Everyone has arrived in Cusco with all our duffels. We’ll take that as a win and a good way to start off this incredible adventure.
We met together as a team this evening, sharing about all the different ways we found ourselves in Peru - one group celebrating a big birthday, an anniversary and others because this has always been on their bucket list.
No matter what — we all left families, friends and big, full lives to spend nearly two weeks stepping out of our comfort zones. Trekking through revered mountains and learning the rich history of the Incas from Cusco to the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu.
It’s going to be a challenging and epic experience but first, first we need sleep!
The members of the team arrived safely in Quito with all our luggage. Today, we ventured out into Quito for a city tour. At an elevation of over 9,000 ft, this was the perfect acclimatization activity for Day 1. The first (and generally favorite) stop on the tour was at the Mitad del Mundo museum, which means "middle of the world". This museum is located on the equatorial line and the tour guides show us some cool demonstrations along with some interesting history of the region. We balanced an egg on a nail, got our passports stamped and went off to tour Old-Town Quito to see the historic churches and buildings the city had to offer. Tomorrow we are looking forward to a warm-up hike on Rucu Pichincha!
Hello again everyone.
All is still well here in the Khumbu as the team members made our way back into Namche. It was a busy day on the trail with climbers, trekkers, yaks, and porters all bound uphill to basecamp. We slowly made our way through the maze of traffic and enjoyed one last good view of Everest.
Along the way we ran into several old friends from my past trips and stopped to wish everyone good luck.
Tomorrow we'll be moving out early on our final leg of the journey back to Lukla. So please keep you fingers crossed we have good weather and can make our flight back to Kathmandu the following morning.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Friday, March, 22,2018
Hello everyone,
All is well here in the beautiful Khumbu Valley. Today was a scheduled rest/acclimatization day, so we did just that. After breakfast we made a long slow climb up the big hill that’s just behind our tea house. We climbed just up over 16,000ft to help our bodies adjust to the upcoming altitude of Everest Base Camp. The team did great and throughly enjoyed the amazing views in nearly all directions. We could see Cho Oyu the 6th highest and Makalu in the far off distance which is the worlds 7th highest mountain, as well as countless other huge mountains. It’s very surreal to be higher than anyplace in the continental US and be surrounded by so many big mountains.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the tea house chatting with other trekkers and recovering from our day’s outing.
Some of the team took showers again and the rest of us rewarmed ourselves by the big wood stove that burns dried Yak dung, just as the Sherpa people have done for centuries. We are a little ways above tree line and firewood is scarce, but Yak dung is plentiful.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Seth here, checking in from the Hotel Colonial in Puebla. The group has just returned from dinner and everyone is headed to their rooms for a little shut eye.
The climb went well today and the weather was fantastic. We awoke just after one AM and hit the trail before three. We ascended 'The Knees' route on Ixta which involves several ups and downs along the way to the summit. We started with some steep rock then moved into some ridge climbing and crossed two glaciers to reach the summit. It was a spectacular day of climbing.
Everyone is looking forward to the rest day in Puebla tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Jambo,
We left the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge today and traveled to Tarangire National Park. We stopped for a lunch in the bush and were treated to a delicious outdoor meal. Our excitement for the afternoon was a dust devil, a very small tornado looking weather feature, that could have spoiled our great meal. Tarangire has one of the highest concentrations of elephant and it did not disappoint today. We saw a few new species that we hadn't seen at the crater and got great views of two large male lions. The weather has been partly cloudy with a light wind which as made for a perfect safari set up keeping us and the animals cool from the hot African sun.
We are now at the Kikoti Camp located just outside Tarangire National Park. We will be spending our last evening in Tanzania enjoying a great dinner followed by a bonfire in the courtyard of the hotel listening to the sounds of the African night.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Prvyet from Elbrus Northside Basecamp,
We got an early start from Kislovodsk this morning. With our backpacks packed and our street clothes stored away, we piled into the back of an old Soviet-era off road vehicle and headed into the Caucasus. The pavement quickly disappeared only a few minutes outside of town and we began the long, twisting dirt road to Base Camp. The enormous 36" wheels of the former military truck handled the rocks and ruts of the road with ease and we made good progress through the lower slopes of the mountains. Rising gradually from the fertile fields in the heart of Russia, the northern Caucasus steppe is a stunning landscape. The farms and fields slowly give way to grand rolling grasslands, cut by deep canyons, hemmed in by rocky plateaus, and framed by jagged, snow capped peaks. Herds of sheep, cows, and goats wander slowly, feasting on the alpine grass before autumn sets in. And rising above it all stands Mt. Elbrus, it's twin summits literally shimmering in the clear morning air. The view of the mountain this morning was fantastic and we were thrilled to watch the mountain grow larger as we bounced our way towards it.
