Entries from Kilimanjaro
We bounced along rough dirt roads in the Landcruisers as sunrise came on. It was the rare clear and dry morning up on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater and we were thrilled with the views into the giant caldera. The air was crisp and cool as we made our way down in, fully on the lookout for critters. We began to see countless Cape buffalo, gazillions of gazelles, and absurd numbers of zebra. We saw a set of lions getting frisky between catnaps. Big solitary bull elephants marched to and fro in the distance. Hippos were relatively hyper, moving from one mud bog to another and performing barrel rolls in the soup. Ostriches and Kori Bustards strutted about. We saw hyenas and jackals, wart hogs and a few thousand gnu. A picnic lunch and some French pressed fresh coffee prepared us for a final flurry of game viewing. We saw a lone and distant rhino to make it a “big four day” (elephant+lion+Cape buffalo+rhino = The big five minus a leopard) and then Ibrahim and Francis expertly piloted the Landcruisers up the steep switchback road to the 8,500 feet crater rim and we headed back to the tranquility of the Plantation Lodge in late afternoon.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
August 3, 2018
Posted by: Brent Okita
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 13,160'
Day 4 and we're knocking on the summit door of this mountain. This morning we scaled the Barranco Wall right out of camp. Ditching the trekking poles so we can use our hands to better grasp the rock on this steep part of the climb the team moved like pros. Exclamations of how much fun the climbing was was universal. Yes, we had to wait several times for groups of porters to pass by, but no one was complaining of the chance to catch our breath. Plus, it was a chance for us to appreciate the coordination and athleticism of these folks as they negotiate this steep terrain, balancing 32 pound duffels of gear on their heads.
Our high point was never more than 14,000' as we traversed up and down several drainage to come around to the SE side of Kilimanjaro where our camp is situated. During this slow walk we were constantly rewarded with magnificent views of this special place.
Today was also a day of solidifying the acclimatization gains of yesterday before we venture to our high camp tomorrow. Measuring our oxygen saturation levels this morning indicate that everybody is doing great! But we already knew that just based on how well we're all walking.
We're excited to get to high camp!
We'll be back in touch tomorrow from 15,200' camp.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
On The Map
In short order, we went from walking uphill in snow to walking downhill in mud to riding in comfort in Toyota Landcruisers. First day of Safari went just fine. Breakfast and packing at our Usa River Hotel was easy and familiar. At 8 AM we loaded up with our safari driver/naturalists, Ibrahim and Francis, and got out of town. In truth, we actually got a little more into town first, driving through the outskirts of Arusha to get out west into the wide open Tanzanian countryside. Gradually we came into Maasai country and began to see more and more of the tribe known best for their adherence to traditional ways of living. After a few hours, we entered Lake Manyara National Park and began seeing monkeys and baboons, and eventually Cape Buffalo, Hippos, Zebras and Wildebeest. We saw egrets and ibises, storks and eagles. We saw plenty of signs of elephants having been in the area, but we didn’t actually see the big pachyderms or the lions hiding in trees that Manyara is known for. Even so, it was a fine, relaxing day of exploring exotic forest and lakeshore terrain. By the hot part of the afternoon, the animals were sleepy and shy, so we left them and drove up out of the Great Rift Valley to the highlands near the town of Keratu and found our way to the gardens of the luxurious Plantation Lodge. Folks then hit the swimming pool or simply relaxed in comfy veranda chairs as the sun set. We met for the evening in the splendid bar and dining room of the lodge and talked of the possibilities for wildlife encounters tomorrow in Ngorongoro Crater.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
August 2, 2018
Posted by: Brent Okita
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 13,000'
Dawn broke clear and cold this morning as we packed up to move to our next camp, Barranco. The altitude hangover of our first night at 12,500' couldn't be ignored, but by the time we reached camp the small headaches had left us to be replaced with the simple fatigue of a hard day of climbing.
Today was a good day. Our route was perfectly set to give us some challenging altitude as we ascended to Lava Tower at 15,200'. This gave our bodies the chance to acclimate, and our descent to 13,000' and Barranco Camp has allowed some nice rest. Already the team is feeling better.
Set in a valley with the south face of Kilimanjaro right above us, and the strangely beautiful giant senencia trees dotting the landscape, this is my favorite camp. We have just two more short days before we get to high camp, Barafu. And then...
But I get ahead of myself.
The group is firing on all cylinders and really coming together as a team. It's been fun to see and be a part of. Tomorrow is the Barranco Wall, which will require the use of our hands on some of the steeper places, but is less intimidating than the name suggests.
