All is well at Kilimanjaro Camp 1; otherwise known as Machame Hut. We are already at 10,000 feet for our first night on the mountain. Interestingly 10,000 feet here is still below tree line, whereas on Mt. Rainier 10,000 feet is way above tree line and glaciated. The hiking today was great with a little cloud cover, which helped with very pleasant temperatures and not a whole lot of mud to get here. We are still recovering after our team member Barbara's 75th birthday party last night. We have a real fun group, everyone was chatting away between themselves and with our African guides who will accompany us the whole time up the mountain. We spent a total of about six hours on the trail and combined with jet lag should make for good sleeping tonight. Until tomorrow, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

Jambo! Just tracked down the last missing bag so the whole team and gear are here. We are packed and ready to go to Kilimanjaro tomorrow. Everyone minus one arrived late last night and after a few hours of sleep, we met up for our first meeting and then a session on packing our gear for the next week on the mountain. We spent the afternoon finalizing the preparation. Tomorrow we will get up at 6am and depart for the mountain around 8am. We have a five-hour climb to get to camp so a busy day ahead. With not a lot of clouds tonight, we watched the lunar eclipse. The weather looks good for now. All is well with the team. RMI Guide Mark Tucker