Entries By Casey Grom
We're at high camp!
It was another beautiful morning and the team made good time to our
high camp which sits just over 15,000'. We have just finished our summit talk to make sure we are all prepared for tomorrow. Everyone is feeling well and looking forward to tonight's climb. We'll be up early and the goal is to be walking at 1 a.m. If all things go according to plan, then we should reach the summit sometime around 8 in the morning.
We had another trivia challenge that will allow the winner a one minute call from the summit. So, if you live in Texas and your nick name is "ZuZu" keep your phone handy. And remember Texas is 9 hours behind.
That's all for now. We'll try to call from the top.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
We enjoyed tea in our tents just before 7 am and had another enjoyable breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs and toast.
We then hit the trail shortly after 8 and made good time up the Barranco wall. This wall is about 1,000' high and is the steepest part of the entire climb requiring hands in a few places to assist us up a few steep steps. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and change of the new terrain. It was amazing to watch the porters easily navigate this terrain with their loads carefully balanced on their heads. We made good time and arrived in a little over 4 hours to our new home sitting at just over 13,000'.
We are incredibly thankfully to all of our porters and crew who have been working so hard to keep us well feed and comfortable thus far.
Looking forward to moving to our high camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew.
On The Map
All is well here on
Kilimanjaro!
Day three took us from the Shira Plateau all the way over to the
Great Barranco Wall. All in all we traveled about six miles, climbed up to about 15,000' and descended back down to 13,000'. We traversed under the southern side of the mountain where there are still hanging glaciers to see. Unfortunately the clouds obscured the view, but did allow for some nice hiking temperatures. It took the team about seven hours total to reach camp. We hike for about an hour then take a short 15 minute break, then repeat.
The team is amazed and very thankful to our wonderful support crew who leave camp after us each day then race ahead to have camp rebuilt waiting our arrival.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Day 2 greeted us with clear skies and beautiful views of the upper
mountain. The day starts with "morning tea" delivered to our tents at 6:30 followed by a medium tub of warm washing water. The team did great getting ready and we made it out of camp right at 8 am. Today is one of the shorter legs being just under three miles all total, however we ascended a little over 2,000' getting to camp. We stopped about half way for the nice sit-down lunch that our staff had ran ahead and prepared. Clearly we are being spoiled! But this is vacation after all.
It took a little over six hours to get to Camp 2. Its called
Shira Camp because it sits atop the massive Shira Plateau at just over 12,200' and overlooks the Great Rift Valley below.
Everyone is doing well and are looking forward to a good night's sleep.
Hakuna matata!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
We caught our first views of
Kilimanjaro today while on our two-hour drive to the park gate. Looming in the distance it was almost mistaken as a cloud. We spent about an hour getting checked in and all of our gear weighed. All in all there are 55 porters, guides, cooks, waiters and camp crew bringing our group total to 66. The majority of folks are porters who are carrying much of our gear, fresh food and most importantly fresh ground coffee!
The first day always feels like the toughest as we try to get into the swing of things and find our legs under us. The team did great today and made good time from about 6000' up to 10,000' in about six miles. It took a little over five hours and thankfully didn't rain on us. We have just finished a well cooked meal with curried vegetables, fried chicken breast, potatoes and a nice slice of cake for dessert. Bellies are full and everyone is in their tent getting ready for some well deserved sleep.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
The team is all here and our adventure starts tomorrow!
Today we rested from the long flights and prepared our gear for the climb. We took a short ride into
Arusha, did a little shopping and visited the school that Clement's (our driver) children attend. Some of the team members brought gifts and candy that we handed out to the kids. Plenty of smiles there!
Everyone is doing well, a little nervous as usual! But ready to stretch the legs tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Today we spent the day visiting Tarangire National Park, home to more elephants per square mile than any place on earth. We saw hundreds of elephants and finished off the Big 5 with two leopard sightings. Plus we even managed to spot a cheetah relaxing in the shade of a small tree. We are spending the night in a tented camp called
Kikoti tonight.
Three days
safari has been a great way to recoup from the climb and bring our wonderful African adventure to a close. Everyone has had a great time and are looking forward to getting back home and sharing some of the stories and photos.
The team flies home tomorrow.
Thanks for following,
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
We visited
Ngorongoro Crater conservation area today. It's around two million years old and is home to an abundance of wildlife. The big five live there year round and we saw four of them. Rhino, elephant, cape buffalo, and lions but no leopards. We are hoping to see one tomorrow and we're still looking for a cheetah too. It was a long day that started early and thoroughly wore us out riding around in our land cruiser standing up in the intense sun.
We have just finished a great meal here at the plantation lodge and everyone is doing well.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
We visited
Lake Manyara National Park today. It sits about 75 east of Arusha and boarders the Great Rift escarpment.
It is known for its tree climbing lions and it didn't disappoint either. We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, gazelles, zebras, wort hogs, wildebeest, baboons, and plenty of other animals too. It was a great day of relaxing and everyone enjoyed the beautiful day. We even ran into the infamous
Dave Hahn too.
Enjoying the good life!
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Back to civilization and freshly showered!
We have returned from the
mountain and are doing great. It's been a long day but we smell clean and our bellies are full after another wonderful meal from the Dik Dik staff.
Everyone is looking forward to the
safari tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Congratulations Amazing Climbers! You must have reached the sky at 19400feet. Awesome!
Posted by: Jill on 2/16/2013 at 11:21 am
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