use of it. It was great to wake to birds singing... a reminder that we’d come all the way from the alpine zone to the forest and the land of living things. Despite the long, hard day yesterday, everybody showed up smiling at breakfast. After refueling, we stood out in the bright sunshine for a goodbye ceremony with our mountain staff. We tipped them, which is merely normal practice when forty men have worked their tails off to help you accomplish your dreams, and they sang to entertain us... and themselves. We knew -and they knew- that we’d done a lot more than just work together for a week, we’d become friends -which was worth commemorating. The singing and dancing with Kilimanjaro as an enormous and majestic backdrop won’t be forgotten. We then shouldered packs and dropped down the four thousand vertical feet separating us from the Mweka Gate. The trail was in surprisingly good condition -suggesting that yesterday’s rains had only fallen on our heads and weren’t widespread. We got into safari mode on the hike out by spotting a few black and white Colobus Monkeys in the trees. At trail’s end around noon, we signed out with the National Park, had a fine lunch and got rolling down the highway. We drove out of the cultivation zone, full of bananas and coffee, and then cruised through the outskirts of Moshi. It took a couple of hours in the bus to reach our garden sanctuary at the Arumeru River Lodge. Showers and cold beverages were very much in order. We each took a stab at reconnecting with the virtual world before meeting for a great dinner and lots of laughs and recollections about the real world of Kilimanjaro.
Tomorrow our adventure will continue... time for a safari!
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We packed up after a stormy night at 19,600'. The evening was filled thunder, lightening and lots of snow. The early start had our hands and toes cold, but we were rewarded with a stellar sunrise and a quick descent through the snow and scree. There was gear to pick up at the lower camps and finally we got to Plaza Argentina to enjoy a warm afternoon of packing for the mules and some well deserved rest at lower elevation. Tomorrow we'll walk to Lenas, our first camp of the trek for the legendary asado and one last night under the stars. This trip has been filled with lots of laughs, better then normal weather and a great team. This will be our last dispatch of the trip, your loved ones will be in reach once we arrive in Mendoza on the evening of the 8th. Thanks for following along on our expedition to the top of South America.
RMI Guide Mike King
Wow, that was some climb! Glad you all made it up there & are now safe & sound. Thanks for letting us follow along on this great adventure.
Posted by: Hikari on 2/7/2018 at 7:44 pm
Concrats to All of You!!!! So Proud of All of You!!!! Enjoy the thick and warm air and the Asada tonight!!! Love you All!!! Awesome Dawn and Tom , (My climbing Sister and Brother, Bless you both)
Dave
As planned, we were up and getting ready at 11:30 last night. It was a calm and clear night with just enough moon to see by but not so much that the stars were washed out. We set out at 12:40 AM. There were headlights well up the mountainside already, which was a pretty thing to see, but it also made clear just how far and high we had to go. We took hourly rest breaks, and sure enough, we put more clothing on at almost every pre-dawn break, until we basically had it all on. Those were cold hours, anticipating a 6:30 sunrise. It caught us at about 18,000 ft and instantly made life a whole lot easier. We pulled onto the crater rim at Stella Point after seven hours on the go. Another hour and ten minutes got us over to Uhuru, the true summit. It was magical walking along the crater rim and checking out the glaciers and the lay of the land on the roof of Africa. High fives and handshakes were in order on the top. There may have been a tear or two, and of course a bunch of pictures. We started down after thirty minutes. Our clear day was already going cloudy, but that kept some sun off of us for the descent, which was a good thing. At 12:10 PM we were back to Barafu. A great sit down lunch in our dining tent did wonders to restore our strength, we packed up and started down toward Mweka Camp just after 2 PM. When the rain and hail hit halfway through our 4 hour, 5,000' descent, it wasn’t totally unexpected. We couldn’t very well run down the tricky rock trail to escape the showers. Ultimately it meant that we had to watch every single slippery step on the way to camp at 10,000'. The rains quit as we got in at 6 PM but life was a little soggy and muddy for our final night on the mountain. We’re not complaining though... on the contrary, we’re feeling lucky that we got perfect weather exactly when we needed it for climbing.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the RMI Kilimanjaro team from Utah. We're on the summit. It's 9 a.m. and we are on the highest point in Africa, Uhuru (Peak) 19,341 feet. It's a beautiful day up here, just a little breeze on top. We're all enjoying ourselves, taking a couple of pictures and will send you a dispatch from camp tonight to let you know that we've all got down safe. Everything's going really well. Thanks for following along. Bye for now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from the summit of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
19,341…! Congrats to all and cheers! Looking forward to raising a glass of the finest beverage of choice upon your return! You guys “rock”...... get it, “rock” !
Posted by: Lee & Susie on 2/6/2018 at 4:45 pm
Congrats to all!!! So excited for each of you…such an accomplishment! Can’t wait to hear all about it. Continue your safe travels.
February 5th, 9:30 am PT
We finished our successful summit day with the descent to high camp. What started out as a beautiful day has turned into a snow storm. The Team is currently resting in their tents and the only remaining task is to pack up and carry everything to base camp tomorrow. We have some porters assisting with that as the group is beat and the weather isn't supposed to be all that nice. There are countless stories from summit day, so I'll let your loved ones tell them to you when they're back in the land of phone/internet or preferably over a nice meal on their return.