Wish us well and we'll be in touch tomorrow.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
On The Map
I am Briana’s aunt in Indiana. I love reading all this. Heck I went to the bottom of the Grand Canyon once ...that would be a cake walk for you all. Take care
Posted by: Jane gasser on 8/2/2018 at 12:54 pm
Your climb looks amazing
To Fern and Nandito and the rest of your team . Good luck and continue to have a blast
Love the Carranza Family from Texas.
Posted by: Federico Carranza on 8/2/2018 at 11:25 am
It started to seem like we’d get fog and rain for the rest of the trip just to pay for the sweet summit weather we’d been granted. But when we woke today at Mweka Camp, we were under blue skies and high above the white clouds. After breakfast, we enjoyed a gathering of the entire staff for the traditional tipping ceremony. We expressed our great thanks and the guys serenaded us with a few more memorable sing-alongs in the bright sunshine. Then we shouldered packs and hit the muddy trail downward at about 8:30 AM. It was just a few more hours of careful walking in slippery conditions to get down through the rain forest. We stopped at one point to see a couple of colobus monkeys high in the tree canopy, but mostly we paid attention to the treacherous track and to where we were putting our feet. At the Mweka Gate we were down in the clouds again and had a brief rain shower just after signing out of the park. A short walk in the deep dirt of a road construction project took us to our lunch venue and the bus parking lot. We enjoyed a fine picnic and a round of Kilimanjaro and Serengeti beers along with Savanna ciders. Two hours on the bus through the Tanzanian countryside got us back “home” to the Arumeru River Lodge. Showers and a few shaves made the team presentable by evening. We finished with a delightful victory dinner out on the veranda and discussed just how much the climb and our interactions with each other and with the staff have come to mean for us. We are excited to begin the safari tomorrow but we will miss our climbing buddy Tim who will begin flying toward the States and home.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Congratulations to the team! Thanks for everything DAVE! I feel like I was there in spirit! Enjoy your next journey!
Aunt Vicki
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 8/1/2018 at 4:07 pm
August 1, 2018
Posted by: Brent Okita
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 12,570'
Hello from camp at 12,570' high on the Shira Plateau. It's wonderful being here in this large, open camp. The sun is shining and providing a nice contrast to our cloudy, wet and somewhat cramped camp of yesterday.
Walking at 8:00 we climbed steeply and steadily for most of the way to camp, taking advantage of key spots to break and enjoy the incredible views of this most interesting world around us. Everyone has adopted the mountain mindset of 'pole pole,' or ' slowly, slowly. ' This allows us to patiently step off to the side whenever another group of the hundreds of porters here need to get past us. We know which side of our bread is buttered. If the porters don't get to camp, we have no camp. More importantly it keeps us from walking too fast and needlessly stressing our bodies, letting us acclimatize to the altitude better.
Everyone is doing well. How can they not be when Tosha, our chef, is spoiling us rotten. Today's lunch: fried chicken, French fries, vegetables and watermelon for dessert. Tomorrow brings us our biggest day yet getting to Barranco via the Lava Tower. Bring it on!
Until tomorrow,
RMI Guide Brent Okita
On The Map
July 31, 2018
Posted by: Brent Okita
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 9,890'
The stars were unlike anything most of us have ever seen. The North star was, of course, nowhere to be seen amongst the constellations of the southern hemisphere. Exclamations from folks more accustomed to seeing city lights than the Milky Way were shared by all. The stars tonight reminded us all of the incredible universe out there.
But, the skies today were not always so clear. In fact, the light drizzle through which we drove up had become a significant rain when we started off. Full Gore-tex was in order as we set off. But luckily, the rain tapered off in the first hour allowing us to lose the rain gear. Temperatures were actually pleasant, letting us walk without sweating too much.
Five hours later we were at our first camp. Typical of these trips, our tents were all set up for us and the duffels brought up by the porters ready to be dispersed. This is the luxurious nature of climbing in Africa where a staff of 51 folks support our efforts to climb this beautiful, big mountain.
The team walked well today, making camp in five hours and looking good doing it. We were rewarded with an incredible dinner prepared by our chef Tosha. And now for some well deserved down time. Sleep will come easy as we hope that the clear skies of tonight bring us sunny skies tomorrow.
