Entries By dave hahn

Seven and a half hours of good walking got us all the way up to Namche Bazaar.  Phakding was a wonderful place to spend the night.   The roar of the river made for perfect “white noise” and team members reported progress in dealing with jet lag. Despite the great night and a fine breakfast we were excited to get walking along the Dhudh Kosi and toward the high country.  The steep steep sides to the valley we were hiking in allowed tantalizing views of 20,000 ft snow covered summits to motivate us.  We crossed into the Sagarmatha National Park and made our way to the fabled Namche Hill.  We’d already done a fair bit of climbing when we crossed a high swinging bridge to set foot on the actual hill.  Then it was a pretty steady gain of 2000 vertical feet to get us into Namche.  We were able to sneak a brief view of the very top of Mt Everest off in the distance at one turn of the trail. 
The entire team did an excellent job on what turned out to be a hot day for climbing.  The comfort we found waiting at Camp de Base -our Namche home for the next two nights- seemed like the perfect reward.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Now we’re talking!  We made it into the mountains.  It wasn’t easy, the helicopter pilots in Nepal are working overtime these days and so it took longer than anticipated for our three loads of people and gear to get in.  But the weather was nice and the team was patient.  By 1 PM we were all in Lukla at 9300 ft.  After a little lunch we hit the trail.  A benefit of coming in “late” was that we virtually had the trail to ourselves.  We strolled along the ridiculously turbulent rapids of the Dhudh Kosi and ultimately crossed the river on a swinging cable bridge.  The team pulled into the Sunrise Garden Lodge in uptown Phakding just as the sun set.  Day one is in the books. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We managed to assemble our entire trekking team in Kathmandu today.  Ten trekkers and two guides joined forces far from home to begin a new adventure in the Himalaya.  It was a busy day, to be sure.  We met after breakfast to do introductions and to go over strategies and priorities for our trek to Gokyo. Then we embarked on a Kathmandu city tour with a fearless driver and a very knowledgeable city guide, Nraj.  The team was amazed at the seemingly chaotic traffic patterns and the creative electrical circuitry hanging from each pole.  We started with a thorough tour of Bodinath -the largest Buddhist stupa in Kathmandu.  We visited a school of Thanka art and made a circuit (clockwise) of the great central dome.  We then survived a ride to the other side of town to visit the Monkey Temple, to see the critters and the fabulous view of the city from the hilltop perch.  As fascinating as the city is, it was considered important to get back to the Yak and Yeti hotel for packing and prepping for tomorrow’s early departure. We conducted equipment checks and talked over how to pack.  We rested and then got together for a last “big city” dinner.  We hope to fly first thing tomorrow. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

There were animals all around the tents last night, but a morning headcount revealed no serious losses to the predators.  We had a sunrise breakfast and then loaded up the Landcruisers for a morning of exploration.  A busy watering hole turned out to be the highlight of the morning. Desperate zebras, wildebeest and Cape buffalo made their way into the water for a quick and nervous drink. Nothing pounced while we were watching but it was still quite the spectacle.  We did see some sleepy -and presumably well fed- lions a bit later.  There were at least a dozen elephant families out and about, all with little ones in tow.  All in all, it was a great morning and a great finish to our safari.  We made our way back to Arusha in the afternoon, reaching Rivertrees Inn, our home away from home, in plenty of time for a shower and repack before the airport run.  The team is breaking up!  Some are beach bound, some are heading home and Dustin is gearing up for another round of Kili climbing. 

It was a fine team and a fine adventure fulfilled.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We left the Ngorongoro highlands and came back down into the great Rift Valley.  Tarangire National Park welcomed us with Dik Diks, Banded Mongoose and a lion up a tree… and that was all within the first ten minutes.  Our three Landcruisers went deep into Tarangire. We passed hundreds of gigantic Baobab trees. We left the other visitors behind and made our way to the edge of a vast marsh where we saw elephants happily frolicking in the mud and swamp grass. A tower of giraffes charged across the horizon as if imitating a scene from Jurassic Park.  A rare Kudu made a guest appearance.  And as the light got good in the late afternoon, we started seeing leopards.  First, a shy male staking out a watering hole… the team endured an hour of watching and waiting in a majestic setting in order for him to show. Some of the crew left before that reveal and were lucky enough to see a female leopard strolling through a thicket on the way to our Safari Camp.  We are all safely in camp now, having just finished dinner.  Team members are escorted back to their tent/cabins in the dark.  We are still very much in the park and there are no fences.  We expect to hear some critters wandering through in the night. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

