Entries By Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
It is looking like we will have much to give thanks for today. The flight to Union Glacier is on! We are on the bus leaving town for the airport now, all bundled in Antarctic clothing. I hope to send the next update from the ice.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Another day closer to the one we fly on... But not noticeably. The weather in Punta Arenas -which is not the problem for flying to Antarctica- was just slightly ridiculous today. Rain and snow showers alternated with sun and wind bursts, over and over again. We still got in some great walks, going south to the wreck of The Lord Lonsdale... a great hulking steel square rigger, beached and evocative of bygone eras. We sampled coffee shops and dining spots. We waited patiently. Conditions at Union Glacier are not yet good... But they will be soon enough and we will go climbing.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
There was some reason for hope today for getting the Antarctic flights rolling. But in the end the better weather didn't quite materialize. We didn't waste much time fretting over the situation though. The team rallied after leisurely breakfast coffees (extending well into the afternoon) and set off on an urban hike. At least it began as an urban hike, through the streets of Punta Arenas, accumulating stray dogs as we went along, but after about an hour of hard walking we worked our way into the countryside. The wind was howling and the clouds were covering sun and sky, but we persevered. Ultimately we found ourselves in park-like surroundings, climbing the ski area overlooking town. At the top we were two thousand feet higher and about 7.5 miles from our lodging. We still had one stray dog and about fifty miles per hour of wind, to go along with an unexpectedly grand view of Punta and the whitecaps of the Straits of Magellan.
We were back down to the waterfront and the friendly tourist restaurants by early evening, celebrating another fine summit together.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello team!
I’m grateful for your blog, so I know what is going on with my friend Kara! I’m sorry the weather has not cooperated so you can kick off your expedition, but you have a great attitude about it since its beyond your control. Safety first! Maybe you can have a proper Thanksgiving meal after all! I’ll stay tuned to read about your adventures. Fingers crossed for a break in the weather!
Take care, Dixie
Posted by: Dixie Trunko on 11/27/2013 at 6:53 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
We ended our pre-climb road trip today, cruising back to Punta Arenas from Puerto Natales. Things haven't progressed a great deal on the logistical front. We were invited around to a social gathering at the offices of ALE, where we met and mingled with the other passengers on our hoped-for flight. In addition to the climbing teams, there were several groups intent on going overland to the South Pole by various means. We were hosted by the friendly staff and directors of Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions. One of the directors, Mike Sharp, gave a brief talk and slideshow as to the weather outlook and the chances for flying in the next few days. There are possibilities.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Bad flying weather continues in Antarctica, so we focused on a more accessible continent. The day clearly called for an 18 km round-trip hike up to Mirrador del Torres in Torres del Paine National Park. The "Mirrador" in question was the glacial lake held under the iconic granite towers. In our journey up from Puerto Natales, we saw condors and gauchos, glaciers and mountains, guanacos and turquoise windswept lakes.
We walked through lush forests and up through jumbles of massive white boulders to reach the lake and an unparalleled view of the massive rock cliffs. We gained and lost in excess of 2,500 feet in six hours of hiking... The perfect tune up for Vinson.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
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Poor conditions for flying continue to delay the start of our Antarctic expedition. Reports were that snow was in the forecast for Union Glacier. It is already a bit of a tricky proposition to land a large four engine jet transport on an ice runway in the interior of the continent, and so we put up no objections to our logistics company's plan to push back departure.
But of course, Punta Arenas, the jumping off point for our Vinson climb, is coincidentally the jumping off point for exploring the beauty of Patagonia. We rented some cars and left Punta at midday, driving up to Puerto Natales. The sky was pretty well choked with cloud, but we could still make out the foundations of great snowy mountains in the distance, across wide open and windswept prairies. A great many unidentified raptors and other beautiful birds were playing and hunting along the road. We saw no shortage of sheep. Tomorrow, our intention is to enter Torres Del Paine National Park to sight see and hike. We'll keep the main goal -to climb to Antarctica's highest point- firmly in our thoughts, but in the meantime we'll open our eyes to some of the beauty of South America.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Our first Vinson climb of 2013 is not quite off the ground yet. The team successfully negotiated the airports of the world to assemble in Punta Arenas in the South end of Chile, and we've gone through several meetings, gear checks and briefings. We've shared a few great meals and some walks around town. We've packed our bags and weighed them and consigned them to our logistical partner in this endeavor, ALE, for loading onto the Ilyushin 76 jet transport. Normally, we'd be savoring a final night indoors before the journey to less comfortable regions of the Antarctic interior. But we've learned that stormy weather is hampering flight operations at Union Glacier. The needed supply flights are backed up a bit and we can't possibly get in within the next few days. We choose to greet this news in a positive light... It gives us the chance to be tourists in Patagonia for a few days. Stand by to see what we get up to.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Dave and Team -
Hi Guys! I will be following you on your journey to get an idea of what to expect when I arrive there in a couple of weeks.
