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Kilimanjaro

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Wednesday, February 23, 2000

Jamie
Pierce
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Hello Mountain Zone, this is Jamie Pierce from Alpine Ascents, calling from 10,000 feet on Kilimanjaro. It's a beautiful evening this day. We had a wonderful, successful hike and trek through the canopy forests this afternoon and everyone is very healthy and happy to be in camp.

I think the main reason everyone is so happy is because the trail they had all heard so much about the first day from the Machame Gate to the Machame Hut, in the past has been very muddy, and, due to the terribly dry conditions, today it was very dry and did not have any mud in it whatsoever. Over the course of the last couple days, down low, away from Kili, there's been some bush fires that have made the atmosphere pretty smoky but that's bad on one hand, on the other hand it made for an absolutely gorgeous sunset tonight.

The weather, as we were nearing 10,000 feet coming into the Machame Hut, became a little bit cloudy which was pretty nice because when you do start to get up a little bit higher it's nice to have a little bit of shade and relief from the sun — as it gets pretty intense and that was nice.

The other thing is the group is doing very well. Everyone is very healthy and, of course, any time you go up high you have to do it slowly to adjust your body to the new altitude that you are going into and everyone hiked very well together. We have a large group of 13...12, with me it's 13, and it's a phenomenal, phenomenal group. We're all having a great time. A lot of laughing going on, and everything is really good. So we're looking forward to the evening and, of course, the hike tomorrow up to the Shira Plateau — which, every day, the views just start getting better and better the higher we get and the closer to the mountain we get. So, as it is right now, everything is great. Everyone is healthy. We have a few folks with just some very minor stomach ailments, but I think that stuff should work itself out here over the next couple of days. No problems with altitude illness, like I said everyone's very healthy. So, as is right now, everything is great and I will sign off for now and give you a call with our progress from the Shira Plateau. So this is Jamie Pierce, have a great day. Bye-bye.

Alpine Ascents Guide Jamie Pierce, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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