Entries By dave hahn

Our ridiculously fine weather continues.  The morning in Shira Camp was calm and clear.  There wasn’t so much as a hint of any cloud or wind up on the heights of Kibo and for the first time, the sea of cloud below us wasn’t complete.  We could actually see bits of Africa far below.  We got walking at 8:25.  This was easier terrain than yesterday’s rock-hopping.  Just steady uphill strolling through low desert-style vegetation.  We got closer and closer to Kibo and at 12:30 PM we reached our high point for the day.  Fifteen thousand two hundred feet above sea level shattered altitude records for all but two of our ten person team.  We celebrated with a rest break, some fist bumping and photos.  Then it was time to get rid of altitude as we worked down toward the Barranco Valley.  The scenery was outrageous as we crept under the ice fields, hanging glaciers and giant rock walls of Kibo’s south side.  Eventually we found our way down into the crazy vegetation again -giant Scenecios and Lobelias caught our attention as did the waterfalls and caves in the lava layers.  We were in another perfect camp built at 13,000 ft below the great Barranco Wall.  Afternoon weather was found to be just as perfect as the morning.  All are hoping for a good night of sleep before the morning’s wall climb. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

We woke to a calm and clear morning down at Machame Camp.  The sun hit around 7:30 AM, just in time for breakfast.  Before we got on the trail, Freddy -our lead guide, introduced some of the key personnel on his forty five person staff and we had a round of jambos and handshakes. 
We were walking by 8:20 and sweating by about 8:30 as the initial route involved some serious uphill on big rock steps through the heather.  The big hazard in our first few hours was that the views were so spectacular I worried that the team wouldn’t watch their steps.  There was plenty to look at as giant Mount Meru -the 16,000 ft volcano back next to Arusha, was standing tall above a sea of clouds to our west.  That sea of brilliant white clouds extended in every direction, beneath us.  We had great views of Kibo, Kilimanjaro’s main peak, and the rugged heights of Shira, its western satellite.  We got to see our first Lobelias and Scenecios as we reached the upper limits of the heather.  By then we were traversing left and negotiating small steep lava walls on our way out to the Shira Plateau.  We were in our newest camp by 1PM. This one is quite a change from the last as we are now well out of the forest.  Kibo never did cloud up today so we got to look at it all afternoon as we rested at 12,600 ft.  We’ll head straight toward it tomorrow for a closer look at our ultimate goal.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Jambo from 9,900 ft on Mount Kilimanjaro. We are happily bedded down at Machame Camp after a great day of walking.  The day began with the team shuffling duffle bags back and forth in the dark on the grounds of the Dik Dik. We were eating breakfast at 6:30 AM and then we actually drove out of the hotel compound at 7:28 AM…An unbelievable and unprecedented two minutes ahead of schedule. Our mighty Mercedes truck/bus carried food, gear and a huge number of climbers and staff. It was quite cloudy, so we didn’t get to see the mountain during the two hour drive.  But we saw plenty of interest along the highway, from villages to towns to cornfields, banana and coffee farms.  At the Machame entrance to the National Park, there was the normal hurry up and wait process of getting the team registered and the porter loads sorted. By 11 AM it was all done and we got to start walking. Naturally -in terms of altitude- this was our low point for the day…6000 ft, but all agreed that it was an emotional high point. It just felt so good to start walking uphill through a forest after all the planning, preparing, travel and jet lag. The team did well with Filbert -one of our local guides- setting a perfect “pole pole” pace. (Slow in Swahili).  After a couple of hours, we were out from under the clouds and all were surprised and pleased to see Kibo -Kilimanjaro’s main peak- through a break in the trees.  The forest transformed as we got higher and at 4:30 we pulled into a well built camp in the giant heather.  We moved in -grateful at all the work our staff had put in. We sat for an excellent three course dinner just after sunset and told stories into the darkness.
 
We finished with a round of “lala salamas”. (Sleep well) and turned in for the night. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

By three this morning, my team of prospective Kili climbers was all present and accounted for on the fringes of Arusha, Tanzania. Eleven of us spent the day getting ready for a week on the move. As is normal with my groups, the team stifled yawns and feigned great interest as I conducted our introductory meeting after a fine Dik Dik Hotel breakfast. They claimed “jet lag” was the culprit rather than my rambling on. Possibly. We’re a good ten hours removed from some west coast US homes now. 

