Kilimanjaro Expedition Dispatch

February 17, 2014 – In Position for the Summit!

What a weekend it has been for Henrik, Danny and their team doing the Northern Circuit Trail on Kilimanjaro. On Saturday morning their chief guide, Emmanuel called to report to us that the team had crossed the northwestern edge of the mountain above the Moir Camp (at 13,600 feet) and that they had reached the remote Pofu Camp on the north side. “Pofu” is the Swahili word for Elan, which is the largest member of the antelope family. On this dry and isolated north side of Kilimanjaro it is still common for both Elan and huge Cape Buffalo to come from Kenya onto the slops of Kili.

On Sunday the team reached the camp that we call “Third Camp”. By now they had hiked nearly to the eastern aspect of the mountain, quite a journey in only two days!

Today’s call was full of quite a lot of excitement, Danny and Hendrik are now at the “Outward Bound School Hut”, elevation 15,500 feet. Believe it or not, tomorrow will be their summit day; they plan to climb to the top!

We wish the guys the very best and want to congratulate them for doing so well to this point. We can tell that they miss home, but they are doing a fantastic climb, almost making it sound easy.

Tune in tomorrow for an update from Crater Camp, on the top of Kilimanjaro!

Listen to Danny's dispatch from 15,500 feet

Crossing the northwestern ridge of Kili to the true north side of the mountain

The remote Pofu Camp

Along the Northern Circuit Trail

The unique beauty of the north east side of Kili

Tomorrow’s goal: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”!