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Greenland '99
Denali '99
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Climbs 8K Peaks
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Everest Archives
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Wednesday, December 29, 1999
 Burleson | |
Hear Todd's Call from Africa |
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Hi everybody it's Todd. We're at the Shira Plateau at 12,500 feet. We're on our second day into the trip. Finally we've got some blue skies — beautiful. We're looking over at Mt. Meru at 15,500 feet and all the clouds are beneath us. That's one of the great things about Kilimanjaro. If you hike up high and traverse the lower part of the mountain, but you're still at 10,000 - 13,000 feet the entire time, you get to look down on the fabulous plains of Africa. It's beautiful up here.
We've decided to make some change in our plans. We're going to — usually we take a rest day at Shira to acclimatize. Today we are going to move to Barranco which is about a six-hour, seven-hour hike and another thousand feet above us. We actually go up to 15,000, right up to the base of Kili and then drop back down into a canyon. We're going to do that because we are going to cut our last two days in half and gain an extra thousand feet above Barranco Hut, our high camp, so that we can be a thousand feet closer to the summit and we have a good shot there.
Everybody is very, very healthy and having a great time. We did get hit by a pretty heavy rain storm but that's good. A lot of people here — the millennium is big. We've probably seen six or seven other groups on the mountain. Usually we only see one or two, max, but everybody seems well prepared and the mountain's in great shape. I'm so pleased to see how they've cleaned it up. So that's a good sign...We've got a quick interruption here for Alec wants to say something.
Alec: Hey...just wanted to say hi to friends and family. Having a great time. It is beautiful out here and I'm having the time of my life. See you guys at the top!
You heard from Alec...I think everybody feels that way here. It's so beautiful up here. It's been raining quite a bit. It's just the end of the rainy season so the vegetation is real green. Lots of running water, so lots of fresh water for us to drink and boil. The acclimatization process has gone really well. We have 15 people plus myself. Everyone's feeling great. We used the pulley pulley method — which means slowly slowy. We walk very slowly for long periods of time and take lots of short little breaks and everybody is feeling great. Tobius, our lead guide, is superb. We've got about 44 porters with us carrying gear so our life's pretty easy. We just had some scrambled eggs, porridge, a variety of fruits, some cucumbers and toast. So we're all set.
We're going to head out here in the next few minutes. What else can I tell you about life? It's great. Just like to say 'hi' to Vernon on Aconcagua and all the other trips going around the country. I know Barbara's on her way up there right next to Vernon. Say 'hi' to everybody and I hope you have a fabulous millennium. We will be calling you on a daily basis. In 12 hours I'll give you a call this evening to let you know how our climb went for the day and tell you about our adventures. Hope everyone's great. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
—Todd Burleson, Alpine Ascents Founder Reporting for MountainZone.com
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