After the briefing, it was time for personal equipment checks and packing for an early departure. This left a good chunk of the afternoon for the gang to relax, to walk the garden-like grounds of the hotel, and to periodically climb the water tower to see if Kilimanjaro was out.  She was, by evening… faintly… and floating like a cloud in the distance.  As we organized, the local guides and kitchen staff had the much bigger job of packing the food and gear for the trip.  It was impressive as always to see lead guide Freddy Kilewo out there making order of the chaos. He has about fifty people to plan for, between porters, camp staff, clients and guides. He makes it all look easy.

We’ll begin walking the Machame route tomorrow and coming to grips with this challenge that many have been dreaming and scheming about for years. But this evening it is time to enjoy a send-off feast and a last night in a bed… even with jet lag, we all know it is a good deal. 

Best Regards,

Dave Hahn and Team

Daybreak and moonset at Kikoti were just as wonderful as sunset had been yesterday evening.  The team enjoyed a quiet and excellent breakfast before hitting the road at 8 AM.  We were right back onto the rough dirt tracks of Tarangire National Park.  There was plenty of great exploring over the following four hours… Lots more elephants, zebras, giraffes, vultures and eagles.  We scanned gullies and great plains, looked high and low.  No more big cats, but we all figured it was ok to save some things for our next safari.  This one wrapped up at noon as we started eastward on the road back toward Arusha.  We made one stop at the cultural heritage center on Arusha’s outskirts.  Everybody was getting more and more “time conscious” though -as is natural with an international flight looming.  We got back to the quiet grounds of the Dik Dik in time for some repacking and freshening up.  Then we enjoyed a final -excellent- dinner together.  The ride to the airport began just after sunset and the team cheered to see Kilimanjaro’s 19,000 ft heights glowing above a few low clouds.  It has been an exciting couple of weeks in Africa.
By now the gang is on the wing, homeward bound.  I’ll hang out for another round of Kili climbing and looking for cats.  Thanks for keeping tabs on us.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We tore ourselves away from the luxurious Plantation Lodge this morning in search of more animals.  Tarangire National Park has delivered nicely.  We spent the day looking at hundreds of elephants, thousands of Zebra and wildebeest, eagles, vultures, superb starlings and dik diks.  Certainly the high point was watching seven lions… Including several generations of cubs, turning a wildebeest into an all-you-can-eat buffet.  They were absolutely ruling the waterhole -until a band of thirsty elephants moved in.  The lions dragged their carcass a discreet distance into the shrubs and stayed away from the happy elephants.  We watched it all.  We then went exploring, enjoying the vastness of Tarangire.  We scanned every boabab and acacia tree for leopards but haven’t yet seen them… Same with the cheetahs.  We know they are out there though and we’ll hope to see them tomorrow morning. 

Tonight we are quite comfortable in the tent cabins of Kikoti Lodge out on the beautiful estate boundary of Tarangire.  The team enjoyed the end of their last full day in Africa by watching the sun set over a campfire.  Tomorrow we’ll have that last chance at the cats as we spend the morning going back through the park before hitting the highway for Arusha and Usa River. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

After a luxurious night at the Plantation Lodge, we were well-rested and ready to charge off for day two of our game-viewing Safari.  A short drive brought us to the entrance of the Ngorongoro conservation area.  Our drivers got us safely up the rugged road to the rim of a great collapsed volcanic caldera.  For a time, as we drove around the cloudy rim, the “crater” was hidden from view, but eventually we started down into the bowl and could see the full extent of the valley.  Joseph and Erik took us on the network of rough dirt roads around the interior of the crater until we’d seen our fill of wildebeest and zebra, hippos and gazelles, warthogs and Cape buffalo.  We spied one of the rare black rhinos from some distance -they are shy- and kept our eyes peeled for more.  We caught ostriches sharing a private moment, and then topped that experience by witnessing a pair of lions getting to know one another.  The day was pretty magical… there were a few stray elephants thrown into the vast mix of wildlife.  Today we were seeing full herds of animals rather than ones and twos of a species and that meant that we were often surrounded in our land cruisers… happily so.

