Berg

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Hi, Mountain Zone. It's Wally Berg calling you on the 19th. This is our 10th day on the Embree Glacier; we're still where we want to be. It's been great out here.

Life's been good, I'll have to say. In particular, yesterday, we had the first really clear day and really good weather we've had since back when we did that long climb on Bentley, right after we got out here. The ski packs are blowing all over the basins around here, never really had a great...[Unintelligible]...Antarctica snow. Some of these areas that I first poked into and just exploring around when I got out here, become more familiar occasionally...[Unintelligible]...I've taken a little ski and looked into some of these areas, repeatedly, getting to know them pretty well. And also yesterday, in the clear weather, I skied further down the basin in the direction of where Bob and Rodrigo and Kurt and those guys were last year and looked at some of the areas down there. It's fascinating, big, huge area — still wonderful to be out here.

It does get to be a crime in Antarctica, though, when you're thinking about the flights out. That has not happened for us, we will, well, we would be thrilled to have it happen at any time now. Today we're back in pretty unsettled weather here at the Embree Glacier: winds out of the east and broken clouds all about. I talked to Dave Hahn. He's about 30 miles south of here at Vinson Base and he's down there with all of those climbers that just finished their successful Vinson climb. Dave and myself, and Bob Elias, further out on the Embree, the Ellsworth parties, are hoping that flights are going to be out of Patriot Hills sooner rather than later. But it's got to be weather permitting and equipment available and not going off elsewhere, etc.,. We'll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, just being the little specks that we are out here in this big continent — in all of its vastness — is something that we asked for, so we're glad we got it, and life's pretty good. We'll keep you posted as we continue on here.

— Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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