During the reconnaissance-week between

2-10 August 2009 in Arusha (Tanzania) contact with local authorities, institutions and important persons enabled us to obtain, information about possible take-off- and landing areas and enabled us to gather statistical data of the climatical conditions of the „long dry season“ that could be examined and adapted by the meteorologists Claude Sales in collaboration with other two professional meteorologist of Tanzania.

The first meeting with the recommended Trekking-Company Leopard Tours (headoffice in Arusha) leader in Tanzania, started positively and promising. Our project-description was received with great interest and our questions about transport-, storing- and reconnaissance-facilities were all answered by the owner Sir Zuher Fazal. He has guaranteed the logistic and organization process. Among his responsabilities is to achieve the permission for our outstanding project from the most powerful Tanzanian authority – the TANAPA (Tanzanian National-Park Authority), KINAPA (Kilimanjaro Nationalpark Authorities) as well from the Tanzanian Civil Aviation.

During diverse exploration drives over bushroads we got important information about possible take-off-places in the East/North-East of the mountain. An inspection-flight from Arusha Airport gave us an overview of the landing areas in the South/South-West and – after breaking through the clouds - opened up a breathtaking sight onto the (still) ice-covered peak of the Kilimanjaro.

Thanks to the suggestions from different sourcess we made contact with two– Tanzania’s meteorologists. Working with these specialists gave us the possibility to exchange local weather-data which will be used for further forecasts and observations. Moreover, we will receive data from different meteo-balloons from meteorological stations in Nairobi (Kenia) and from a specialised meteorological station of the Kibo summit.

The closeness to the equator is a main reason that there is far more wind in the lower air layers (up tol appr. 3000m height) - coming from different directions - than at 3000m and higher, up to 8000m. Over the inversion there are only weak horizontal air flows. This makes the forecasts quite complex. Also, because there is nearly no Coriolis force, there are no westerly winds - as they are on the northern hemisphere. The relatively strong and quickly changing winds in the lower layers make it quite difficult to steer the balloon (possibly it will take more than one attempt to hit precisely the winds which lead over the summit).

We were also able to gain detailed, professional maps which will be usefull for calculations and a precise navigation.

During this week, it became increasingly clear that for a project of this dimension it is very important to invest enough time in order to reach certain scientifical goals and to make careful researche in advance. The achieved results will now allow good starting conditions for our Expedition in 2010.

Participants of the reconnaissance-week:

Patrik Schmidle, Ernesto Merz, Claude Sales, Gaby Kindler.

KILIMANJARO IN GENERAL

GOALS OF THE EXPEDITION

RECONNAISSANCE-WEEK 2009