Mount Kenya North Face Update

We were hap­py to get a sat phone call from guide Mark Ryman today, as every­one has been eager­ly wait­ing to hear of he and David’s progress. Yes­ter­day they pushed high­er and climbed sev­en rock pitch­es of the North Face Stan­dard route, intent on mak­ing a cache and scop­ing out the route some more. They cached some cru­cial bivouac gear, a few tech­ni­cal items, and an amaz­ing 12 liters of water (nice work guys!).

Mark said the climb­ing went well but the weath­er con­tin­ued to take a turn for the worse through­out the day. By the time they reached their advanced base camp, full-on thun­der­storms rolled in — with rain and hail hit­ting their posi­tion hard and deposit­ing heavy snow on the upper part of the route. This, com­bined with a sea­son that has seen zero sum­mit suc­cess on Kenya’s tech­ni­cal routes, has caused David to descend with Moun­tain Mad­ness staff and begin the trek out a few days ear­ly. Mark has stayed on the moun­tain with oth­er staff mem­bers and will attempt to retrieve the teams cache once the snows melt off a bit. We expect to hear from him this week­end and will keep every­one post­ed. Great effort Mark and David! As they say in Swahili: Haba na haba, hujaza kiba­ba. Lit­tle by lit­tle, the pot is filled.