After five hours of gradually making our way higher into the mountains on increasingly narrow and eroded roads, we reached Basecamp - a cluster of brightly colored tents at the foot of Elbrus' flanks. We set up camp, unpacking our climbing gear, taking stock of our food supplies, and keeping an eye on the curious bovines wandering about. Before the afternoon slipped by we headed out on a short walk above Basecamp to stretch our legs.
Back at camp we sat down to a hearty minestrone feast before crawling into the tents for the evening. After days and days of travel from our homes almost a dozen time zones away, it feels great to finally be on the mountain. The team is excited and eager to start our ascent. Tomorrow we are planning to go on an acclimatization hike and cache some of our gear higher up near our next camp. It is an excellent opportunity to get out on the trail and give our legs a shake out while positioning us for a move to the next camp. We will check-in tomorrow night and let you know how it goes.
This morning we left our tea house in Phakding and headed up the valley toward Namche Bazaar, which is the central village in this famous valley. We hit the trail just before 8 am along with a few other trekkers. Everyone did really well on the hike, and no one seemed to mind pausing often for the endless mules and Zopkyo’s (cross between a Yak and a cow) carrying loads headed up valley and basecamp as we made our way up the trail. It was moderately busy on the route with trekkers and porters alike, but thankfully the traffic seemed to flow pretty smoothly.
The team crossed a number of high suspension bridges without a problem, and thankfully it was a little breezy which made our hike up the Namche hill pleasant. Overall it was a really enjoyable day as we climbed up to just over 11,300' where Namche sits.
We also were fortunate enough to glimpse Mount Everest far off in the distance on our hike today!!!
Hey, this is David Hahn with Kilimanjaro team and we are on the summit! We are at Uhuru which is 19,341 feet above sea level. And we are in spectacularly good conditions. And as an added bonus, we have the summit all to ourselves. The whole team is up here and the wind is blowing about one and a half miles per hour. And it's extremely pleasant. [Broken] ...happens to be cloaked in clouds right now, but it's still beautiful. We're enjoying being up here stepping into the throat of this great volcano. We'll let you know when we're down safe but all is going very well now. Thank you.
RMI Guide Dave HahnDave Hahn Recaps the Summit Day:
We left Barafu Camp shortly after one AM and set out for the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was an absolutely splendid night for climbing as there was no wind and no cloud above. There was also no moon, so the stars and meteors and Milky Way were prominent and mesmerizing. At first it wasn't terribly cold, but of course as we gained altitude and got closer to dawn we had to contend with the big chill. We made steady progress and watched sunrise from about an hour below the crater rim. There was still no view of Africa, other than the cloud sea far below us. We reached Stella Point on the crater rim at 8 AM and made our way around the rim to Uhuru -the high point- by just after nine. It was calm and comfortable up there at 19,340 ft and so we stayed for forty minutes. Descent to Barafu took until 1 PM. Once there we packed our gear, ate a fine lunch and at 2:30 continued our descent toward the cloud sea. All were a little weary (understandably) but we made good progress in any event reaching Mweka Camp at 10,000 ft by 6 PM. It was quite a journey, from the ice and glaciers down through numerous transition zones to the start of the forests and jungles. The team was optimistic about sleeping straight through this night and at last conquering our collective jet lag.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Brad & Brian, Congrats on the Summit for you and all your team! Can’t wait to see the photos and hear the stories. Can’t think of a better reason to get together for a few cold ones.
See you soon.
Steve
Posted by: Steve on 8/4/2014 at 9:21 am
Hope it was a great adventure for everyone! I am sure you are all ready to get a warm shower and a comfy bed! :) Have fun on the safari! Love you Babe! Heather
Hey, this is JJ and Leah up here at High Camp 19,600' finishing up the hot drinks and breakfast for our team. It's about 4:30 in the morning, a little bit of wind today but it's looking like it's going to be a nice day to climb Aconcagua. So the team is up and at 'em, getting ready for our summit attempt. Wish us luck! And hopefully we will have some great news for you a little later on today. We'll touch base hopefully from the top of South American's highest mountain.
Take care,
JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman checks in prior to summit bid on Aconcagua.
It looks beautiful! What an incredible adventure!
Posted by: Vally Pratt on 8/19/2024 at 8:30 am
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