Come on baby! A couple more nice weather days for us and it can storm all it wants up here in the high country of Tanzania. It all boils down to needing a bit of luck when climbing big peaks like Kilimanjaro; when the mountain says no you need to listen. Even on climbs when you do not get to the top of are filled with events and memories that stick with you. I have great confidence that this entire team will stand on the roof of Africa, with safety leading the way. It is such a unique thing we do up high, to be allowed to stand on the summit is really icing on the cake. We take away an immense feeling of satisfaction on all climbs. The team has checked off all the prerequisite to get this done.
When we leave Karanga Camp tomorrow morning, our summit push begins. We'll take a bit of a break at Barafu, the high camp, then up up and away! Man, this is exciting. All the prep work that has gone into this, the great support by all involved back home, is all making this last bunch of hours a reality. We promise to make you proud of what we do, impressed on how we did it, and thank for this beautiful mountain in supplying us this adventure. All is well at 13,000' on Kilimanjaro. We will check in with you tomorrow!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Buenos tardes from Aconcagua! Our team enjoyed a great rest day yesterday and it really paid off today on our move to Camp One. Everyone did a great job pushing these big packs uphill and we are recovering with our afternoon siesta from the day's labor. Tomorrow we hope to carry higher and begin to position ourselves for an eventual shot at the top. But first thing's first, time to relax at our new home at over 16,000 feet!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
After a calm night at Machame Camp at 9,800', we packed up this morning under blue skies and strong sun and pushed higher. The team was on the move by 8:00 AM and was immediately on steeper and rougher trails than we'd encountered yesterday. It was quite busy as the porters from a number of teams -including our own- were anxious to get out ahead and make it to Shira Camp as early as possible in order to claim prime sites for their teams. We made good progress, eventually following a rocky ridge line for some distance. It was continually interesting to watch the changes in foliage as we ascended. Looking out, we were above a sea of cloud obscuring the rest of Africa. Our sun and views of Kilimanjaro didn't last. By the time we'd reached about 12,000', clouds formed on the upper mountain and stretched to cover us. By then, we were traversing on blocky lava terraces out towards the Shira plateau. We made it into our new camp at 12:30 and after getting settled, enjoyed a fine hot lunch. Afternoon was mostly rest, relax and acclimatize time as we are now at a lofty 12,300' It is colder here and so we didn't stay up very late, hitting the sack at about seven, just after a hearty supper.
Best Regards,
RMI Guides Dave Hahn
We're off the mountain and on the way back to the hotel! It's been a great climb but everyone is really looking forward to hot showers this afternoon.
Summit day was awesome yesterday. This team really kicked some butt! It wasn't easy, that's for sure. Everyone stepped up and performed to the best of their abilities.
The weather, once again, was fabulous and that just added to our enjoyment of Kilimanjaro. Tomorrow we're shifting gears into safari mode. That is always a fun time.
That's all for now. Here's a summit shot.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall and Team
Summit! Jake Beren called in from Mt. Shuksan with an update on his team. They set out yesterday a little later than usual due to stormy weather, but the climb went great. The team is hiking out from their high camp today and will celebrate their success in Sedro Woolley.
Congratulations team!
I woke to the sound of song birds chirping by our dining tent. That could only mean one thing, that the storm had broken and we’d likely get a nice day to move camp. We woke up at 5 am and we were walking by 8 am. The storm had put 18” of new snow down. Since there were no early risers to break trail, we took that on ourselves. The day was hot and included lots of deep snow. We pulled into 11,200’ Camp at 4 pm. Camp setup, dinner and bed was all the bandwidth we had. Tomorrow we will back carry to 9500’ to retrieve our cache of food and fuel. It’ll feel like a rest day compared the effort put forth today. Goodnight.
We are here at the Dik Dik hotel and enjoying it. The team made quick work of the 4,000 foot descent this morning, arriving at the gate well before noon. We had a brief customary departure sign out with the park service, a lunch stop along the way. When we arrived at the hotel, a welcome song greeted us upon our arrival. Then a hot shower to wash away some gathered mountain product, but it couldn't rid us of a whole bunch of memories made while on the climb. Some of the team has been reunited with loved ones, how about a grandma and grandpa joining us here in Africa. How cool is that? While the rest of the team is jealous, we have to carry on and look forward to a reunion when we get back home.