PC: Leopard courtsey of Megan Ryan

Our day was full of cats and rhinos.  As usual it was a little cool and cloudy when we came into Ngorongoro “Crater” this morning.  But that didn’t slow down our wildlife search.  We started getting used to big herds of zebras, wildebeest and Cape Buffalo. We became accustomed to ostriches, Kori Bustards, and Crowned Cranes.  We saw several bloats of hippos.  And we found lion after lion.  There were a number of paired males… brothers, we figured.  But also plenty of big lionesses, including an expectant mom.  We saw lion cubs and adolescents.  But the surprise of the day didn’t come from the big cats.  It was the little ones.  We had three separate Serval Cat sightings… certainly a world record for a day in Ngorongoro.  We scored four rhino sightings to boot.  By afternoon the day had turned warm and sunny.  The animals got sleepy and we hustled back to our comfortable digs at the Plantation Lodge. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We kicked off our game-viewing safari with an afternoon at Lake Manyara National Park.  Equipped with three Toyota Landcruisers and three extremely knowledgeable driver/guides, we encountered baboons, monkeys, elephants, giraffes and an assortment of impala and zebra. We saw some pretty good hornbills, vultures and shrikes too.  All in all, Manyara was a fine start.  We then made our way out of the park and the great rift valley to the Ngorongoro highlands near the bustling town of Karatu.  The team loved relaxing in the luxury of the Plantation Lodge.  Tomorrow, we’ll head out early for Ngorongoro Crater. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Our last morning of camping was just as comfortable as the previous five, but we were ready to get down and off the mountain.  We set out before 8 AM and got walking down through the rain forest. The clouds were thick and right down on us with occasional mist and light rain.  There were hundreds of heavily loaded workers barreling down the steep and slippery slope at flank speed.  We tried not to impede their progress as we picked our way along a bit more cautiously.  It was a relief to reach the National Park gate after four hours. In a pleasant surprise we were met by family who are joining the team for Safari. Following the reunion there were papers to be filed and signed and scanned as we checked out and went to a celebration lunch with our mountain staff. The team got into some spirited singing and dancing afterward as we passed out tips and said goodbye. We made it back to Rivertrees Inn by 5 PM where we showered and repacked for Safari. Our dinner was both a celebration of the climb and a welcome to the new members of the team.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Our luck held. Yesterday afternoon’s clouds went away by evening and we had a clear and perfectly calm night for climbing. The team got going out of Barafu Camp at 12:09 AM. It was a big night for climbing Kili and so there were plenty of other teams leaving at the same time. Even so, Naiman led the group with minimal traffic jams. He and Thomas, Gaudence and Omari… our dream team of local guides kept finding open stretches of trail while other teams stopped to rest or trouble shoot problems. It wasn’t so cold -at first- but it got that way as we got higher and closer to daybreak. Ultimately we had everything on when we hit the crater rim. We had a magical walk along the crater rim as the sun rose. There was quite a crowd at Uhuru, the true summit, when we arrived at 6:55 AM.

We dutifully waited our turn for photos with the sign, but we also enjoyed the summit with handshakes and hugs.  After 30 min we got started on the descent, which put us back at Barafu at 10:15.  Tosha -our chef extraordinaire, prepared a deluxe brunch to power our continued descent to Mweka Camp way down at 10k.  We were in camp just after 4PM, having beat the light rains that began to patter on the tent walls. We’ll sleep well tonight.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We made the move!  Karanga was nice but we couldn’t stay down there.  At 8 this morning we got on the trail for Barafu -ice, in Swahili- The terrain was pretty simple compared to the days we’ve already put in.  Just a steady uphill for a couple of hours and then we were walking up the long rock buttress that is Barafu Camp.  We were lucky enough to have another calm and sunny day for walking, although now -in late afternoon- things have clouded up a bit. That doesn’t concern us too much for our planned summit climb in the night.  We intend to get an early dinner before turning in with bags all packed at 6:15 PM.  The alarms will be set for 11 PM and with luck and a lot of hard work we are hoping to be on the roof of Africa just after sunup tomorrow. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn