Entries By dave hahn

Thursday, November 27, 2025 - 4:23 pm PT

We had a fine sleep in basecamp, far away from the sounds of the city.  A leisurely breakfast fortified us for yet another round of refining and sorting gear and provisions for our climb.  It was a sunny and calm day, perfect for an afternoon rope-up and rehearsal of the initial climbing route.  Jon, Tim and I went an hour up the glacier.  It was nice to get a little exercise and to re-familiarize ourselves with roped travel.  We had an easy stroll back down just in time for dinner in the comfortable ALE dining tent. 

As things stand now we’ll set off for “low camp” tomorrow. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Wednesday, November 26, 2025 - 6:14 pm PT

We’re counting ourselves as being extremely fortunate.  Not only did we fly from South America to Antarctica on the morning we were scheduled to…. We then flew from Union Glacier right out to Vinson Basecamp on this same lucky day.  It doesn’t always work this way, but it is pretty sweet to avoid glitches and weather delays. 

It was a somewhat typical adventure travel day in that there was a lot of hurry up and wait.  But it wasn’t unpleasant waiting.  It was about 12:30 PM before we clunked up the airplane stairs in our big mountaineering boots to leave Punta.  There were about 80 of us in the entire plane, so Tim and I both helped ourselves to window seats.  This paid off about three and a half hours into the flight when we were treated to unobstructed views of Vinson and the Ellsworth Mountains. 

The landing of a big jet on a blue ice runway was thrilling, although it was also flawless.  We were certainly dressed for extreme cold when we got out, but to be honest, the weather at Union Glacier wasn’t all that unpleasant.  A little cool but not face freezing cool. 

We had just a short tour of Union Glacier Camp before climbing aboard the ski equipped Twin Otter for the 45 minute flight to Vinson.  It was another perfect landing at 7,000' on the Branscomb Glacier and then we were hugging old friends and meeting new ones. Although we are the first climbing teams of the season, the ALE guides have already been in for some time getting things set up.  Tim and I met Jon Gupta, who we’ll be working with.  Jon was just on Vinson summit two days ago and reported excellent conditions. 

We won’t climb the mountain tomorrow.  It will be the perfect day to acclimatize and get gear sorted for the climb. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Shortly after breakfast, Tim and I turned our duffle bags over for weigh in.  We received our boarding passes for the flight to Antarctica.  We’re set! 

It seemed like the perfect time to stretch our legs and so we set off to the south along the shoreline for several miles.  Our goal was the picturesque old hulk of the ship “Lord Lonsdale”   We were back at the hotel by midday which was perfect timing as the afternoon and evening brought steady rain.  We got in a bit more exercise anyway, walking to dinner to join some of the folks who will be alongside us on Vinson.

It was a fine gathering with plenty of excitement for what tomorrow may bring.  The flight is on for tomorrow morning but of course we are anxious to get confirmation of that good and early tomorrow. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Monday, November 24, 2025 - 4:07 pm PT

Tim and I spent an easy day getting packed and fine tuning gear for Antarctica.  This is something of an “extra” day, but it sure wouldn’t have been if either of us had missed a flight or lost a bag on the way to Punta Arenas. We walked the downtown streets, checking out the climbing stores.  We walked in the wind along the shores of Magellan’s Straight.  Ultimately we walked over to our outfitter’s office for a briefing on the flight and operations in Antarctica.  It was good to connect with a few old friends while enjoying a cocktail and a PowerPoint.  Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions -ALE has quite the program down here and we’re excited to see the bases deep within the Antarctic interior.  Tomorrow is one more “slack” day of fiddling with gear and taking it easy. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Sunday, November 23, 2025 - 5:48 pm PT

Tim and I arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile and by some miracle  -our duffel bags did too.  These were the first big and essential steps on our path to the highest point in Antarctica.  We went through a gear check and discussed plans for flying onto the Ice.  But after so much travel, it was important to simply lay the groundwork today.  We kept it light, strolled to the plaza and along the shore of Magellan’s Straight and then had an easy dinner in the hotel.  We’ll get a bit more focused on climbing Vinson after some sleep. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hate to brag, but our days just keep getting better.  Tarangire National Park is delivering.  We are still in the park -by the way- in a tent camp miles and miles away from the park entrance.  There are no fences between our tents and the animals we were lucky enough to see all day long.  Supposedly, the lions haven’t figured out how a zipper works yet, so we’ve got that going for us. 