RMI Guide Mike King
Morning was easier at Karanga. The sun was on camp early and we weren’t parked down with the cold air in a valley. It was a leisurely start to the day since we didn’t have far to go to make High Camp. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but since we knew they’d form up soon, we drank in views of Kibo’s giant rock walls and tenacious glaciers. We marched out of Karanga at 9 AM and worked up a broad and tilted plateau. The clouds did indeed form up, but that didn’t bother us. We concentrated on efficiency techniques in walking and breathing and told tall tales from high places to pass the time. Things steepened just a bit as we came to the final ridge but we were feeling strong and arrived in Barafu -or “Ice” Camp at 12:15.
After an incredibly good lunch of fresh foods cooked from scratch at 15,000 ft, we strategized and plotted our summit bid and then packed and prepped for it. Dinner was early, and so was bedtime, with folks turning in just after 6 PM. We’re aiming for a midnight breakfast and an alpine start. Hopes are high... just as they ought to be with everything running smoothly.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey, this is Mike with Aconcagua #4. We are standing on top of the tallest mountain outside of the Himalaya. It's a beautiful day, near windless, you could be wearing a bikini on top today and get a sun tan. Everyone that's on top today, is doing great. We'll send a dispatch in once we descend back to our High Camp. Thanks for following along on the blog. We will descend to Plaza Argentina (Base Camp) tomorrow morning. Thanks.
RMI Guide Mike King
RMI Guide Mike King calls from the summit of Aconcagua.
We woke up in clear and cold splendor down in the Barranco Valley. Kibo seemed directly overhead with glaciers and icefields hanging at impossible angles. We were done with breakfast and packing our packs when our entire staff... forty porters, guides, camp and kitchen boys surprised us with a singing and dancing session. Led by Mbongo... a highly talented porter in an “American” costume, the team laughed their way through five or six sing-alongs while we joined in, clapping, dancing and cracking up. It was good fun and also served to ease any anxiety folks might have had about tackling the imposing Barranco Wall right out of camp. We set out at about 9:30 and within just a few minutes were putting hands on cold rock to pull ourselves up from one set of ledges to another in order to negotiate the wall. Traffic was pretty light -there have only been a handful of other teams sharing camps with us- which made things a good deal easier. By 11 AM we were atop the wall and the sky was clouding over -repeating the pattern of the past few days. We crossed down into the next valley to continue our traverse of the south side of Kilimanjaro. By the time we hit the steep sides of the Karanga Valley, we were enveloped by swirling mists again. A final thirty minute climb out of the valley brought us to Karanga Camp at 13,160 ft. We ate a late lunch and relaxed in camp for a few hours while the clouds and a few sprinkles came and went. Stepping out after dinner, we discovered the clouds were gone and that a million stars were out overhead while a carpet of lights far below pinpointed Moshi and a few other towns. All in all, we thought it was a pretty good Super Bowl Sunday even without TV.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The Team packed up and moved the bear necessities to Cholera, located at 19,600'. Camp is built and we are enjoying a calm and warm day, which is a plus since this camp is named after the fierce winds that plague this part of the mountain. Tomorrow is our summit day and there is some nervous energy and excitement to be finally nearing the objective of the climb. Everyone sends their best back home. Not much else to do but eat, pack, try to sleep and enjoy the thin air. We'll call in from the summit should Aconcagua bless us with calm winds and a wicked cramponable route.
RMI Guide Mike King
Another sparkling and clear start to the day. Mt. Meru, our 15,000 ft volcanic neighbor to the West seemed close enough to touch in the early morning air at Shira Camp. Kibo stood out in all its glory with bunches of recent snow on her flanks. We got walking at around 8:30 AM heading directly toward the central peak. The trail was a good deal easier than yesterday’s rock hopping. We gained altitude steadily, but without getting on any steep terrain. It took a few hours to work up the broad plateau through juniper and low sage-like shrubs. Clouds had begun to form and by the time we reached our highpoint for the day, the 15,200 ft “Lava Tower” we were robbed of any views by fog and murk. Even so, we sat for a pleasant half hour eating lunch in the clouds, having broken altitude records for about three quarters of our group. Just as we began our descent toward camp in the Barranco Valley, it started raining and so we quickly covered up. The storm lasted about an hour, but didn’t give us much real trouble in our descent. Just before we reached camp, as we came into a fabulous garden of Lobelias and Giant Senecios, the rain quit and things dried out a bit. We rolled into camp at 13,000 ft at precisely 3:30... just ahead of tea time. Chef Tosha dazzled us with another fine dinner in our dome tent to finish this big day.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Wow, that was some climb! Glad you all made it up there & are now safe & sound. Thanks for letting us follow along on this great adventure.
Posted by: Hikari on 2/7/2018 at 7:44 pm
Concrats to All of You!!!! So Proud of All of You!!!! Enjoy the thick and warm air and the Asada tonight!!! Love you All!!! Awesome Dawn and Tom , (My climbing Sister and Brother, Bless you both)
Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/7/2018 at 2:48 am
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