Entries By dave hahn
The Taos Team crushed it today, hitting all the targeted times for being up and packed and ready to roll out of the comfy Arumeru River Lodge. We hit the road at 8:15 and rolled along in our bus under cloudy skies. We never did catch a glimpse of the well-camouflaged
Kilimanjaro, but the cruise through corn fields and villages was interesting none-the-less. As the road climbed higher we seemed to be passing thousands of banana trees mixed with coffee shrubs. Finally, at the 5,900 ft park entrance -the end of the road- we were simply in a thick and foggy rain forest. After a bunch of paperwork, at long last we were properly permitted, in place and ready for walking. We began shortly after 11 AM. The gang, accompanied and coached by an all star cast of local guides, gained altitude steadily. In fact, we came up 4000 feet in six miles, taking just five hours. The clouds were with us all day but that seemed to keep things comfortably cool. The trail was a little greasy and muddy from recent rains, but we got through without a slip.
We arrived to find our camp already built by our capable staff. After moving in, we got together in the dining dome tent and had an afternoon tea and then a sumptuous dinner while we chatted and laughed.
Philip, our lead guide, gave a thoughtful talk and laid out plans for tomorrow's journey.
All agreed that day one was a great success. Tyrone, in particular, wanted his pal, Makaela to know he was thinking of her and that the climb was going forward as planned.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Today was the perfect catch-up day. We had a leisurely breakfast at the Arumeru River Lodge and then got down to business for a little while with a team meeting. We discussed the climb to come and how to prepare for it. Those preparations didn't take very long and equipment checks were easily completed by lunch. The team took walks through the park-like grounds to see the monkeys, tortoises, exotic birds and dik diks that roamed freely about. Low clouds kept things pleasantly cool but prevented us from catching a glimpse of
Kilimanjaro. Our gang enjoyed the swimming pool, which made up -somewhat- for the limited views. By evening, with all in order for the adventure to come, we simply ate, drank and relaxed... laughing over shared memories of our previous adventures.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Everyone and everything made it through. Through Amsterdam, through immigration, through customs, through the baggage carousels. We've got a climbing team ready to begin the
Kilimanjaro odyssey. These folks all know one another... a good number are related... and absolutely everybody was ready to sleep at midnight when dinner broke up. Long flights and lots of movies, miles and time zones between Taos, New Mexico, USA and Usa River, Tanzania. We'll dive into the details of getting set to climb -tomorrow.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The
Four Day Summit Climb teams, led by
Dave Hahn and
Mike Uchal, were on top of Mt. Rainier by 7:30 AM this morning. The team had clear skies and moderate winds, a perfect day to be on the highest point in Washington.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
The
Four Day Summit Climb July 21 - 24 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:30 am led by
RMI Guide Dave Hahn. The team enjoyed blue skies and good visibility from the crater rim. They will descend complete today and return to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon to complete their program.
Congratulations!
At 7:45 this morning,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn radioed as he and his team crested the
Mt. Rainier crater rim. He reported a 10 mph breeze from the Southwest and a great day to be on Washington's highest point. His team as well as
RMI Guide Christina Dale's team began their descent to Camp Muir at 9:00 a.m.
Our final day on
Denali began just an hour after the second-to-last day ended. We were up at 1 AM and walking South by three. The hoped for full-on freeze didn't quite come through. While the glacier surface was a little crunchy under the snowshoes, one still sank in a bit more than we'd have preferred. But half a freeze is better than none when there are crevasse bridges to be crossed. And we crossed about a thousand of them. We did have a few scares as team members broke through to wiggle their legs in the void before hastily crawling topside again. I think all would agree that the morning commute to the airstrip was stressful, brutally tough with big packs, and magically stupendous in terms of scenery and the feeling of accomplishment when it was completed. We were at basecamp no more than ten minutes before the big red beautiful K2 ski otters swooped in and scooped us up at 9:45 AM. The rest of the day was spent in glorious summer down in Talkeetna. We changed into cotton and sandals and sorted stinky gear. Our celebration dinner at the West Rib was a blast. We laughed and toasted for hours. A nightcap at the Fairview and a walk down to the Susitna to see the mountains at midnight made for a perfect ending to a perfect trip.
Thanks for following... we'll do it all again sometime.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn has checked in from Talkeetna. The team arrived at the Kahiltna airstrip early this morning and clear skies from Talkeetna allowed the K2 Aviation planes to pick up the crew and return them to Talkeenta.
Dave will send a dispatch later today on the conclusion of their expedition.
Congratulations to the
Denali June 16th Expedition!
July 4, 2017
It was the calm and sunny morning we'd been hoping for at 14,000 ft today. Which certainly made it easier to get up and get sorted for going downhill. Independence Day at 14,000' Camp was so nice that we lingered in camp until just after noon. Then it was walking down, hauling sleds around Windy (but not actually windy) Corner, across the Polo Field, down Squirrel and Motorcycle hills and into 11,000 ft. We dug up our long lost cache there and shifted gears. We swapped out crampons for snowshoes and ice axes for ski poles and the got trudging down toward the
Kahiltna Glacier. It was stunning to come around the corner and to have the entire glacier laid out below us. We dodged s few crevasses on ski hill and reached our old camp at 8,000' by 7:30. Just in time to throw up tents, enjoy a picnic dinner, watch nature's best fireworks show and to hit the hay for a few hours. We'll likely be up at 1 AM and walking by 3 in our quest for travel in cold conditions. We want the glacier well-frozen for the last bit to the airstrip.
I read the blog comments to the team at breakfast this morning (we don't surf the web up here, the comments were cut and pasted into a simple text email to us) and the crew was very happy to hear from so many great friends and loved ones.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
July 3, 2017
In a perfect world, it would have been sunny and calm at high camp the morning after our summit. Then we could have packed at our leisure and enjoyed morning coffee. Instead, it was a surprise storm with annoying gusts of cold air and the sun caught up in a ragged and ugly cloud cap. We packed and ate anyway and eventually got walking down the West Buttress at noon. The weather was actually worse at high camp than along our descent route. We had a smooth trip down the fixed ropes into an unexpected snowstorm in Genet Basin where we pitched our
14,000 ft camp again. We'll recover here for a night and give the storm a chance to quit before our journey to 8,000 ft tomorrow. The forecasts still suggest that the weather will improve... some day.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn and team
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There’s Sara always with the best and brightest smile! Best of all to the whole team❤️!
Posted by: Andrea and Scott on 8/6/2017 at 5:29 am
Good luck everyone, it’s really amazing!
Sarah, I enjoy reading about your climb from my couch with my glass of wine. Miss you :)
Posted by: Fiona on 8/6/2017 at 12:24 am
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