Entries By dave hahn
August 12, 2018
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 13,100'
A number of the team reported their “best night yet” at Barranco Camp. Perhaps that was because we’d put in a good hard day, but it could also have been the calming ambient noise of waterfalls and streams flowing near the tents. We were drinking coffee at 7:30, still before the sun found its way into the steep sided valley. After another great breakfast, we were headed off to climb the Great Wall at 9 AM. Luckily, we don’t have too many other teams on our schedule and so “traffic” was light as we tackled the steep rock ledges of the lower wall. Frank led the team today, while Freddy, Philibet, Naiman and James kept careful watch on the team, pointing out the odd missed hand or foothold in the rough lava scramble. It was quite pleasant to rest atop the wall in calm sunshine with the steep bulk of Kibo shining overhead. Another, easier section of walking took us to the steep cut of the Karanga Valley. All that remained then was to drop down one steep side of the gorge and to march up the opposite side. The team mastered the “rest step” on this ascent and kicked in some “pressure breathing” for good measure. We rolled in to camp at 13,100 ft at about 1:30 and were sitting down to lunch not too long afterward. Clouds formed up to hide the upper mountain and to shield us from the strong sunshine for the afternoon. We’ll see if they break up for sunset and to allow our traditional stargazing after dinner.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
It was a perfect day for climbing, right from the start at Shira Camp. Not too cold and not too hot, and not much to worry about from clouds and squalls. We set out walking directly toward Kibo, Kilimanjaro’s central peak, at 8 AM. The terrain was a good deal less steep and the trail less confining than what we’d encountered yesterday. We worked up through high desert vegetation on a gently sloping plateau of lava boulders. Within a few hours, we’d busted all-time altitude records for Darcy, Lory Beth, Kathy, Jon, Jensen, Kevin, Melanie, Logan, Phillip and Emily. By noon we hit our high point for the day, the Lava Tower at 15,200 ft, and the weather stayed fine as we picnicked and watched the white necked ravens performing elaborate aerobatic maneuvers in the thin air. At this point, we’d reached the base of Kibo and the cliffs and ice fields towered 4000 vertical feet over us. As we headed down into the valleys below Kibo’s southern flanks, the afternoon clouds formed up but didn’t bother us much. We dropped back down into gardens of giant senecios and lobelias as we closed in on Barranco Camp at 13,000 ft. By 2:30 we were moving into a perfectly built camp and getting ready for afternoon tea and popcorn in the dining tent. We rested away the afternoon and came out before dinner to watch the light change and to gaze up at tomorrow’s challenge -The Great Barranco Wall. Damp and dense clouds then washed in and out over camp for the next few hours like waves at the beach.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Way to go, Lory Beth!! Can’t wait for Tuesday!!!\
Posted by: Marianne Bach on 8/13/2018 at 6:51 am
Praying for safety and delight! Can’t wait to hear all about it from Lory Beth.
Posted by: Kim Ingram on 8/11/2018 at 6:41 pm
August 10, 2018
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 12,500'
We woke to crystal clear skies today at Machame Camp and so the team got their first views of Kibo, Kilimanjaro’s central peak. We could see the hanging glaciers and ice fields sparkling in the morning light. Way down below us, there were clouds, but they were minding their own business and didn’t seem capable of rising up to swallow us. After a fine breakfast, we hit the trail at 8 AM with Philibet leading the charge. It was a slow charge as the trail steepened and got a whole lot more rocky just out of camp. But we made good progress anyway, gaining altitude through a forest of giant heather. Directly behind us and out on the western horizon was the giant pyramid of Mt Meru, Tanzania’s third highest peak rising out of a sea of low cloud. We gained a ridge crest and traveled along it toward Kibo for a ways before banging a left turn and traversing a series of old lava ledges. Finally, at about 12,700 ft we turned a corner and walked onto the broad Shira Plateau. We finished up by dropping downhill briefly before coming into our new camp at 12,500 ft. We’d seen our first Senecios and Lobelias, some of the distinctive endemic plants of Kilimanjaro. We’d gotten the walking finished in about five hours which gave us plenty of time for a relaxing afternoon in Shira Camp. The team reviewed their Swahili vocabulary at 4:30 tea time and watched a fine sunset a few hours later out over the old volcanic towers of Shira. We filed into the big dining tent by headlight at 7:00 and were once again greatly impressed with the meal that Tosha had produced in his simple kitchen tent. It was another fabulous evening for stars and planets... and sleep as well.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
So excited for you all and this amazing adventure. Continued prayers for a safe journey. Love and blessings.
Posted by: Holly Gilliam on 8/11/2018 at 12:59 pm
Wishing you the best, Lory Beth.
