A climber from Mark Tucker's Kilimanjaro Climb, Mike Wyatt, composed the following poem about his summit day.
BLUE SNOW by Mike Wyatt
The air is cold, burns the lungs deep – Wish I was in bed fast asleep.
Obsidian night – Black as a raven feather.
Buttery crescent moon shepherds in good weather.
Heavy limbs fight the rocky slope – Trekkers tied by an invisible rope.
The echo of fatigue resonates down the line – Fiery meteorite the color of red wine.
The air is cold, burns the lungs deep – Wish I was in bed fast asleep.
Blindly pushing forward, we pass another team – What is reality? What is a dream?
Summiteers from years past whisper in my ear – not give in, for the peak is near.
I chase the heels before me repeatedly catching my breath – One unconscious slip could mean injury or death.
Tangerine pink color accent the sky – It’s pure silent beauty is no lie.
The crater rim now in sight – Ebullient hikers descend in weary flight.
Icy dry wind burns my face – Tired scarred boots don’t leave a trace.
The air still cold burns the lungs deep – I’m glad I am not in bed fast asleep.
For the glacier’s blue snow is still cold, hard and deep.
Jambo!
We are back to where we started, the Dik Dik Hotel. We have just finished a wonderful photo safari in Tanzania visiting Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks. We spent three nights in the African bush at two different tented camp lodges. This is an incredible way to view the wildlife and experience the excitement of Africa. Check out the photo below from our team mate Steve. Steve took this photo from the Kikoti Camp on our last night in Tanzania.
Today, on our way back to the Dik Dik Hotel, we made a visit to a local orphanage to visit with our friends, drop some gifts for the children and check out the progress they are making on all of their projects.
Now we are back at the Dik Dik Hotel, repacking our gear and trying to fit all of our new treasures safely into our suitcase for the journey home. We will have dinner and then head to the airport for our evening flights.
It has been a great trip and we appreciate you following along on our adventure. I hope to see you on Mt. Rainier in September and if you are in Ashford drop by the Rainier Mountain Festival and say hello.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
I have been in Mt Kilimanjaro with three groups of RMI, Two groups with Mr Mark Tucker, and one group with Seth Waterfal. I learned so much about guiding professional, RMI guides are real professional, they know well about the mountain and caring of clients. Their friendly and charming. The clients ware so cooperative to us. Dikdik crews are remembering RMI expeditions to Kilimanjaro. We are proud of RMI. LONG LIVE RMI.
Posted by: Eliaza Mmbaga (ELLY) on 9/1/2012 at 11:03 am
Mark Tucker checking in from Tarangire National Park. Another fabulous day of game viewing. What can I say? We had a birthday celebration this evening. Cake, balloons, singing, gifting. Very nice evening here at the lodge, a tented camp with a big bonfire... All is well... We'll be back at the Dik Dik tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Mark Tucker checking in from Tarangire National Park.
Can’t wait to have the B’ville Boys back, but how are we gonna keep ‘em down on the farm now that they’ve climbed the summit and seen the wild ones!
Safe travels to all and many, many thanks to Mark Tucker! Tacey
Mark Tucker checking in from Tanzania we have had another beautiful day out here on Safari. The Ngorongoro Crater is spectacular showing itself off to the team. The Maasai just keep getting richer. We visited one of their bomas today and invested. The checked luggage that we are bringing home is going to be pretty filled up.
We are off the Tarangire National Park tomorrow and one more night at a tented camp out near Kikoti Rock. We will keep you posted on the adventures of the team.
Mark Tucker here checking in from Kirurumo, a luxury tented lodge. Half of the team began their journey homeward bound. We wish them all the best on their travels. We stopped at Lake Manyara for some safari game viewing and ended up here. We are about a quarter of the way to Ngorongoro Crater, so a little bit of a drive tomorrow, but more safari in our near future. A luxury tented camp once again doesn’t look like anything on the mountain and everybody is enjoying it.
All is good, having a blast. Wish you were all here
Hello,
We finished our trek of Kilimanjaro today as we hiked the final leg out from Mweka Camp (10,000') to the Mweka Gate (6,000') and said goodbye to our mountain staff.
