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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 Hello Everyone - We awoke early today and left behind the comforts of our beautiful lodge and have headed to the mountain towards the start of the climb. Starting shortly before 8am we drove along the rural country side for two hours to reach the Kilimanjaro National Park entrance. Most of the area surrounding Kilimanjaro has been cultivated and primarily used for coffee production and for a variety of other agriculture needs, but there are still some areas that have been untouched and resemble more of a savanna that Tanzania is known for. The base of Kilimanjaro is more forested and resembles a jungle or cloud forest. Traditionally it supports a large part of the banana production for this area. Once at the gate we had all of our gear weighed and divided into loads for our porters to carry before hitting the trail. Once everything was in order we started our climb slowly making our way up the winding trail. The team hiked for a little over 5 hours to reach our camp for the night. Everyone did great and enjoyed finally getting some much needed exercise. After settling in the team was served a nice warm meal and then headed off to bed for a nice full night of rest. RMI Guide Casey Grom

On The Map

Today we are headed off the grid to stay in a remote tented camp. Unfortunately, we most likely won't have any cell or wifi service. I will update as soon as we return! RMI Guide Casey Grom and Safari crew

Early up again. Why not, it's vacation. Your going to get home exhausted from the travel halfway around the world, so give it your all while here. We traveled a few hours from the Dik Dik Lodge to Lake Manyara, located in the Great Rift Valley. The first of three national parks we will visit on our safari. The introduction to our new challenge, sitting instead of hiking was well received. Nice four-wheeled Landcruisers carried us from one group of animals to the next. Hundreds of creatures near and far, above and below, right and left, fascinated the whole team with little interruption. We are now at the Plantation Lodge being very well taken care of in luxurious surroundings. We have positioned ourselves just outside our next park, Ngorongoro Crater, the eighth wonder of the world. Up early again. Why not, it's vacation! RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Hello everyone! We are in Mendoza safe and sound and enjoying a few of the finer things in life. The team is sitting down to a dinner that would make Anthony Bourdain insanely jealous. We had a rough go on Aconcagua. High winds and freezing temperatures prevented us from topping out. However, it was Lou Whittaker, one of my mentors and a man i deeply respect who once said to me, "mountaineering isnt about the destination, its about the journey". And our journey has brought us full circle, now, closer as friends. We just received our first course at the famous restaurant, Siete Cocinas. We are smiling, laughing and relishing in the incredible journey we are experiencing. RMI Guides JJ and Christina

Hello from Kikoti Camp. We have just finished a wonderful evening around the fire pit complete with Maasai dancing and a BBQ dinner. Kikoti is am amazing place to finish our trip. Today we toured Tarangire National Park and it didn't disappoint. We were extremely close to elephants and giraffes and we got lucky and spotted a pride of lions lounging in the shade if a tree. The best thing about Tarangire though us the sheer number of animals. It was pretty much non stop the whole time. The talk at dinner was about how much fun the trip has been and that's because this group has really made it non stop laughs the whole time. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall & Team

The Team successfully moved the remainder of our equipment to Camp 1, located at 16,400'. It's always refreshing to see the performance of the Team increase after just a few nights sleep at lower altitude. We covered the same terrain as the carry day but the effort needed by all seemed a little easier on folks. We high fived the descending RMI team today on their way back after a successful summit day. Camp is built, re-hydration and relaxing have become the focus of everyone. Tomorrow we'll do a carry of gear and food to Camp 2. Until then, we are all warm and content with a new camp and eager to see what the weather has in store for us. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide Mike King

On The Map

We were greeted this morning by another beautiful Peruvian morning! Our agenda today would take us to the toe of the glacier at about 16,000ft to review and learn climbing techniques that we will use on our ascent of Ishinca tomorrow morning. The approach takes about 2-3 hours and follows a track through old glacial moraine, remnants of when the glaciers used to flow deep down these valleys. At the toe of the glacier we all donned our climbing equipment and began the days learning. Our training site gives one massive view of the surrounding peaks and glaciers. Many of which are above 6000 meters. The team did fantastic today and we're all feeling really good about our climb tomorrow. We are all back at camp now where we'll take a short siesta before dinner and an early night in preparation for tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for following along. Tune in tomorrow for more! RMI Guide Steve Gately

Hello from Camp 2 - Our team has now ascended to 18000' and set up camp. We had a slow roll out of camp thanks to a bit of wind gusting overhead. We decided we might enjoy a little later start to the day, so we hung around until about 10:30 to let the sun warm things up and push those pesky winds farther east. The Team felt the push to 18k and the gusting winds, grey skies and colder temps didn't make for a lot of conversation. Now tucked in at 18,000' the Team is sport eating and resting in their tents. The winds have calmed down and the sun is baking the tent fabric, this creates an optimal napping microclimate. We miss you all and are jubilant to be in a position for summiting on the 13th. Warmest of regards, RMI Guides Mike King, JM Gorum & the team

RMI Guides Brent Okita and Paul Rachelle were unable to make a summit attempt with their Four Day Summit Climb September 14 - 17 teams due to poor weather. A large system moved into the area last night bringing heavy rains. The teams are safe and dry at Camp Muir but will be starting down to Paradise later this morning. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp today and we hope they enjoy participating in the events of the Rainier Mountain Festival.

After a great day of acclimatizing to 15,000 feet on Mt. Elbrus our team has decided to take a day of rest. So today will be filled with reading, playing cards and watching Tommy Boy for the 102nd time. We will also get out and play in the snow refreshing our mountaineering skills. RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map