We left the crater and visited a traditional Masai “boma”  This village on the rim housed a nomadic extended family.  We watched traditional dances and toured the simple homes formed of sticks and dung.  It was a view into a vastly different world than our own and we tried to understand how these herdsmen lived in the land of lions and leopards with only spears for protection. We were back at our own nomadic village -The Plantation Lodge, before sundown and enjoying the garden like setting and warm hospitality.

Tomorrow we’ll head for Tarrangire National Park.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

Although our bodies were still a little tired and sore from climbing, we were up early and breakfasting today with excitement and anticipation for our safari start.  The first part was actually through the urban jungle of Arusha at rush hour.  Our drivers skillfully took the two tricked-out Toyota Land Cruisers through a crazy mix of highway construction, cattle and “normal” road congestion to get us out onto the open road, west of town.  We watched several hours of towns, villages and Masai herdsmen drift by before we entered Lake Manyara National Park.  Then the tops were rolled back and we all tried our best to spot the next exotic animal.  We couldn’t beat the guide/drivers, Erik and Joseph… or even our cook, Zach.  Time after time, they’d find the zebra, Cape buffalo, elephant, mongoose, giraffe or baboon first.  We had a wonderful afternoon in the park.  No big cats, but we saw their tracks and knew they were out there -watching us.  With the last of daylight, we rolled up at the Plantation Lodge and were all surprised to find such luxurious and welcoming accommodations in the “outback”.  Tomorrow we’ll head for Ngorongoro Crater. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Our climb finished with an easy and pleasant trip from 10,000 ft to the 6,000 ft trailhead this morning.  We all counted ourselves lucky to have blue skies over our breakfast table… One more lucky day, it seemed.  After breakfast, the entire staff gathered and sang the Kilimanjaro Jambo song -with feeling and gusto.  The team members then shook hands with each and every man, expressing gratitude for a bunch of jobs well-done.  We knew that our “luck” and success on the climb… and our enjoyment of it, came in large part from the efforts of these dedicated professionals.  We set out down the heavily forested trail at about 8:30 AM and had made it to the Mweka Gate -the finish, in under three hours.
After signing out of the National Park, we crowded into our great expedition truck/bus and started down through the banana and coffee plantations.  We cruised through the outskirts of Moshi and then hit the road west toward Arusha.  Mid-drive, the staff had arranged a picnic for us at a roadside eatery.  We relaxed and sipped a few cool beverages with our lunch and then clambered back into the big green adventure vehicle.  Our homecoming at the Dik Dik Hotel was the occasion for a few more great songs and dances and then we headed off to our rooms for a relaxed afternoon of showers, gear sorting, napping and catching up with communications.
The evening was time for a fine victory dinner.  We ate, we celebrated, we talked about the upcoming safari.  We’ll set out first thing tomorrow for a few more Tanzanian national parks.  Our only trouble is that we are getting very spoiled… our expectations are sky high.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

This was the perfect day for climbing to the top of Africa.  There wasn’t a puff of wind -from the time we woke (11:30PM) to the time we left high camp (12:45AM) to the time we summited (7:55AM) or came back to high camp (11:15AM).  There wasn’t any high cloud and the low clouds just minded their own business all day.  We did have a little cumulus roll in once we were back at 15,000 ft Barafu Camp, but by then we didn’t so much care about the weather.  The team made steady progress up -it seemed we had a lucky crowd free zone for the most part.  As is normal, there were hundreds of other folks on the route, but through good luck, we didn’t have much “traffic” around us.  Sunrise was spectacular from close to 19,000 ft, but some on the team believed that last night’s sunset at Barafu was even more spectacular.  Our local guides, camp staff and porters helped us in every way possible today -which certainly made our success possible -and fun.  After our return to Barafu, we enjoyed lunch, packed up and hit the trail for Mweka Camp.  It took us just under four hours to drop a vertical mile.  We got stronger as we descended -but we also got tired and were quite pleased to arrive at our camp in the trees.  One last night on the hill… and we each expect to sleep right through it -which hasn’t happened much lately with jet lag, altitude and that alpine start. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map