Entries Posted in May, 2006
May 31st, 2006
Where is Kilimanjaro?
One of the questions we are asked most often is:
WHERE IS KILIMANJARO?
Americans aren’t generally known for their knowledge of world geography, and to be honest, when we first decided to go, I had no idea where Kilimanjaro was either…so here you go.
Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, Africa, which sits on the East side of Central Africa.
See, here’s Tanzania.
When you zoom in on Tanzania, you can see that Kilimanjaro is in the upper North East corner of Tanzania, on the border with Kenya.
Here’s a little closer view of Kilimanjaro and the area we’ll be flying into. Our 2nd/3rd day of our time in Africa will be spent in Arusha, which can be seen on the map here.
And then we begin our climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. We will be taking the Machame route, which is known as the intermediate and most scenic route up the mountain.
The Western Breach is currently closed, because of a rockslide there that injured and killed some people in January 2006 (one person killed was actually from Colorado).
Are we scared to climb Mount Kilimanjaro? No. Not really. Mostly just really darn excited! We know it will be a challenge, and we’re prepared for that, but mostly we’re just excited!
See! Here we are, in preparation with our official “Team Kilimanjaro2006.com” jerseys!
May 30th, 2006
FOX 31 went great!
Hi Everyone!
Just a super-quick posting today…
Thank-you all for your support of us! The news show went awesome and we’ll get a video of it up as soon as possible!
After the interview on Good Day Colorado, we went to Gart Sports and picked up a really good deal (sale) on a sleeping bag. We’re borrowing one sleeping bag, so we bought one. For $20, we got a sleeping bag that is rated to 0 degrees, which is exactly what we need for Kilimanjaro!
More updates coming soon!
May 29th, 2006
Kilimanjaro2006 on the TV news!
This morning, we got a call from David at the Denver FOX TV affiliate. We’re going to be on the news tomorrow morning!
Needless to say, we’re VERY excited!
If you’re in Denver, and can break free from 8:00AM – 9:00 AM, we’re going to be interviewed by Steve Kelley on Good Morning Colorado on FOX 31.
We’ll try to get a copy of the interview to pass along to everyone as well, but if you can break free and record it on your TV, we’d love to have a VHS/DVD recording.
May 27th, 2006
Tanzania Visas and our passports
Remember how I said earlier that we had to put our passports in the mail for our Tanzania visit? Well, we got our passports back, and discovered why we had to put our passports in the mail. Much like what the Auslaenderbehoerde did with our Passports in Germany, the government of Tanzania actually sticks the visa right onto one of the pages of the passport.
I’ll be posting pictures here shortly, but it’s exciting to have the passports back and know that we’re official!
11 days until we’re actually going! Amazing!
May 26th, 2006
Items received – sleeping pads, thermal water and trekking poles
Items have been coming to the door (or through the door), like crazy! After a trip to the Denver REI, where we purchased a couple more Nalgene bottles, some caribiners for clipping stuff onto our backpacks, and our headlamps, we went across the street to a place called the WILDERNESS EXCHANGE, which, if you live in or around Denver (or Colorado really) and are doing outdoorsy kinds of things, is worth a visit.
Their selection isn’t as good as an REI or EMS, but many of their prices were better on a variety of outdoors gear. I got a couple pairs of wool socks, and Carrie and I both got our trekking poles there, for $20/pair, which is, BY FAR, the cheapest we’ve found to purchase trekking poles.
Much of what we ordered has come to the door as well… Our sleeping pads are currently spending the night overfilled with air (per the instructions the sleeping pads came with), so that they can get stretched and prepped for when we actually use them on the mountain. I was kind of thinking that sleeping pads might not be necessary, and they’re probably not, unless you’re the kind of person who doesn’t sleep well on rocky surfaces – A.K.A. Jonathan and Carrie (and most North Americans…and Europeans…)
Another item which showed up is our thermal water carrier for our Nalgene bottles. Since water freezes at higher elevations (and colder temperatures), it’s good for us to have these to prevent our water from freezing.