We met our driver and transferred back to the Dik Dik Hotel. After nice showers we enjoyed a great dinner celebration. We have some tired and sore team mates but everyone is very happy.
We are getting excited for the safari adventure that starts in the morning!
Please check out the photo below of Jan and Clint on the summit of Kilimanjaro on August 11th. The flag they are holding has been flown: on Mt. Rainier, Cotopaxi (Ecuador), Ixtaccihuatl & Pico de Orizaba (Mexico), the U.S. Capital, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, during Desert Storm, Fort Leavenworth, Albania, Germany during the removal of the Berlin Wall, and during Clint's retirement ceremony from the U.S. Army as Colonel.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Well hello, Mark Tucker checking in. Here in the living zone. Lots of trees, air's so thick you can cut it with a knife. The whole team is already in the rack. 7:30! What's that all about? We had a big day, a very successful day. Everybody can take a big, deep breath. All the team is here and doing well. Fantastic! I can start to relax a little bit. We've got a few hours left on the hill tomorrow but overall, we are looking great. Happy times, great dinner, early breakfast and we'll have a nice program with the team here that has been supporting us. Donate a bunch of gear and cash in their direction. They've done a fantastic job supporting us. Not that we couldn't do this without those 56 men that have helped us a long the way. So we are all looking forward to singing a song with them in the morning. So all is well. We'll keep in touch.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checking in from Kilimanjaro
Well hello, Mark Tucker here. On the top of Kilimanjaro one more time! Uhuru Peak looking all the way into Kenya, beautiful day! A big shout out to last week's team. Sorry to inform you, we had a pretty breezeless day. Hardly any wind. You guys had a tough day. You guys hung in there, fantastic. We have a colonel from the armed services with us on this trip and he brought out the Old Glory. A beautiful flag that he has had all over the world during his services. A real special moment for us all. The team is doing great. Everybody's doing well. We're going to go ahead and knock this one off and head on down here. All is well and thanks for checking in on us.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker and team on the Kilimanjaro summit!
Hey again from Mt. Kilimanjaro checking in with our evening update. From the Karanga Camp, hovering around 13,000'. Well we had another great day, can't help but reported it. We climbed the Barranco Wall, which was a half hour of fun. I can't tell you how many pictures I shot and they are going to be looking good in the old photo album, I guarantee it. It was getting a little bit dusty so we called upon the rain god. We got a little sprinkle then we got into camp and the sky opened up a bit. It didn't really soak things but just enough to kind of keep the dust down. Now I see the summit above me, a billion stars out, a little cloud layer below, temperatures not too bad. We are all in good shape. There was no wet gear created. We were perfect timing on that so we are looking really good for our push up to high camp tomorrow. We are all thrilled. Had a great meeting. Went over a lot of details and as a team are doing very well. Don't you worry, we are having a good time and everything is A OK.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Karanga Valley.
Hi Steve - Judy has her first two open water dives tomorrow. We’ll take lots of pictures:-). Pulling for you to have the best experience ever tomorrow. Enjoy! Love you! Shari, Connor, Judy, and Micro
Posted by: Shari Fox on 8/11/2012 at 5:05 pm
Hi Steve!
Glad all is well and trust the rest of the trip will be equally if not more so…
Mark Tucker checking in from the Barranco Camp, Kilimanjaro climb extraordinaire. Well, I'm looking at about ten jillion stars, beautiful night. Let's see here, about 10 days ago I think it was quite windy and a lot of dust. Not tonight, not today. Very comfortable climbing conditions and not to worry, the team is doing just fine. We are looking forward to the short hike tomorrow, a late start to let the other teams get a head start on this little more rocky climb section. Not to worry, doing great, having fun, wish you were all here. See you tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in from Barranco Camp.
I have been in Mt Kilimanjaro with three groups of RMI, Two groups with Mr Mark Tucker, and one group with Seth Waterfal. I learned so much about guiding professional, RMI guides are real professional, they know well about the mountain and caring of clients. Their friendly and charming. The clients ware so cooperative to us. Dikdik crews are remembering RMI expeditions to Kilimanjaro. We are proud of RMI. LONG LIVE RMI.
Posted by: Eliaza Mmbaga (ELLY) on 9/1/2012 at 11:03 am
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