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Hello once again everyone - This was a marvelous day as we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater, considered by some to be the 8th wonder of the world. We started early with hopes of catching more of the elusive wildlife. Today we saw more zebras, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, giraffes than anyone expected, in fact at such close range that we could almost touch them. We also saw plenty of hyenas, ostrich, Impala and saw a few lions, hippos, elephants, and even managed to spot a couple of Rhinos off in the distance. Needless to say it was a wonderful day of well deserved safari. We then wrapped up the day with a visit to a working Maasai village. The Maasai are the local nomadic people that have inhabited this area for more than a thousand years and still try to exist with their same way of life. Finally we returned to the amazing Plantation lodge to relax and enjoy another wonderful meal. All is well! RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

Jambo everyone! Things are going well and the team is doing great here on Kilimanjaro. Today the team had a leisurely start as we wanted the sun to warm us up before our only semi-technical part of the climb. The trail out of camp starts off relatively mellow and then quickly ramps up as we ascend the great Barranco Wall. It's truthfully not as intimidating as it looks, but when does a thousand-foot cliff ever look easy. Thankfully the route winds its way up the cliff through ramps and small rock steps and eventually on to easier terrain. Everyone did a great job of taking it easy and I actually think they all enjoyed the challenge we had. We took a break on top of the wall to enjoy the views then slowly made our way to the next camp here above the Karanga Valley. It was a relatively short day for us as this will be our last camp before we move up to our high camp tomorrow. We are spending the remainder of the day relaxing and enjoying the royal treatment by our gracious staff here on Kili. As usual we've had a trivia challenge that one lucky winner will receive a satellite phone call from the summit. It won't happen until we reach the summit, but that's not too far away. I'll let everyone know when that might happen on tomorrow's dispatch. So stay tuned! RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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RMI Guide Casey Grom called from the Mount Rainier summit at 7:15 a.m. His team was on top in warm temperatures at no winds. They began their descent just after the radio call. Congratulations to the summit climb team!

The Gang Moves to Camp 2 Well the good weather only lasts for so long when you are climbing in the big mountains of the world. We moved camp this morning after enjoying another warm and calm night. We spent the day looking at high wispy cirrus clouds over the summit from the West and ominous lenticular clouds building in the East. The most recent forecast has high winds entering the picture starting tonight and lasting several days. We are in a good position to wait for better weather with a rest day tomorrow and the ability to use two weather days if needed. We are sitting on a lot of food and fuel. Until next time, RMI Guides Mike King & Steve Gately

On The Map

Jambo! The team is off the mountain, safe and sound. Summit day, yesterday, was really great but it sure was nice to reach the end of the trail today. The weather has continued to hold up great for us. We had a little rain last night but it didn't hit until we had all finished in dinner and retreated to our tents. This morning we had an early breakfast and got on the trail by 8 am. This team descends very well and we all made it down by 11 am. We are headed back to the Dik Dik Hotel for some very needed showers before safari starts tomorrow. On a family note, Jason C's wife and children met us at the park gate, he was literally running down to meet them and they would like to wish Esther a happy birthday. One more shout out to Mrs. Sadler's class at Midlothian High. Here's a pic from the summit! That's all for now. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

We did it! Summit success! The team got up at 11pm and were all ready by 11:30 for the ascent. We then had a quick midnight breakfast of porridge, tea and coffee before starting our climb under a mostly full moon. The weather was very calm and the route wasn’t all that busy allowing us to take our time and enjoy the ascent. The climb took just under seven hours to reach the summit, and thankfully the sun rose shortly before reaching the top to help warm us and boost morale after climbing through the night. On the summit we hugged each other, enjoyed the views and took plenty of pictures and even made a few phone calls to loved ones back home. It was a true test of endurance for most of the crew, and I'm really proud of everyone. We descended back to high camp, where we had a quick lunch, repacked and then continued further down the mountain to our final camp in the thick warm air at 10’000ft, where we just finished another fine meal prepared by our gracious staff. Now it’s off to bed for some well deserved sleep. RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy Kilimanjaro summit crew

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Our first day in Talkeetna was packed with mountain prep fun. After breakfast we listened to Pat, a Denali climbing ranger, introduce climbing safely and keeping Denali clean during our climb. Then we hustled to the airplane hangar to sort and pack gear. The hardest part of the day was trying to decide what food to bring and what items to leave behind. Twenty pounds of food is a lot but it seems to pile up quickly. We are ready to fly into the glacier tomorrow at 9am, so now we are working hard on relaxing and enjoying the beautiful Alaska weather. RMI Guide Walter Hailes

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The May 3rd Denali Expedition led by RMI Guides Mike Walter, Billy Haas and Blake Votilla made the difficult decision to end their waiting game at 14,000' on Denali and start their descent. On Monday they packed up camp and began heading for Kahiltna Base Camp. On Tuesday afternoon K2 Aviation was able to land on the glacier and load up the team. Mike checked in from Talkeetna yesterday afternoon. We are glad they are back safely and hope they all enjoyed their Denali adventure.

Wednesday, May 20th 3:19 pm PDT We took advantage of a beautiful morning today and bumped a cache of food and fuel up to 16,200 ft on the West Buttress, above the fixed ropes of the head wall outside of 14k camp. We made efficient work of the head wall and, as we neared the top, clouds and wind moved in around us. The weather was manageable, just not very pleasant. So once our cache hole was dug and our food and fuel was buried, we retreated back down the fixed ropes to the comfort of camp. The afternoon was spent relaxing as winds swirled around camp. We will take a rest day tomorrow to recover and acclimate further. The weather forecast for the next couple of days indicates strong winds up high, so we'll likely have a couple of days to rest here at 14,200' while we wait for a reasonable weather window to move up to high camp and have a crack at the summit. Hopefully the weekend will bring more favorable climbing weather. We'll keep you posted either way. Cheers, RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team

On The Map

Last night I was woken up at 2am by a flashing outside my tent. I thought to myself, "Who is taking photos right now!?" So I took advantage of being awake and got up to use the bathroom when I realized the flashing was actually coming from an enormous electrical storm nearly 50 miles east from basecamp. With a relatively large moon out, you could see the huge towering clouds stretching tens of thousands of feet into the air and the lightning was so intense and so massive that it was lighting up basecamp. How incredible! Never have I seen such a display of lightning! On a less exciting note the team woke up to PERFECT weather. Boring right? No, but I capitalize perfect because it truly was. Breathe less wind, blue skies and warm temps. Perfect for sticking your nose into higher altitude. Which is exactly what we did! The team made the first carry to Camp I (16,200ft) like they were walking out to retrieve the morning paper. Casually. Very impressive! We arrived at Camp I, took a short break, cached our gear and made our descent back to basecamp. I ran down ahead of the group and prepared some pitchers of juice, fresh fruit and sliced cucumber with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt for lunch. The team is now taking a well deserved siesta before dinner as we look forward to our last day in basecamp tomorrow. RMI Guide Steve Gately

On The Map