More stuff coming in the mail soon – and we’ll be including pictures shortly!
Continue reading "Items received – sleeping pads, thermal water and trekking poles" »
May 22nd, 2006
Kilimanjaro climbing gear – saving money
Some notes today on the gear we’re getting/using for our climb.
First, the most important thing… SOCKS!
Carrie’s allergic to wool, so we are getting these for liner socks from MooseJawOutpost. We LOVE Moosejaw!,
Wigwam Gobi Liner Socks
And, just in case you want to know, here’s all the information about these socks…
1 x 1 stay-up true rib leg
Smooth looped toe seam
Crew length is proportional to size
100% Polypropylene (exclusive of Spandex)
We each got 8 pairs of these socks (at $5.00)/piece (w/o shipping), so our total for these socks is $80 (16 pairs).
Our sleeping pads are coming from Sierra Trading Post.
They seemed to have the cheapest prices on a good Thermarest sleeping pad (and we looked). So for both sleeping pads, our total (w/o shipping) is just under $65. Cheaper than our liner socks!
Here are the details on our sleeping pads…
Cascade Designs Therm-A-Rest Sleeping Pad – Long
Therm-A-Rest lives up to its name with it’s light and compact design. Ideal for backpacking, self-inflating polyester sleeping pad has durable and waterproof nylon bottom for a warm, comfortable barrier between you and the ground.
Size: 72×20x1-½”
Weight: 2 lbs. 4 oz.
Fabric: Polyester with nylon bottom
Outdoor and More seems to have the best deals on Trekking Poles that we have found… these are the Masters 5.4 trekking Poles.
Since we climb at midnight, we’ll also need headlamps.
They’re also helpful for nighttime reading and just generally getting around at night.
For our headlamps, REI had the Petzl Tikka Headlamp on sale. We were really hoping for a crank or solar powered headlamp, but it’s not to be just yet. The technology either isn’t there, or we just didn’t look hard enough. So these headlamps are powered by triple A batteries…
We’ll go to Sam’s Club to get the cheapest batteries we can.
For our long underwear, we are going through
SageSport.com
We got the
Men’s Thermal Underwear Top
The
Men’s Thermal Underwear Bottom
The
Women’s PolyPro Thermal Underwear Top
and the
Women’s PolyPro Thermal Underwear Bottom
More gear updates will come I am VERY certain, but for now, this is the Kilimanjaro gear we’re ordering.
Continue reading "Kilimanjaro climbing gear – saving money" »
May 19th, 2006
Climbing Colorado trails and Colorado Mountains
We went climbing in the Colorado mountains today. Well, maybe not the mountains exactly.
More like the Colorado foothills. What we discovered: Even though going to the gym, and doing a bunch of working out at the gym (which we have been doing), is a good idea, it’s probably a better idea, in preparation of a Kilimanjaro climb, to actually get into the outdoors, get on some real hills, and trudge your way up.
Not that it was even that challenging of a trail climb today, but even though Carrie has been breaking in her hiking boots, today she got blisters ("breaking in boots – a how to" will be saved for another post), and both of us were noticing the difference in breathing of being at 8500 feet above sea level, rather than at 6000 feet, where we live.
But we did have some time for being goofy – but look at those muscles! Could be a good place for your company’s logo once we’re actually on our trip (in 19
DAYS!)
We also had some time to get in some nature photography of foothills and mountains the Indian Hills area (for those who know where that is.
Carrie and I were realizing today that we really don’t take enough advantage of where we live. I don’t think most people really do. 
But it’s a great habit to get into – finding places around you that are just waiting to be explored and experienced… and you generally don’t even have to look that far, or spend much money, in order to find them.