We saw good lions today, but they were the sleepy kind.  Five lionesses taking naps in a riverbed.  We saw distant and sleepy cheetahs -two of them- but they were too far away and too sleepy for photography.  Just when we were thinking that was a little unfair, we got to see a mother cheetah feeding a gazelle to two of her pups… up close.  It was stunning.  Our team enjoyed giraffes up close.  We particularly liked elephant families frolicking in mud.  The team got used to seeing massive baobab trees, easily sixty feet around and possibly thousands of years old.  A high point of the day, for certain, was when Johnson took us along an immense swamp shoreline at the golden hour when the light was magical before sundown.  None of us could believe how many animals and birds we were seeing and how few humans.  We’d given all the other cars the slip and Africa was beautiful all around us.  It is our final night of Safari… we still haven’t seen a leopard but we are certainly open to a little luck for the morning commute. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Elephants are among the “Big Five” most dangerous animals to hunt—if you’re into that kind of thing. We simply wanted to see the five, and Ngorongoro Crater was our best chance of accomplishing that. So there we were, up on the rim of the giant caldera, bouncing like crazy in the Land Cruiser on a washboard road. We came around a blind corner in the fog and skidded to a stop because an enormous bull elephant was squarely in the middle of the road—and not inclined to move for us. In fact, he made it quite clear that we needed to show some deference to resolve the situation. Johnson, our driver and guide, wisely put the cruiser in reverse while the big guy took a victory walk. So we had one of the five before even dropping into the gigantic “crater” full of wildlife.

We’d barely hit the crater floor before notching up numbers two and three. We immediately saw Cape buffalo and sleepy lions. Then came gazelles, zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, jackals, hyenas, ostriches, and hippos. It was a bit overwhelming.

By afternoon, we were trying hard to spot rhinos. We scored number four by spotting four sleeping rhinoceroses at a distance. Full disclosure: we saw them because a bunch of other Land Cruisers were stopped and pointing. But we also got to see a rhino that no one else saw, thanks to Arthur’s sharp eyes.

We tried to find a leopard—number five—on our way back out of the crater, but didn’t luck out. A visit to a Maasai village on the rim rounded out our big day.

Best regards,
Dave

The first day of Safari delivered. We changed over from a team of disciplined mountain climbers to a gang of slacker tourists. Lake Manyara National Park had plenty for us to see and our driver/guide/naturalist Johnson made sure we saw it all. Elephants, big and small, were everywhere. They came quite close to our Land Cruiser. A tower of giraffes by the lakeshore was a bonus. A pair of mingling pythons surprised us. Monkeys, baboons, hippos and mongooses came to the party. We finished out the afternoon and made it up to the ultra comfortable Plantation Lodge for sunset and a fine dining experience. 

--RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The team was smiling right from the start today.  Excited to have had such a wonderful summit day, and energized by a full night’s sleep at the relatively low altitude of 10,000 ft.  We finished with a morning in the rain forest.  Thankfully it wasn’t raining as we carefully picked our way down the steep and muddy track for 4,000 vertical feet.  We were entertained and amazed by the many porters running down the same track at high speed with heavy loads.  As we made our way through the giant camphor trees, we saw a few shy monkeys and hyraxes.  Above and beyond expectations since our wildlife safari doesn’t officially begin until tomorrow.  At the gate, we signed out with Kilimanjaro National Park and then went a short distance to have a last lunch with our mountain staff.  They sang, we danced and expressed our deep gratitude for the help and friendship they extended.  And then we said goodbye and boarded our bus for the rough ride back to Rivertrees -our hotel in Usariver.  We’d earned showers and clean clothes, a celebration dinner and a night in a bed.  But the trip isn’t at all over.  Safari starts in the morning. 

Best
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The biggest day of the trip was enormous.  We were up at 11 last night and walking uphill from our 15,200 ft camp just after midnight.  Conditions were perfect.  It was cold but dead calm.  And we had most of the moon shining, so headlights were helpful but not essential.  We targeted an ascent lasting about seven hours but as it turned out we were a little faster than that -unintentionally.  We stopped for rest a few times, naturally, but the cold and the traffic on the route (all teams were basically on the same schedule) meant our breaks needed to be darn quick.  The team was up to the task.  Our guides threaded us through the “crowds” and helped us in a million ways, singing to entertain us as we trudged up endless, steep paths through the rock and scree.  It was still dark when we hit the crater rim at Stella Point but a cold wind with a wisp of cloud made us skip the normal rest break there.  We just marched along the rim -the roof of Africa- as the light and colors came up in a magical display.  The entire team hit Uhuru -the summit- at 6:50 AM.  19,341 ft never felt so good.  We loved it… and we loved that the sun was starting to warm things up.  Our descent to high camp was completed at 10 AM and we tried to wrap our heads around the idea that we still had to climb all the way down to 10,000 ft to finish the day.  Tosha and Michael, our world class chefs made it all possible by serving us pizza for brunch and fortifying us for the four hour journey.  Clouds had come in to Barafu Camp and at noon, we were eager to get walking as it had gotten quite cold.  We ducked out of those clouds in the first hour and by the time we reached Mweka Camp it was sunshine and blue sky again.  We’re breathing thick air again and relaxing… and still a little amazed that we reached the highest point in Africa this morning. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn