Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Continuing with the Africa saga, today we are climbing Mt. Meru, at 15,000' the 5th highest Mountain in Africa. This stratovolcano is frequently used as a training/ascclimatization climb for Kilimanjaro, but our ambitions were more modest. The other posts from this trip: Arusha , Tarangire National Park , South Serengeti Part 1 , South Serengeti Part 2 ,  the rest of the Serengeti tour , and Ngorogoro Crater .   Our Mt. Meru climb was a 3-night, 4-day outing, totaling about 22 miles (nearly half of that on summit day) and nearly 9200' up and down.  Entering the park We're going clear up THERE? We saw and heard culebra monkeys, but this was the best photo I got of one. The warm invitation to trek and explore is interesting, as you are required to get a permit and hike with an armed ranger. Because we were a little late, we started with a ride in a jeep, cutting 2 or 3 miles off our first day's hike (to catch us up to the group already hiking with the ranger of the day). ...

Title: Tigers of the Snow: How One Fateful Climb Made the Sherpas Mountaineering Legends Author: Jonathan Neale Publication Info: Thomas Dunne Books, 2002. 320 pages Source: Kamzang Journeys trekking library! Publisher’s Blurb: In 1922 Himalayan climbers were British gentlemen, and their Sherpa and Tibetan porters were "coolies," unskilled and inexperienced casual laborers. By 1953 Sherpa Tenzing Norgay stood on the summit of Everest, and the coolies had become the "Tigers of the Snow." Jonathan Neale's absorbing new book is both a compelling history of the oft-forgotten heroes of mountaineering and a gripping account of the expedition that transformed the Sherpas into climbing legends. In 1934 a German-led team set off to climb the Himalayan peak of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain on earth. After a disastrous assault in 1895, no attempt had been made to conquer the mountain for thirty-nine years. The new Nazi government was determined to pro...