A big travel day, starting out from Moshi, Tanzania at 4 a.m. and touching down at Nairobi, Kenya; Lusaka, Zambia; and Lilongwe, Malawi. It included a plane change and delay due to a mechanical problem and concluded with a long drive nearly the length of Malawi on a rainy night. The team is extremel...
Kilimanjaro on Tuesday as our team was walking away from the mountain.
We descended off Mount Kilimanjaro, hiking out the last 11 or so miles and coming down another 6,000 vertical feet to the Marangu Gate. It went from the 30s at Hrombo Hut when we awoke before sunrise to the 80s as we e...
Mike, Randy and Shelly reached the 19,341 foot summit of Kilimanjaro with guide Yusuf and assistant guide Muhammad at 8AM after seven and a half hours of climbing on a clear, cold night. “What a night, what a day,” Randy said. “Amazing,” Shelly added. “Wow,” said ...
Day 5 on the mountain saw us hike across the moonscape, that is the saddle between Mawenzi and Kibo Hut. It was about five miles and took us four hours. We reached this high camp at 15,400 feet at 1 p.m. The rest of this day is devoted to rest and waiting to head out toward the summit at midnight.
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Team ascending toward Mawenzi.
Day 4 on the mountain saw us ascend another 2,000 vertical feet from our third camp to Mawenzi Tarn Hut at 14,100 feet. This camp, my favorite on Kilimanjaro, is below Mawenzi- one of Kili’s three summits. There is a pond near the campsite, which has b...
Day 3 was short and sweet as far as trekking. We ascended only about 600 vertical feet in our four-mile hike from Second Cave to Kikelelwa at 12,100 feet. The walk took less than three hours and we beat a torrential rain storm that soaked our camp and left us in the clouds and a fog for the afternoo...
Day 2 on the mountain saw us ascend from Simba Camp to Second Cave, a hike up 2,650 vertical feet that took about three hours. For Randy, it marked a personal high as we climbed up to 11,500 feet. It was sunny and hot with clear views behind us out over the plains of Kenya. Along the way we discusse...
7 p.m. local
We hiked about three hours up through the Rongai Forest from the gate (or trailhead) to Simba Camp, an ascent of about 1,000 vertical feet to 8,850 feet. Our guide, Yusuf, brought 22 other assistants, cook staff and porters, which is common for our size trekking group. It was war...
“Worship can be powerful,” Shelly told the guides and porters attending our Kilimanjaro Chapter evangelism training at Pastor Winford Mosha's Lutheran church in Marangu. She pointed to 2 Chronicles 20 and the story of how King Jehoshaphat “appointed men to sing to the Lord and to p...
We landed safely and without incident this evening at Kilimanjaro International Airport, located between Arusha and Moshi, Tanzania. Dear friend Yusuf, who again will be our guide on the mountain, was waiting for us and accompanied us on our 45-minute ride to the hotel in Moshi. Our arrival capped a...