It was a little tough leaving the Plantation Lodge this morning -it is a very comfortable place and we’d enjoyed our two nights there, but it was time to be moving on. Tarangire National Park beckoned, and we were excited to see what we could see. There were a couple of important stops to make on the drive over, one of which was a visit to a Maasai village. The Maasai are just one of many tribes in Tanzania, but they stand out because they choose to continue living in a traditional style, forgoing modern conveniences. We witnessed singing and dancing and a demo of how to rub sticks to make fire. We went into the sleeping dwellings and asked our tour guides a million questions about polygamy, arranged marriages, education and building materials. The team did a little gift shopping when the women of the village presented their handmade craftwork. We then headed for the park, excited to see the wildlife. Tarangire is a series of parallel rivers and shallow valleys separated by rolling hills and broad savanna. Before too long we were spotting birds and impala, warthogs and waterbucks. It took a bit before we saw giraffes and elephants, but then things quickly got interesting. A bull elephant pointed himself directly at a couple of lounging lions and not only disturbed their date, he chased the male lion and stood trumpeting on the ground they surrendered. A high point for many of us was seeing elephant families that included a number of one month old babies. One family of 20 took to a pond to cool off and splashed, wrestled, drank and rolled for no other logical reason than that it was just plain old pachyderm fun. We found big and solitary bull elephants and watched their behavior... all serious and food focused, in contrast to the matriarch ruled families. Some of the day’s best cruising was done in late afternoon as the sun got low on lush green fields, gigantic baobab and skinny palm trees. We finished up in friendly Balloon Camp -a rustic hideaway hotel in the bush. We’ve got one last morning to see leopards and cheetahs.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
June 23, 2015 9:51 pm PST
We had a successful move up to 17,000 foot camp on Mt. McKinley. The weather was perfect for traveling on the fixed lines and above. Climbing on the amazing ridge that crests the West Buttress of Denali is always one of my favorite parts of the climb because of the beautiful rock an the exposure. I think all of the El Siete boys had a good time weaving through the rocks and snow that provide the natural protection on the ridge. As of now, we are planning to try to summit tomorrow. The forecast looks good and the crew is ready. Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
June 4, 2015 3:05pm PST
One of the most famous books of Mt. McKinley lore is of the first winter ascent and it's title is Minus 148. Yes this refers to the calculated wind chill factor the climbers experienced while stuck in a storm at 18,000' feet in the middle of February. While we sit here waiting out this storm which we have been racing for six days, the cold accompanying the snow is bone chilling. Last night after the sun went behind the ridge, we all guessed the evening temp here in camp at 14,000' feet was a balmy minus 15 degrees. Add in the 15 mph breeze and the wind chill here was a cool minus 35! Up at high camp where we just came from, where teams still sit waiting for a summit chance, the air temp was a frigid minus 25 with 40 mph winds. This means the wind chill was roughly minus 50. At these temps skin freezes in seconds and the body can hardly consume enough calories to stay warm without shelter. The morale of the team is really high knowing the high altitude work is done. As I write this on June 4th, the description of June 3rd is identical. Drink coffee, eat lots of food, take a nap, eat more food, have dinner and go to bed. The need to hang outside in the freezing temps is not what anyone needs.
As the storm moves through, we are hoping to get this show on the road and move to base camp where planes can pick us up as soon as the weather breaks. Cross your fingers for an opening by Sunday. We will touch base tomorrow.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team
Comgratulations on your amazing climb! Thinking of the team every day. Stay strong and safe on your descent.
Posted by: Elaine on 6/6/2015 at 8:51 am
Hang in there Knoff and Team! Waiting at base camp to fly home is trying. Stay warm, have fun, throw lots of snowballs at the other teams (Especially Chad’s AAI team, Greg!) and be ready to go. Hoping you hear the planes any time now! Home soon!
Well the weather gods have not changed their disposition yet, and we're still in Talkeetna waiting for the weather to improve so that we can fly in to Base Camp on the Kahiltna Glacier.
In the mean time, we took advantage of ample free time to review anchors and crevasse rescue systems in the K2 Aviation hangar.
We'll keep you up to date...
RMI Guide Mike Walter
So thankful y’all were able to finally fly out! Stay safe.. So excited to follow this journey! Proud of you Chris! Love you!
Posted by: Brooke Q on 5/10/2015 at 9:03 pm
Saw that you’re on Kahiltna. .Awesome. ..What an Adventure! Love the blog and following your trek Chris Q. ! Be careful! Can’t wait for the videos! !
