Hello everybody back home. This is Casey Grom calling in from the Roof of Africa. We had a beautiful day today. In fact, every climber made the summit today, so we had a 100% success. Everyone's doing great. We are a little chilly up here right now because there is a strong, cold breeze, but everyone's in good spirits. We're doing well and just finished taking a bunch of photos. We're gonna be heading down here real soon, so we'll check in again later this evening when we get down. It'll be sometime late this afternoon, probably in about ten hours or so. We'll, hopefully get a picture out to you guys as well. Bye.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom calls from the Kilimanjaro summit!
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
We packed our bags and left the hustle and bustle of Quito behind this morning, driving north towards the town of Otavalo for our next acclimatization climb. Along the way we had great views of Cotopaxi and Cayambe, the second and third highest peaks in Ecuador, respectively, and our major climbing objectives on this trip.
As for our objective for today, we climbed the ancient volcano Fuya Fuya. The weather couldn't have been nicer as we summited the 14,000' peak in t-shirts. On top we had great views of Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and even the top of the ever elusive Antisana, the fourth highest peak in Ecuador.
Our team did great on the climb today, negotiating steep terrain and a little rock scramble. Now we're at our hacienda, Casa Sol, for the night where a shower, dinner, and a cerveza are on our to do list. After a good night's rest tonight we'll head to the famous Otavalo Market in the morning and then up to the climbers hut in the afternoon.
I'll check in again mañana.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Hi, this is Seth. We are all back at the Dik Dik Hotel where the team is getting set for the flight home.
We woke up this morning way out in the bush at Kikoti camp. After a great breakfast we split the group in two. Half the team went quickly back through Tarangire National Park and spent some time at Peace-Matunta Orphanage and school. The other half tried to find some leopards but they proved to be elusive. The elephants and giraffes were out in full force, though, so all was not lost.
We are all back together now and after an early dinner I'll be taking everyone to the airport where they will depart for the USA. As for me however; I'll be starting another trip shortly and that means another journey up Kilimanjaro and more wildlife viewing in Tanzania's beautiful national parks.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
The team is on the move now. From this point on there is only one day of the trip that does not involve hiking, climbing or traveling. Yesterday, as an example, we left Quito in the morning, drove three hours north, got out and hiked for about four hours and then back on the bus for a 45 minute ride to the Intiyaya Residences. That's a full day, but hey, it's what we signed up for and we all were able to enjoy the lovely hike around Laguna Cuicocha. Everyone also enjoyed the serenity of the Intiyaya Residences; most people had a full night's sleep before the neighborhood dogs started barking at about 6:30am.
Today, we head for the market in Otavalo to experience some local culture, shop for souvenirs or just drink a nice latte. Following that sensory overload, we will hop on the bus and head for the town of Cayambe and eventually the lower Cayambe hut. Our group is really coming together as a team; meals have been spent telling stories and much of our time on trails has been spent trying to get some pro bono physical therapy from Malina.
In just a day and a half we will put our bodies and minds to the test on Cayambe!
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 8:47 PM PT
This morning seems like weeks ago. We’re currently settled into our new home at 14 thousand feet, and life is good. Weather cooperated for us all day long, and the team moved quite well. For some reason this camp always seems to have the best weather. A lot of storms that hit 11 and the lower Kahiltna don’t make it this high, and winds that ravage the summit elevations don’t quite make it this low. We’re currently sitting in the sun looking out at a sea of clouds that are certainly covering, and snowing on, our old home. One more reason that we’re happy to be up here. It’s always a hard day getting here, and we’re all ready for dinner and an early bedtime. Tomorrow we’ll walk 500 feet downhill to retrieve our cache, and we’ll spend the rest of the day chilling hard. Until then, the team sends their best to everyone back at home.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide to go on a camping trip. After dinner and a bottle of wine, they lay down for the night, and go to sleep.
Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.
“Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”
Watson replied, “I see millions of stars.”
“What does that tell you?”
Watson pondered for a minute.
“Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.”
“Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.”
“Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.”
“Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.”
“Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.”
“What does it tell you, Holmes?”
Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke: “Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent!”
Posted by: skipper holmes on 5/30/2019 at 10:48 pm
Wednesday, May 22, 2019, 11:30 PM PT
Well, we are on the Kahiltna Glacier. We have begun the climb! We flew on early this morning with perfect weather, a smooth ride, and amazing views of the Alaska range. After landing, we consolidated and re-organized our gear, picked up fuel from base camp, rigged our sleds, and started walking. After about five hours of travel time, we arrived at 7800 feet, our first camp on the Kahiltna. After setting up tents and building a kitchen we moved into an early dinner. We’re going to try to wake up a little on the early side tomorrow. Our plan is to carry a load up to 10,000 feet. Hopefully, with an early start, we can be back down in camp hiding from the sun during the hottest part of the day. Everyone did really well today despite the warm temps and heavy loads. We’ll check back in tomorrow afternoon.
