Berg

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Hi Mountain Zone, it's Wally Berg. When you've been out on the Embree Glacier 12 days, a place like that, as Bob and I have, you get into your routine; life's not bad. As you know, we decided a few days ago it was time to leave. We'd done what we wanted for this year and we've been working on transport out. But your days go by, you settle into your routine. In fact, a little while earlier this afternoon, Bob and I were kind of settling in — this storm that had been on us for 30 or so hours was petering off just a little but still was very much present — and we were winding down for another evening of settling down and camping on the Embree Glacier. I decided to take one last look out of the tent, though, and [Unintelligible] before I called back in to Neil, the radio operator at Patriot, and I did so. And in fact...[transmission fails].

Yeah, so I described to Neil and then John Miller, the Twin Otter pilot who I mentioned the other day, directly, what was going on. You know, we still had some pretty strong winds, clouds about, but John was really aggressive and he said: "Well, we'll just put some sleeping bags and some survival gear in our Twin Otter and come on out your way, and maybe we'll make it."

So, about an hour and a half later we, in fact, had a Twin Otter overhead. Those guys got down on the glacier; taxied up to us. We hurriedly broke down a 12-day camp and then we went taxying back around the glacier, looking for decent light to take off in again. We got it.

So, we're back at Patriot Hills now. We saw as we came in here that it's clearly unflyable for the big Hercules C-130, very cloudy around here. But we're back with all our friends. Out at the runway, where the Twin Otter landed, Richard Hoover, who I've mentioned a few times, came out to greet us, as did Art Mortvedt. And Richard, of course, is just in from the Theil Mountains and all the work those guys have done out there, and he wanted to know, very exuberantly: "What was so good out on the Embree Glacier? What did you guys find that you stayed so long?"

And of course, "solitude" was my main answer.

But now that the solitude's gone, Bob and I are a bit overwhelmed to be back in the bustling social environment of this Antarctic Base, Patriot Hills, where I suppose there's probably 34-36+ people waiting to leave. But the camaraderie we'll share tonight and the stories we'll hear about other adventures is really enticing, so I'm going to go find those guys in the dining tent right now and begin to catch up on some stories, and we'll continue to keep you posted on work and fun and life down here in Antarctica, before we get out — whenever that happens.

— Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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