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Today was a day we have all been hoping for.  No alarm clocks, no rush to load the small mountain of duffles in the bus and internet all morning.  

By the whipping crack of 1pm we had pacticed cravasse rescue, drank a gallon of coffee and packed our mountain bags.

A short bus ride up a road bumpy enough to make our seats feel like vibrating massage chairs, landed us at 15,200 feet.  A 40 minute cruise took us to the Jose Ribas refugio on the flanks of Cotopaxi.  We can definitely feel the 16,000 foot altitude. But after Cayambe we are all well prepared.   We even have the privilege of waking up "tomorrow" because our alarm clocks won't ring until one minute past midnight.   Wish us well as we are once again a full team with Maria's knee feeling much better. 

Climb on!!

RMI Guide Hannah Smith

More than a few of us got up this morning saying we’d slept better than on any other night on the mountain. 

Mweka Camp was calm and quiet… except for the now familiar sounds of our kitchen crew going to work to get breakfast on.  We enjoyed one last meal on the mountain and then threw packs on for the final walk down.  We needed to get rid of four thousand feet of elevation.  Almost immediately, we were into the rain forest and the trail was slick and a little treacherous as a result.  We picked our way carefully down muddy stairs as porters from various expeditions ran at full speed a few inches to one side of our team. We reached the Mweka Gate at 11:15 a.m. and signed out with the Kilimanjaro National Park.  A short bus ride took us to our celebration lunch hosted by our fabulous mountain staff. They sang a few traditional songs and got our gang dancing.  We took the opportunity to distribute tips and thank the entire team of hard working men. 

A two hour bus ride got us back to Rivertrees Inn and showers and fresh clothing.  We relaxed and started the process of shifting gears from climbing to safari-going. 

We’ll head out first thing tomorrow to see what we can see at Lake Manyara. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and team

Saturday, February 12, 2022 4:09 AM PST

Hola Amigos,

We woke with an excitement in the air, today we were leaving the city. After a few nights in Quito it was time for us to head north to our next destination. Bellies full of continental breakfast, we gathered all of our belongings, squeezed into the tiny elevators and stacked our duffels in the lobby to await our driver, Hector. 

A two-hour drive through the countryside was a welcome rest from yesterday’s hike. The van winded up cobblestone streets until the road was covered with water from the overflowing lake. We had made it to our activity for the day. It was time to stretch our legs up Fuya Fuya and get our heart rates up. Our bodies are working hard to adjust to the altitudes and be ready for the three volcanos awaiting us. Beautiful views, pretty flora, and mysterious clouds provided great backdrops. 

Slippery grass and muddy steps led us to the top where we were greeted by a large group of Deutsch high schoolers. After snatching our summit photo, we made our way back down to the van, some with muddier butts than others. A few team members took the opportunity to take a cold dip in the lake because when at Fuya Fuya why not. Bellies growling, we made it back to town for some pizza before we loaded back in the van, up more steep cobblestone streets to our hacienda. 

The hacienda is beautiful with a peaceful presence overlooking the town below. The team enjoyed some downtime before rallying together for some learning. Tonight’s entertainment before dinner was learning about knots and hitches, a building block for when we learn about crevasse rescue. A delicious dinner wrapped up the day before we all went back to our rooms to pack for tomorrow. Tomorrow we head to our first snow covered volcano.

With nerves and excitement surrounding us, we enjoy one final night with Wi-Fi before heading into the mountains.

Buenas noches,

RMI Guides Adam, Hannah, and Team

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo and team had a successful climb of Mt. Shuksan yesterday. After a hazy morning wake-up call, the team ascended the Sulphide glacier and enjoyed some Class 4 scrambling on the summit pyramid before topping out yesterday. The team has made it back to the trailhead and team members are on their way home.

Nice work team!

We reached Mweka Camp at 2:50 PM to finish our 16-hour climbing day. 

The “day” began last night at 11 PM when we woke for our summit bid.  After a little breakfast, at 12:05 AM we hit the trail behind Naiman - our lead guide. 

Our team made rapid progress, passing several other teams on the dirt and rock switchbacks.  It was a fairly cold night, and that was before the winds started up.  By our second rest break, a few hours into the climb we were adding clothing layers and putting on bigger gloves.  By our fourth break, most of the team had all available clothing on.  We hit the crater rim at Stella Point by 5:40 AM and took just a brief pause there for food and water before pushing on toward Uhuru - Kilimanjaro’s summit.  The light of day came slowly and beautifully on as we walked on the rim at 19,000 ft.  Sunrise was most welcome at 6:30 but by then our attention was on the phenomenal shadow cast by Kilimanjaro in the skies to the west… exactly over the summit of 15,000 ft Mt Meru.  

We hit Uhuru at 6:40 AM and shed a few tears, shook hands, hugged, and snapped photos.  It was an amazingly beautiful time of day.  But it was also bitterly cold and windy, so we got out of there at 6:55 and headed back to Stella without delay.  Winds were really picking up at Stella then and putting a lot of dirt and dust in the air, so we cruised right on over the edge and started dropping altitude.  The descent was a combination of careful steps and full-on boot skiing through steep gravel and pumice. 

We were back to camp at a respectable hour 9:40 AM, rubbing our eyes and wiping dirt and dust off our faces.  Our fabulous staff treated the team to a full brunch/lunch of 15,000 ft pizza and coffee, after which we left camp bound for Mweka - 5000 ft lower.  The trail down is direct and rough, we certainly were cautious and ready to be done for much of it. 

Now it is a relief to be camped in the forest for one more night.  The air has moisture again… and oxygen in abundance. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & team

Greetings all,

With a body exhausted from little sleep and climbing a volcano the team enjoyed a great nights sleep. Sleep apps showed we all slept so well we were basically comatose. As we all rose from our slumber we casually allowed our bodies to wake while sipping coffee and basking in a beautiful morning. 

Today is a rest day as we transfer to Tambopoxi and run through some skills. A three hour drive through more beautiful scenery brought us to the park entrance. Once again you can feel the excitement as we get ready for Cotopaxi. The mountain is being shy tonight, so no views of this beauty yet. Maybe in the morning she will reveal herself. 

Before dinner the team gathered around a playground set where we pretended the monkey bars were the edge of a crevasse. In this scenario the team learned how to self rescue if they had fallen into a crevasse. Using the previous skills of learning about friction hitches, we all ascended the rope pretending we were climbing out of crevasse. Cookies and a glass of wine/beer wrapped up our skill session. 

Many times on climbing trips you lose some weight, but on this trip we are all eating so well that who knows maybe we gain a pound. Dinner once again was delcious followed by a beautiful looking dessert. We are not sure exactly what it was but we can all agree it was delightful.

With heavy eyes, we all leave the table for bed. Showers and phone calls to loved ones wrappwd up our rest day. Tomorrow we go through some more skills before heading up to the hut on Cotopaxi. Round two here we come!

RMI Guides Adam, Hannah, and team

Saturday June 11 - 11:59am PT

The last few days have been a blur.

Yesterday we had a hard but a rewarding summit day. The autobahn was mild, but the summit ridge greeted us with high winds, and blowing snow. Despite the mountains best efforts, our entire team made it to the summit and safely back to 17k camp for a late dinner.

Even though we all wanted to sleep in following the summit - we woke up around 9:30am, had a quick hot breakfast, and tore down camp to begin the long process of descending back to the airstrip.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team