RMI Guides JM Gorum, JT Schmitt and Dustin Wittmier
Hello from the Chimborazo Lodge located literally at the base of the mountain. From our windows we watch herds of llamas grazing in the pastures, condors buzz the hillsides and the mountain, straight up valley, show us she is certainly not done being angry at something. Which sets the stage for this upcoming tale.
It is no secret that lessons surround us. Whether learned from business, school, love or mountain climbing. If we are aware and observant enough we should be able to find value and see reason through the events of everyday life. Today was one of those days we all learned something.
Our time at high camp began with teaching our seminar crew the correct way to level tent platforms, secure the guy lines and properly tie down your house so the big bad wolf doesn’t come and blow it all away. Once settled in, we were treated to a great meal by our cooks and hit the rack about 6:30 pm. At that point the full moon was rising over the mountain and the wind was calming just a bit. By our wake up time at 11:45 the wind was calm but the clouds had unleashed some freezing rain which coated everything in a smooth sheen of verglass.
By the time we departed camp the wind had picked up a bit and the mountain was sporting a nice cloud cap, beautiful in the full moon light.
The terrain right out of camp was challenging but by the time our climbing team reached an elevation of 18,500 feet, a few had turned around due to fatigue and the unruly steepness of the route. The weather had also begun to deteriorate with gusts reaching upper 30s and a heavy coat of rime ice building on our Gore-Tex shells. By 19,300 feet only two climbers remained headed up. But that upward progress didn’t last much longer. By 19,800 feet the cloud was now fully upon us and the wind and rime became too much to safely continue toward the summit. So at 6:15 our final summit climbers turned around.
The climb down can be as arduous as the climb going up because of tired legs, heavier muscle strain and outright exhaustion. As they have this entire trip, our team performed like seasoned veterans, all arriving back at camp by 8 am. Usually getting back to camp provides a deep sense of relief and comfort, knowing the hard part is over. This morning that was not the case as the winds increased moderately on the upper mountain, they increased dramatically at camp. I almost wanted to start climbing back up the mountain just to avoid the scene. The tents were being held down by rocks and people just to be kept from blowing away, the dining tent was literally beginning to tear itself apart and the noise of flapping nylon could likely be heard ten miles away. But through incredible teamwork we were were able to keep our houses from blowing away and got things packed in relatively good order considering the mountain’s jet engine was on overdrive.
On the descent, some of us had to literally crawl on all fours to keep from blowing over. It was one of the windiest days I’ve ever seen. Thirty minutes after leaving camp we were sheltered enough to take a sigh of relief and walk normally to the bus waiting in the parking lot.
After a brief time to reflect and sit down, we loaded up and headed to Chimborazo Lodge where we are about to take dinner and give a final toast to a mountain that has taught us much more than just climbing skills.
So even though we didn’t reach the summit, we by no means consider this a failure. On the contrary, like our journey as a whole, we consider this a great success! It has been a wonderful two weeks!
Team Ecuador signing off.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
Hey everybody, this is Casey Grom checking in from the Kilimanjaro climb. We are calling to let you know that we're all safely back at High Camp after a very successful summit climb. We were able to get nine of our ten climbers to the summit. It was a little bit of a busy day up on top trying to get photos and let people make satellite phone calls and I wasn't able to get one out to the dispatch until we just got back to camp and it's a good time. We're all safe. Everyone's doing well. We will take a little break here and have some lunch and then we're actually going to pack up and descend a couple more thousand feet to some warmer temperatures and some thicker air. And it'll shorten are descent out of the park tomorrow. So everyone's doing well. Everyone's in great spirits and we'll do our best to get a dispatch out tonight. But if I remember right in the past, I haven't been able to get one out of the trees there. So if you don't get a dispatch tonight then Monday morning as soon as we're making our way out of the park, I'll update and give maybe a little play-by-play of the summit climb. And as well as we'll get some photos to you guys. Obviously, we haven't had cell service or Wi-Fi service up here so that we could really send that much data. I think a few of the team members said they were able to send some texts. But anyway looking forward to getting those to you and kind of fill you in on how everything went. That's all for now and hope you guys have enjoyed following along. Talk to you soon.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Just wanted to tell Chris we are all fascinated with this way of keeping us aware
of your climbs. Keep it up
Dad
Posted by: John Condon on 1/14/2019 at 8:22 am
Yea Catherine! Was such an unexpected blessing to hear your voice from the summit! So glad weather cleared up some the last of the trip so that you had that beautiful view. Eager to hear all about it when you get back.
Lori and Dave….So good to see you made it to the top! Love you and been thinking of you often! Have a great trip!
Gosheroo Donna:)
Posted by: Donna Connors on 7/20/2015 at 10:20 am
Woo-Hoo!!!! Congrats Mark and Tom…love the pics…way to go team Grom!
Posted by: Wendy on 7/19/2015 at 7:06 pm
View All Comments