-Larry Seaton
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 11/22/2013 at 6:52 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Kikoti Camp was perfect last night. The team was refreshed and happy as we set out on our final day. Our course took us back through Tarangire National Park where we saw three young lionesses, a hunting leopard, a couple hundred elephants of all sizes, a thousand zebras and a heck of a lot of outstanding birds. By midday we'd left the park and were on the road to Arusha. Back at the lush and relaxing grounds of the Dik Dik Hotel, we rested, repacked and got ready to go our separate ways. We enjoyed a last dinner and a few more laughs together before jumping into the bus for the airport. Until next climb...
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Thank you to Mr. Hahn, the porters, and everyone at the various hotels for taking such good care of our climbers. You guys are awesome. I don’t think Eric will ever forget this trip.
Posted by: Mara on 9/27/2013 at 7:33 pm
Congratulations Jeff and Meredith! Well done and safe home from all of here in Toronto.
Alexa
Posted by: Alexa Colenbrander on 9/27/2013 at 12:49 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We explored the sixth largest national park in Tanzania today. Tarangire is a year-round, dependable water-source for thousands of elephants. We saw families big and small of pachyderms, but also wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, gazelles and antelope. The birders in the team wee kept quite busy ID-ing "new" flappers. We roamed the savanna for hours with each former climber standing half out the open back of a land-cruiser, looking hard for the next stunning wildlife display. The land we explored is essentially a wide-open baobab forest cut by a number of rivers. Up one of those giant baobabs we spied a cat... upon closer inspection that cat -a large civet- turned out to be dead. This got us looking a bit closer at the other branches of the humongous tree, where finally we discovered a sleeping leopard. We tried to imagine the strength and skill that had gone into this leopard making a kill and then dragging his kill in his teeth while climbing twenty feet vertically up the wall-like trunk of a tree. He'd stashed the kill in a fork well off the ground to keep scavengers from bothering it while he... Or she... Took a well deserved nap.
At the end of the day, we exited the park and made a short drive to Kikoti Camp... A comfortable lodge just east of the park boundary. We watched Maasai tribesmen start a fire without matches and then perform a welcome dance for us. We joined in, eventually, in trying to jump higher.
We'll get a little more chance to see wildlife in the morning on the way back through the park.
Hard to believe that we'll begin our final day together.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories:
If it weren't for the spectacular wildlife within the great Ngorongoro caldera, we'd spend the day fascinated by the geography anyway. We were up on the crater rim in dense cloud this morning, with just a hint of the vastness of the interior to this collapsed volcano. But as we traversed the rim, we were granted better views of the expanses within. Driving down in, we began to see "spots" and "dots" that gradually took shape as wildebeest, zebra and Cape buffalo. We spent the day driving from one side of the crater to another, stopping for lions, jackals, hippos, rhinoceros, and birds great and small. We began to see so many species that we seemed to stop taking notice of things like zebra and gazelle, which until yesterday had seemed exotic. We watched a pair of ostrich, out on a date. We saw seven lionesses conked out and sleeping within feet of the road. We saw old and solitary bull elephants, wandering amongst bull elephant skeletons. We saw warthogs and hyenas and herd after herd of wildebeest and zebra. We saw male lions, fat and happy to be lounging about in the sun while every other animal wandered around them in wide circles. After a picnic lunch near a lagoon full of hippos, we checked out a few more corners of the crater and then headed up the wall for our exit. On the rim, we visited a Masai village and learned how the tribe manages to hold onto traditions while preparing their children for the modern world. And then it was back to the luxurious Plantation Lodge for the evening. Tomorrow, Tarangire National Park.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Yay, more photos! Beautiful! I’m so glad you have great weather.
Posted by: Mara on 9/25/2013 at 2:59 pm
Kare Kare!!
Thinking of you and your team out there! I was in SD and Flo was complaining about the cold and I said just think of Kara and stop whining! Then I came back to Denver and its been between 7-11 today and supposed to be -1 tonight so now I have to think about you and wish you a warm and snuggly night! Sounds like the weather cleared for you guys a bit. I will keep my fingers crossed for a great climb! xoxox miss ya! Can’t wait for Park City!
Posted by: Farah Hedwig on 12/4/2013 at 1:55 pm
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