Goodnight from 9,890' on Kilimanjaro.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
We are back down in the forest at 10,000 ft. Mweka Camp. But not that long ago we were up at the highest point in all of Africa Our wake up target last night was 11:30 and after a light midnight breakfast we got walking at 12:40 AM. Against all odds, it was a perfect night for climbing. After so much cloud yesterday and swirling gusts blowing the tents around for the last couple of nights, it was a surprise to have such a calm and clear sky as we got climbing by headlight. The stars and planets and the moon were awesome, but we really didn’t have time for stargazing... there was a lot of uphill work to be done. The team was absolutely up to the challenge. Nobody seemed to mind the cold all that much (and it got good and cold before sunrise at 19,000 ft) and everybody kept right in step with our local guide Philbet’s good and steady rate of ascent. There was plenty of snow on the upper part of Kibo from storms a few weeks back and the track was consequently a bit trickier than it might have been. But that didn’t stop us from hitting the crater rim at Stella Point by 5:45 AM. The sun came up through a lower cloud deck as we were midway around the crater on the way to the summit. The colors of the first rays and the Kibo shadows cast in the western sky had us mesmerized. As we marched to Uhuru, the high point. We reached the top at 6:50 AM and spent just over a half hour on the summit. Things warmed up nicely for our descent. We did our fare share of scree skiing as we rapidly dropped altitude. Our guides and staff were a huge help to the team on the trip down. We came back to Barafu at 10:40 and enjoyed a sumptuous brunch in the dining tent. While we were in, clouds came over camp and a rainstorm began. None of us minded the prospect of a wet walk down to Mweka after we’d gotten so spectacularly lucky on the summit weather. We packed up and got walking at 12:40 PM in full rain gear. Sure enough the trails below 12,500 ft were slimy and treacherous, but we kept making careful steps down the rocky track until we came into Mweka Camp at 4 PM. Things are damp down here, but the air is thick and we’re all looking forward to our last dinner in the dining tent and a good rest through the night.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Listen to Dave's call from High Camp after returning from the summit.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from High Camp after summit.
On The Map
congrats!!! and happy birthday Heather
Posted by: joe duty on 8/2/2018 at 8:32 am
What a spectacular adventure and accomplishment! And you think we do fun trips ... LOL!
Enjoy the rest of the your experiences. We may have to plan a trip to CO to hear about it.
Posted by: Bob & Sandy Amory on 8/1/2018 at 1:02 pm
Our final team member arrived this morning just after breakfast and just in time for our round of introductions. What timing, though the poor guy felt as we all did not long ago. A bit frazzled and jet lagged from all the flying.
This morning was a busy one as we previewed what we can expect on our Kilimanjaro climb then did a thorough equipment check. Everyone's gear checked out fine and we were able to get pretty packed up by lunchtime.
What a relief to have some relaxing down time before we hit the mountain tomorrow morning.
The weather's been a perfect temperature, though overcast here in town. This has allowed us to eat most of our meals on the patio. We had a monkey hanging around this morning and the tiny, little deer called dik dik have been brousing around everywhere. Africa!
All for now. We've got a big day ahead. I'll be back tomorrow night writing from 10,000' as we ascend almost 4000' to our first camp.
Goodnight,
RMI Guide Brent Okita
Things were a little different when we woke up at Karanga Camp today. It was cloudy below, cloudy above and cloudy most places in between. But after some coffee and breakfast, things began to look better... as they often do. We were walking by 9 AM in any case. it wasn’t particularly cold or unpleasant, we just didn’t have views of the upper mountain as it was cloaked in cloud. Pretty soon we were above any plant life and into the alpine (translation: rock) zone. We made great time and pulled into Barafu Camp, High Camp, in just 2.5 hrs as light snow began to fall. We took shelter in the tents, but the snow didn’t amount to much and the squall passed quickly. Our afternoon was full of resting, relaxing, lunch and a team meeting to discuss the upcoming climb. The clouds finally dropped below us and Kibo was revealed -gloriously- in late afternoon.
We ate a big and fine spaghetti dinner which was followed by a surprise birthday cake and several rounds of singing, dancing and clapping in honor of Heather’s big day. She’ll have another one tomorrow, as we all will. We’ve planned an alpine start and so everyone has turned in early this evening.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Dave, It looks really rocky where you’ve pitched your tents. I hope you all could sleep comfortably. Best to you my friend. Stay high.
Carl
Posted by: Carl Gilmore on 7/30/2018 at 9:11 pm
Happy Birthday Heather! Love ya! Sounds like an amazing climb for all of you!
Posted by: Lori Orman on 7/30/2018 at 8:07 pm
Hi DAVE,
We are back at it!! Ready for safari!!
I live the facial hair Brian!!❤️
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 8/3/2018 at 6:08 pm
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