Today the team left the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu and flew on a nearly perfect day into the Khumbu Valley. We landed at the famous and sometimes a little scary Lukla airstrip without any issues. It was a beautiful 45-minute flight into the Himalayas with amazing views of the mountains and even a glimpse of Mt. Everest itself.
We hiked for a few hours along the only trail that leads up to BC (Basecamp). There are no roads here, just a winding footpath that is busy with trekkers, climbers, porters, and yaks carrying loads for the Everest expeditions.
The team is currently relaxing at one of the many tea houses situated here in the lower Khumbu Valley. It's an incredibly beautiful and peaceful place to be, and I'm quite certain everyone is excited to be here.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello everyone!
After our really long flights (nearly two days) the team arrived yesterday and had a early dinner and then off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Today we had our official team meeting and discussed the adventure ahead. After our meeting we headed out into Kathmandu to explore a little before we head into the mountains. Our first stop was to the Swayambunath, aka the Monkey Temple. It's a beautiful temple that sits above most of the city with views in all directions and is incredibly important to the Buddhist population here in the city. Next we paid a visit to the Pashupatinath Temple which is where the Hindu's bring their dead for cremation, and it was very surreal to be present while this ceremony was taking place. We then made a quick stop at the Boudhanath Stupa which is the second largest Stupa in the world.
After our city tour the team made our way back to our hotel and finalized our packing and finished the day off with a nice meal at the Famous Rum Doodle where they have saved autographs from all the climbers and Everest summiteers over the years: Sir Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner and many others.
It was a pretty full day to say the least. Everyone is doing great and looking forward to getting into the mountains and stretching their legs.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Elsie,
Betts has been in touch with Charlotte getting the scoop on your big adventure!.. We are off to Florida for 5 days with our foreign exchange student. Just a slightly different adventure!!
Wishing you safe travels and beautiful views from your gang in Denver!!
Posted by: Mary Talbot on 3/24/2013 at 6:20 pm
Casey & Team -
Looks like some fun days ahead. Looking forward to following your journey.
Today we visited Tarangire National Park, home to more elephants per square mile than any place on earth. No luck with the leopard or cheetah today, but we did see plenty of lions and elephants. We even managed to rescue another party who got their 4x4 stuck in the river. We'll finish the trip off with one last night here in Africa listening to the sounds of nature in a tented camp that sits along the Tarangire River. The last three days have been a great way to relax after all the effort to climb Kili and everyone has had a great time. Tomorrow we'll head back to Arusha and catch our long flights home.
Thanks for following!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Today the team visited the famous 2 million year old Ngorongoro Crater. A steep walled caldera that is home to The Big 5. We only saw 4 today and are hoping to see the last (leopard) tomorrow. It's quite surreal riding around in our Toyota Land Cruisers looking at all these beautiful animals in their natural habitat.
On the way back to our lodge we stopped off at a working Maasai village to take a look at their semi-nomadic lifestyle.
Everyone is having a great time!
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Our first day on safari brought us to Lake Manyara. A small national park that borders Lake Manyara known for its tree climbing lions. The team spent about four hours driving around the park and saw an abundant amount of wildlife. Elephants (so close at time we could almost touch them), giraffe, zebra, hippos, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, hundreds of baboons and lots of other monkeys. Everyone had a great day and enjoyed just relaxing while taking in the views.
To top the day off we arrived at our home for the next two days at an amazing lodge called Ngorogoro Lodge.
The team just finished a wonderful meal and are off to bed.
Enjoying the icing on the cake, so to speak!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
Freshly showered and doing well! Our team is safely off the mountain and enjoying a celebration dinner back at the Dik Dik Hotel.
Safari starts tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
What a relaxing way to go on safari. No walking, no carrying a heavy gun but instead just sitting in a vehicle and gazing at all the wildlife. That’s for me!
Welcome home on Feb. 23rd, safe and healthy.
Posted by: Gerri Seaton on 2/20/2013 at 10:06 am
Larry and crew
Congratulations! So good to hear that you had a wonderful adventure and are doing well. Great to hear you are all safe! Have fun on the safari!!! I hope your traveling and flight home goes well.
As planned we were up early and started climbing just before 1 a.m. The weather was clear, calm and not too chilly. Surprisingly we were one of the last groups out of camp this morning and thankfully had little traffic issues on the ascent. The weather stayed nice all morning and it was just a little breezy on top. After a long 8 hours of climbing uphill we had the entire group on the summit of Kilimanjaro. We only spent about 20 minutes on top before heading back to high camp. Where we spent about an hour eating, drinking, and getting things packed up and have all safely descended down to our last camp of the climb.
Tomorrow is hot showers and clean clothes, then we're off to safari!
RMI Guide 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
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.
Looking fabulous - can’t wait to hear about the summit tomorrow - very soon!
Leslita
Posted by: Leslie on 2/16/2013 at 8:11 am
Barbara,
What a fabulous adventure! We can’t wait to hear all about it. Take in the sunrise for us. We will be thinking about you and the team.
Nancy & Tal
Elsie,
betts has been in touch with Charlotte and getting the scoop on your adventure.
Safe travels, hope the weather is good and can’t wait to hear all about it!!,
love,
Mary and Betts
Posted by: Mary Talbot on 3/25/2013 at 7:11 pm
Love seeing the photos…what an incredible experience! Everyone sends their love..Lissie, pick a nice rock for your collection! Love you, Nano
Mom, hope you are having a wonderful time on your Himalayan adventure!
-char, Jeb, Will, Eli
Posted by: Nancy Cole on 3/25/2013 at 2:35 pm
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