We’d planned to do this anyway, but as a result of our experience today, we’ll definitely be headed to Breckenridge next week, where my aunt and uncle have a Chalet that they’re nice enough to let us use. We’ll use it as our launch point to climb some mountains that are more in the 12,000-13,000 range
|
|
|
||
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||
Continue reading "Climbing Colorado trails and Colorado Mountains" »
May 19th, 2006
Climbing in Colorado Mountains and porters
Carrie and I are going climbing/hiking today in the Colorado mountains, but before we go climbing, I thought I would share a video with you.
It’s a video of porters on Kilimanjaro. Someone else took this video, but it gives me a chance to explain a little about our travel up Kilimanjaro.
There are 17 people climbing with our group. Our foucs, and our job, while we are there, is to reach the summit. Part of the expense of our trip is having porters while we are on the mountain.
As a result of having porters, we won’t need to worry about boiling our own water, carrying our tents/sleeping bags, cooking for ourselves, etc. because all of this will be taken care of by a group of porters and support staff, which, we’ve been told, numbers about 35, to support our group of 17.
I had intended to attempt some Swahili… but with 20 days left, I’m not sure that that will happen. I think I will still try though, because I would like to be able to converse with some our porters – in a minimal way, I realize – but people appreciate when you at least attempt to speak their language.
So, to give you an idea, here’s a group of porters, at the end of a Kilimanjaro climb.
Continue reading "Climbing in Colorado Mountains and porters" »
May 17th, 2006
Pictures of monkeys and the trunk monkey video
So here’s the gist of today’s posting.
Monkeys: Pictures of monkeys, talk about monkeys, and
monkey business. (Well, maybe not monkey business exactly…)
When we get back, we will have some great pictures we took, and
hopefully, (as one of our
sponsors has requested), we’ll be able to get some "pictures of cute
monkeys").
As we don’t have any of our own monkey pictures YET,
we’re sharing THESE pictures of monkeys with you instead.
When it comes to the monkeys we’re going to see in Africa, it’s
most likely that we’ll see baboons and spider monkeys. Apparently, baboons
don’t really mind at all having humans around, but spider monkeys are generally
skittish. We hope we’ll see a full range, but we’ll be happy to see any
monkeys that see fit to grace us with their presence!
And for the people who don’t think that baboons are
monkeys…well, we can have the debate later. (Actually, feel free to
leave us your comments below.) But for now, here are some pictures of monkeys
from all over.
|
PICTURES OF MONKEYS |
|
 Apparently this is a pretty rare picture of an olive baboon. |
 Quit acting like Baboons! Never mind. You are baboons. |
 This guy says "What are you doing here?" |
 Hey, why the long face? This is a beautiful picture of an amazing animal. |
|
PICTURES OF MONKEYS |
|
 |
 |
|
PICTURES OF MONKEYS It’s possible that we’ll see some vervets, which |
|
 |
 |
|
PICTURES OF MONKEYS |
|
 This picture of a Capuchin monkey shows many Americans the monkey we generally think about having for a pet – popularized by shows like Friends. |
This is a picture of a Tamarin monkey. Tamarins are rather |
 Don’t mind me. I’m just hanging around! |
 More pictures of baby monkeys. |
 "Look out below! I’m a monkey, so I make up my own mind. I could decide to stop posing for this picture and let go at any time!" |
Another picture of a Capuchin monkey.
|
 This monkey looks a little frustrated, don’t you think? |
 Apparently, this is a picture of monkeys in India. |
 Three monkeys are on a branch, and one decides to leap. How many monkeys are left? Three. Why? One just decided. He didn’t actually do it yet. |
 "Your picture can’t bother me. I’m deep in thought." |
| PICTURES OF MONKEYS Here are just some cute monkey pictures for the "awww" factor. |
|
 |
 |
|
(Special thanks to:
http://www.underwater.org/mermaid/tanzania/monkeys.html) |
|
 |
 |
Oh, and if you’ve never seen a Trunk Monkey video, you should watch this:
One of the now infamous Trunk Monkey videos
Continue reading "Pictures of monkeys and the trunk monkey video" »