Tomorrow starts the safari part of our program here. We are getting ready to bid farewell to one of the team who leaves for the airport tonight so as to not miss the start of the fall quarter. Is the summer really coming to a close? Better get out while you can!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
Jennifer and I were just telling our kids that we knew someone who reached the summit of Mt Everest. We looked you up and are glad to see you are still climbing. It has been many years since the Hostar days.
Take Care,
Chris & Jennifer McInerney (Hertzberg)
Posted by: Chris McInerney on 10/23/2014 at 8:37 pm
You look great! Congratulations!
Mark, we’re sorry we missed your call again. We love you.
Mother & Daddy
May 30, 2014 - 11:12 pm PT
The view from the vestibule this morning was not what I'd have called heartening. Clouds and snow dominated the picture, adding visual texture to the soft but incessant howl of the winds coming from the Buttress above. We could still see most of the landmarks around camp, but in the shadow of the early morning it didn't look promising for our carry. So, after talking with Leah and Nick, I happily crawled back into my warm sack.
We later awoke at the more reasonable hour of 9:00 to get the stoves fired up and start our day. No one complained about not climbing. I think having a real rest day was welcome by all.
So what do we do on these days? First of all, we hang out in the Posh an extra hour or two, then we cut a few snow blocks to further reinforce the walls we built around our tents yesterday. It was impressive seeing the team rally and build some really good walls. I think everyone was feeling good and happy to be doing something. Twelve hours in a tent can do that to a person.
But a rest day is a rest day and some good tent time is a must. A group was playing an animated game of BS next door to us in the Posh. Others were catching up on things on the radio. Naps are never a bad thing, and in this tent a few games of cribbage were contested. We even got in a bit of rope craft review and knot tying practice.
Such is life for the climber hanging out at 14,200' waiting for Mother Nature to offer us a little friendlier weather to continue our climb up the flanks of one of her most beautiful mountain creations.
We're all doing well and happily waiting this little set back out.
Cheers,
RMI Guides Brent, Leah and Nick
Proud of you dad, hope you make it all the way to the top. Make it count. Get ready for some seriously hot and humid weather back in Jupiter.
Love you.
Ali
Posted by: Ali on 6/1/2014 at 10:25 am
Hope you are doing well.Love seeing the blogs and your progress. I Love& miss you.Girls are doing good.It’s been a good trip here so far. Who knew that the girls like to fish.Scottie has taken them fishing a lot.You calling me on my birthday made my day.I had so much more to say.Love you.Good night.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas from Aconcagua Camp 1 at 16,200 feet! Team 2 is taking a rest day after a strong climb up to Camp 2 yesterday. We are in a festive spirit as we enjoy our own version of egg nog...it's water but if you close you eyes hard enough you can taste the resemblance!
Everyone is doing really, really well and we are looking forward to moving up to 18,000 feet!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Just enjoying watching the team and specifically Matt Hill climb the mountain. Always checking for updates. Hey Matt, Thinking of you buddy. Hope your taking lots of pics and see you soon.
Posted by: Robert Holmes on 12/26/2013 at 7:27 am
Josh - hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Santa didn’t visit our house… He said he was waiting for your return. No babies yet, but should be one soon. Best of luck tomorrow as you climb to Camp 2. We are loving the pictures and blog each day. We are so very proud of you. Can’t wait to see you at the top. Sending lots of love, strength, determination, warmth, energy, and warm hugs your way.
Hey everyone, Peter here and just checking in. We are back down at high camp. We had a very windy summit. I'm not sure if our call got out. We tried to communicate from on top. It was very cold, very windy. But we had a great successful climb today with everyone reaching the summit and we even took some time to get some great production. There should be some stills heading your way now. Some images from our climb today. Super cold. Super windy. But we're all very happy to be back down at high camp where there's just a slight breeze. And it's about 8:30 right now, the sun is still very high in the sky. Tomorrow we will break camp and see if we can make it back to base camp. We had an awesome summit day. It was beautiful. It definitely pressed us. And we're all going to sleep tonight pretty darn happy. So, that's it for now and we’ll talk soon.
Peter Whittaker checking in from high camp after summit
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Hi Mark!
Sorry we missed your call. This whole experience is thrilling. We love you. Mother & Dad
Posted by: Maury & Evie on 8/11/2014 at 4:15 pm
Way to go Steve, Connor and crew! Hope you are having fun! Make that summit and bring back lots of pictures!
Posted by: audrey on 8/11/2014 at 5:04 am
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