Posted by: Leonard Brendel on 8/11/2018 at 8:37 am
August 9, 2018
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 10,000'
With all due modesty, we crushed day one. We were out of our hotel and on the bus and on the road just after eight. Out on the highway, our driver Said had the windshield wipers on as the clouds were low and gray and leaking a little rain. But ninety minutes later, as we passed in to Kilimanjaro National Park at the 6,000 ft Machame Gate, it wasn’t raining. As is normal, it took a bit of time to get the group registered for the climb and to get the staffing and loads sorted out, but then, at 10:40 we started walking. Freddy, of our local guide staff, set a “pole pole” pace... nice and slow and steady and we fell into a good rhythm behind him. James, our lead guide, and Frank, Phillibet, and Naiman brought up the rear. The trail, which can be muddy and slippery, was actually in pretty good shape today. The clouds stayed with us for the first half of the day and we got a hint of wet mist and sprinkles before things cleared out a bit in the afternoon. We could even see our shadows from time to time as the sun came and went. The team walked well and seemed to have little difficulty with the steady gain in altitude. We went from hours deep within the rain forest, to a final half hour in a transition to the “Heather and Mooreland” zone and finally walked into Machame Camp at 10,000 ft in a respectable five and a half hours after our start. Our staff had not only beat us to camp, they’d built the camp. Everything was perfectly set up and welcoming for our team to move in. We did afternoon tea with popcorn and then followed that up with one of Chef Tosha’s magnificent dinners. We spent a few minutes looking up at the night sky before turning in... Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars were putting on a show and the milky way was trying hard to outshine them.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Great climb today team! You all look amazing! Keep on with your great adventure! Hugs and kisses to Emily and Phil!!
Posted by: JoAnn & Chris Bolton on 8/9/2018 at 6:24 pm
Well it took until mid-morning, but we finally had our whole team, with gear, in one place. Ten climbers and one RMI guide meeting at the hotel in Usa River on the outskirts of Arusha, Tanzania. Folks are jet-lagged, but today was actually an easy day of discussing the plan of attack, conducting gear checks and getting things packed and ordered for going on the mountain. That didn’t take the whole day, and so there was plenty of time for napping and strolling the gardens of the Arumeru River Lodge. Kilimanjaro was visible from the viewing tower on the grounds and was looking magnificent with all of the recent snow up high. We got together for dinner and talked climbing (naturally) but also chatted about running and biking and careers and pretty places.
We’ll get on the road in the morning for Kilimanjaro.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
You guys rock!!! So fun to follow you on this. THANK YOU!! Enjoy your climb. We will praying and cheering from here. Love ya
Posted by: Brenda Drezen on 8/9/2018 at 4:31 pm
Sounds like you had a great first day! Excited to be able to follow your journey. Hope Jon is feeling better. Enjoy your adventure. ❤️ Kathy and Bill
Posted by: Kathy Bogert on 8/9/2018 at 3:47 pm
There was plenty of debate last night as to whether the tent fabric of our accommodations at Balloon Camp would keep out leopards and lions. But nobody showed up for breakfast this morning with visible scarring. In fact, we each slept quite well in the deep quiet of Tarangire National Park at night. We got going at first light today, with Francis and Ibrahim taking the Toyotas down by the giant marsh on the Eastern border of Tarangire. We covered a lot of ground along the edge of the wetlands. At times, there were no animals apparent and we had to settle for the physical beauty of the place itself. At other times, we bumped into four hundred skittish Cape Buffalo, galloping along -raising a dust cloud- and looking warily about for whatever might be chasing them. We saw plenty of good eagles and even a fascinating set of Eagle/Owls -a mom and her offspring- eating their breakfast on a tree branch. We looked everywhere for big cats but failed miserably at that, having to content ourselves with wall to wall elephants and giraffes, wildebeest and zebra along with majestic baobab trees. We’d made our way to the main gate of the park by 11:15 AM and had to tear ourselves away from Tarangire and get on the road back toward Arusha. We stopped at the city’s edge to check out the cultural heritage museum and shop before cruising through Sunday traffic to the Arumeru River Lodge. There was time then for showers and repacking and a pleasant early dinner before we boarded a bus for the airport. Most of the team started their journey homeward tonight. We said fond farewells as we diverged. I -for one- am sticking around for round 2, another climb and another safari, but that will all begin soon. For now I’m still thinking of the adventure and the challenges of the past two weeks and the fine team we became in enduring (and enjoying) it all.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We made a couple of stops along the route from the Plantation Lodge in the high country to Tarangire National Park down in the Rift Valley. We checked out a Maasai village where we saw traditional dances and chanting. The tribesmen showed us their method for building fire without matches and took us into their small huts to answer questions about the traditions that they follow. We then drove down to a busy afternoon in Tarangire. We began seeing elephants, right form the start. Herds of them... big family groups and gangs of bulls. Impalas, zebra and gnus were everywhere. We developed an eye for lilac breasted rollers and for vultures and snake eagles. Although we roamed over miles and miles of twisty, turny dirt roads, we didn’t see cats today... no lions, no leopards, no cheetahs. All the animals we did see had no problem whatsoever with the lack of cats though. As the sun began to sink, we pulled into Balloon Camp where our room assignments were “tent cabins” and where we needed to request an armed escort to get over to the lobby and dining area. We are still within the park and there aren’t any fences. There is a good deal of natural beauty though. Just after sunset, we watched “bush television” (a campfire) and gazed up at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. Then we laughed through another fine dinner together and got ready for a final night in Africa.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Geez!!! What an excellent trip!! You are the best Dave!!
Safe travels home to the team!
Aunt Vicki and Nana and Shawn
Posted by: Aunt Vicki on 8/5/2018 at 6:16 am
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
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
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
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
Sorry Emily and Phil .. I meant to say Phil.. silly Joey…
Posted by: JoAnn and Chris Bolton on 8/12/2018 at 3:42 pm
Great job team! Once again beautiful views! So happy for yu all and what you have accomplished!! Of course.. hugs to Emily and Ryan!! Climb on!!
Posted by: JoAnn and Chris Bolton on 8/12/2018 at 3:40 pm
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