Well, we wrapped up our trip today touring the beautiful city of St. Petersburg complete with visits to cathedrals (of course), art museums, and even a boat tour on the Neva River and smaller canals. Our team had a ton of fun despite a little drizzle and enjoyed one last team dinner in the evening. I can honestly say I'm sad to say goodbye to such a great group. Thanks guys for making this trip and awesome climb and such a fun adventure. I hope to see all of you again someday in the mountains or otherwise. Also, thanks to everyone reading this for following along. Now a groggy 3:30 am ride to the airport is looming...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Our climb finished with an easy and pleasant trip from 10,000 ft to the 6,000 ft trailhead this morning. We all counted ourselves lucky to have blue skies over our breakfast table... One more lucky day, it seemed. After breakfast, the entire staff gathered and sang the Kilimanjaro Jambo song -with feeling and gusto. The team members then shook hands with each and every man, expressing gratitude for a bunch of jobs well-done. We knew that our "luck" and success on the climb... and our enjoyment of it, came in large part from the efforts of these dedicated professionals. We set out down the heavily forested trail at about 8:30 AM and had made it to the Mweka Gate -the finish, in under three hours.
After signing out of the National Park, we crowded into our great expedition truck/bus and started down through the banana and coffee plantations. We cruised through the outskirts of Moshi and then hit the road west toward Arusha. Mid-drive, the staff had arranged a picnic for us at a roadside eatery. We relaxed and sipped a few cool beverages with our lunch and then clambered back into the big green adventure vehicle. Our homecoming at the Dik Dik Hotel was the occasion for a few more great songs and dances and then we headed off to our rooms for a relaxed afternoon of showers, gear sorting, napping and catching up with communications.
The evening was time for a fine victory dinner. We ate, we celebrated, we talked about the upcoming safari. We'll set out first thing tomorrow for a few more Tanzanian national parks. Our only trouble is that we are getting very spoiled... our expectations are sky high.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Over the past four days the Sahale summit team enjoyed perfect weather and excellent climbing in the North Cascades National Park. As we ascended out of the forest on day one the views kept getting better and better until we stopped to set up our base camp at 5,300 feet. Looking up at the spectacular Boston Basin the team was excited to go up high over the next few days. Day 2 was a training day at the toe of the Quien Sabe Glacier; filled with efficiency techniques, crevasse safety, and rock climbing. After a full day of training we went to bed early to rest up for a summit attempt on the classic peak. Summit day went flawlessly and we found ourselves on top at 10:30 am after some really fun glacier and rock climbing sections. Here are a few shots from the trip. Enjoy!
RMI Guide Ben Liken
The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by JJ Justman, successfully reached the summit this morning. With bluebird skies, the team was able to see spectacular views all around. They began their descent from the summit at 7:10 a.m.
Our team wasn't feeling 100% when we woke at 3:30 this morning, but our team couldn't be held down. At 10 am our entire team was sitting on the summit of Nevado Urus. Zero wind, full sun, incredible views all around.
This team has shown great strength and has supported one another through the entire journey. It was a tough day, but we pushed ourselves and ended up with a spectacular experience and one of the most beautiful summits we've seen.
Tomorrow we will be packing early and heading back to Huaraz.
RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson and team
Congratulations on making it to the summit of Nevado Uris. It’s encouraging to hear that, although the team wasn’t feeling 100% early in the morning, you showed great support for one another and were rewarded with an amazing experience! We feel proud and have great confidence in all of you.
Bonnie & Rick
Posted by: Bonnie & Rick on 8/15/2016 at 6:46 am
Thinking of you every day..have a great climb team be safe.
We had an early rise after our celebratory dinner (and some dancing) in Cheget for our transfer back to Mineralnye Vody. It was a little painful but not too bad as we had a nice, spacious Sprinter van to stretch out in. We caught a flight to Moscow and another to St. Pete's and then checked into our lovely hotel. Travel days always seem to tire you out even though you're mostly sitting around all day. Anyway, more sightseeing in the morning before the journey home!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
This was the perfect day for climbing to the top of Africa. There wasn't a puff of wind -from the time we woke (11:30PM) to the time we left high camp (12:45AM) to the time we summited (7:55AM) or came back to high camp (11:15AM). There wasn't any high cloud and the low clouds just minded their own business all day. We did have a little cumulus roll in once we were back at 15,000 ft Barafu Camp, but by then we didn't so much care about the weather. The team made steady progress up -it seemed we had a lucky crowd free zone for the most part. As is normal, there were hundreds of other folks on the route, but through good luck, we didn't have much "traffic" around us. Sunrise was spectacular from close to 19,000 ft, but some on the team believed that last night's sunset at Barafu was even more spectacular. Our local guides, camp staff and porters helped us in every way possible today -which certainly made our success possible -and fun. After our return to Barafu, we enjoyed lunch, packed up and hit the trail for Mweka Camp. It took us just under four hours to drop a vertical mile. We got stronger as we descended -but we also got tired and were quite pleased to arrive at our camp in the trees. One last night on the hill... and we each expect to sleep right through it -which hasn't happened much lately with jet lag, altitude and that alpine start.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Update: August 14, 2016 - 2:24 am PT
Dave Hahn here on Kilimanjaro. I just wanted to update you. We got down from the summit just fine actually at about 11:45 am local time. It's now almost 12:30 in the afternoon we've had lunch at our high camp here at Barafu and we're packing up to go down to Mweka Camp, down in the forest. So we still got an afternoon of work, but everybody is good and all is well. Bye.
August 13, 2016 - 10:16 pm PT
Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the RMI Mt Kilimanjaro climb. We are on the summit! We are on Uhuru Point. We are 19,340 feet above sea level. We are higher than anything else in Africa, and it's a spectacular day. We got up here the whole team doing just fine at about 7:55 local time in the morning. And just a beautiful day, very calm sunny, no clouds above us and clouds way down at the bottom covering all of Africa. We feel like we're the king of the world today. We're really lucking out and I'll let you know when we're down at camp safe. And will keep you updated on our progress. Bye now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
So excited to hear you had beautiful weather and everyone is doing fine. We can’t wait to see the pictures which probably won’t be half as spectacular as the real thing. Safe travels during your final descend and thank you for the updates and giving our kids such a wonderful adventure.
Posted by: Janet and Ted Armentrout on 8/14/2016 at 12:59 pm
Dave Hahn , thank you so much for your updates . Congratulations Jason and Jasna . Your dreams are done ! Good trip and happy return to Dik Dik. Mom
RMI Guides Jake Beren and Christina Dale led their teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Both teams reported clear skies and warm temperatures with great climbing conditions. The teams began their descent from the crater rim around 7:45 am PT. They will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise later today.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climbers!
Today the name of the game is rest and relaxation . We're soaking up the sun, enjoying fresh ceviche and accomplishing some technical training.
Panoramic views of Tocllaraju and our next climbing objective, Urus Este, are great encouragement for advancing our rope skills. We worked on crevasse rescue and fixed line travel in the morning, before allowing our brains and bodies a full rest for the remainder of the day.
Tomorrow we'll be up before the sun once again for our final peak in the Ishinca valley. We'll check in again when we return from the climb.
RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson and team
Ben - fix the links under the photos! I click on them and they take me to a Mt. Denali expedition.
Posted by: Malcolm Butler on 8/17/2016 at 9:23 pm
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