Vanessa and Jeff Rose
Posted by: Vanessa Frazier Rose on 5/10/2015 at 4:23 pm
Hey Everybody, This is Casey Grom checking in from the Everest Base Camp Trek and Island Peak Climb. Just wanted let you know that everything's going great here in the Kumbu. After having an incredible day at Base Camp, the team descended yesterday through a little bit of snow all the way down to Pheriche. It's about 12 miles and it took our group a little over 7 hours, so quite a long day on our feet, but everyone did great! Everyone certainly enjoyed the drop in altitude and the thicker air. It was only 14,000 feet, but everyone could feel the difference. Everyone is doing great and last night we ran into two of RMI's finest Jeff "JJ" Justman and of course Dave Hahn who are leading our Mt. Everest climb this season. It was great to see those guys and touch base and wish luck to those guys and the climbing crew that is with them.
After getting a good night's rest, the team got out this morning and had relatively early breakfast. The trekking group headed back to Namche. The Island Peak team and myself headed up the adjacent valley and are relaxing here at Chukung. It was bit of a sad day saying goodbye to our friends that we spent so many great days with, but I am sure those guys are doing great now down in Namche enjoying the warm air, cell service and WiFi. Unfortunately for us, we won't have cell service or WiFI here in Chukung as there has been some issue with the receivers. Anyways, we're headed up the valley a little further and expect to be at Island Peak Base Camp tomorrow. We'll try to check in via satellite phone we can get reception up there.
Thanks a lot. We'll talk soon.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
We are at Aconcagua Basecamp safe and sound. I just wrote an elaborate blog and as our team was telling stories I got involved and wouldn't you know it, my entire blog was erased!
The team is safe, sound and having fun. The weather now is horrible up high. I don't mean to brag but we made the summit on the best day. Now the mountain is angry. But we are happy here in Basecamp.
We are hiking out tomorrow and will be in Mendoza for New Year's Eve. This is officially our last blog post. Thank you so much for following along.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
May 26, 2014 - 10:12 pm PT
Now that we are in the holding pattern, waiting for our window, any day could be our chance to move to 17K and take a shot at the summit. This morning wasn't it though, as we woke to a large, gray lenticular cloud hanging on to the upper mountain. We rested, traded books, listened to music, did a little 14K Camp crossfit, and took a walk to the "Edge of the World," where the Genet Basin looks over the lower Kahiltna. From the vista we could see our first camp of the trip at the base of Ski Hill. The forecasts continue to be mixed, so we're taking it day by day and seeing what opportunities the mountain provides us. We'll send the news of tomorrow when we know what it is. Until then, we're going to bury ourselves in piles of down and get some shut eye.
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, and Josh
This is Dave Hahn calling from 11,000' on Mt. McKinley. And we carried today. It was a beautiful day. Perfect weather, everything we could ask for. Very calm and clear, we could see forever. As we got up on the hills above 11K, we could look down onto the tundra of the North. And then when we were going around Windy Corner, we could see way down the Kahiltna Glacier. In fact we could see all the way to the southern end of the Alaska Range, which is rare.
We hope to move to 14,000' Camp tomorrow. Everybody's doing really well right now. It is all going great. It is clouding up a bit so we're hoping the good weather holds, but we're all pretty optimistic at the moment.
Bye for now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Pleased your weather has been holding. Great to move higher. Wayne, I am so very proud of your accomplishments. wonderful time down south. Back to paradise tomorrow. love U, dinah
The winds picked up during the night and brought four plus inches of snow to Mt. Everest. Our plan was to move up the Lhotse face to Camp 3 for a day climb/acclimatization and then back to Camp Two for another night of sleep. But after breakfast the weather had not cleared and snow was still falling so we decided to join Dave and Leif (who had climbed to Camp 3 the day before) and head back down to Base Camp ending our second rotation on the mountain. We will start a rest "block" while we wait for better weather and head back up to Camp Two and then to Camp Three once the weather settles.
We had a great kick off meeting last night and everyone is excited to be together and starting a fun week long mountain adventure to Pico de Orizaba. After quick introductions for Merrick and me (Alden, Brett, Jeff and John have climbed together in the past) we enjoyed a beautiful view from a roof top lounge looking over Mexico City. We then moved to Historico Azul a unique open air restaurant beneath a perfectly manicured canopy of trees for dinner. In each trees hung hundreds of small oil lamps giving the room a warm glow, and the food was delicious. Today we are driving to La Malinche, a small mountain resort, to begin our acclimation process with a promising weather forecast.
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Craig,
Will be in Talkeetna to play at the Fairview Inn on Wednesday. Hope to see you then if you have not flown out already.
Bom sucesso!!!
Nick
Posted by: Nick Kantar on 6/24/2015 at 3:59 pm
Proud of you Mr. Chowdry….to the top my friend
Posted by: Tony on 6/24/2015 at 3:51 pm
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