Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

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We're heading for the camp below the great Barranco Wall. This is the heart of the trip in terms of trekking and the travel up high and across the southern reaches of Kilimanjaro, beautiful walk. I have to say, today is maybe the most beautiful day I've ever done. We're in layers of clouds...[Unintelligible]...I'm looking right across a thick layer to the summit of Mount Meru back over by...[Unintelligible]...over 15,000ft. I look above and I see the entire Breach Wall and the summit block of Kibo and then a thick cloud layer above. Good temperature for walking and wonderful light to enjoy this scenery. So, we're having a great day and of course it feels good to all be together, finally reunited.

My wife Sally has been working hard through the year with her flash cards learning Swahili words and I have discovered — now that she's reunited with her buddies and Tobias' guide staff here — that she's able to go on quite extensively in Swahili with these guys, which is really fun to listen to; they love it of course. And we're all trying to pick up phrases, as well, as we move along.

I'll keep you posted about how our climb goes. I had to tell the troops today that the good news was, it's the heart of the trip and the most beautiful trekking; the bad news was is that we were going to go at my pace, the Wally pace. Tobias is the only other guy authorized to set the Wally pace. It is slower certainly than Karl Diener and Joan and Dianette and a number of this group would like to be walking. But, it's a mountaineer's pace and it gets us up Kilimanjaro and I get people slowed down to enjoy it; I think they can really appreciate it.

We're moving at the Wally pace today, Tobias is in charge of setting it and we're all moving together and having a wonderful time. I'll keep you posted as we move up the mountain.

Sandwiched at 14,400 Feet
Yeah, Mountain Zone. So, we've made it to 14,400ft.

I've go to compliment my entire crew here for sticking with the Wally pace. It's slower than most of them would walk, but it works for a mountaineer and it's going to get us up this mountain. In particular, the two female members of what I call "team trouble," part of our California contingence. Tom and Helen are from Redwood City, but Mike and Joan, and Brian and Dianette, have come here as a group of four friends and Dianette and Joan, in particular, make me nervous when I see them stretching out on our breaks because I know that they'd love to stride out and go a little faster. But, we're putting a mountaineer's pace on this and its working very well for us.

Right here at 14,400ft we're still in this sandwich situation I was talking about earlier today, it's really ideal: high clouds above, low clouds stretching out across Africa below, still a view of Mount Meru, and we can still see the Breach Wall; beautiful day.

We've pulled in for lunch here. Mike Yancey, part of team trouble, is a California boy, but originally, like myself, is an Ozark boy from Missouri and he and I, despite the image of our background are big-time avocado eaters. As I keep saying, much to Tobias' disapproval (he eats his ugali), but Mike and I are snacking on some avocados for a good push on this afternoon. The rest of the team's loading up on cheese sandwiches, tomato, and various other good pieces of lunch food.

We've got a beautiful walk on this afternoon to the base of the Barranco Wall. From that point, we'll be doing quite a climb tomorrow morning; I'll tell you about that as we get started, I hope. And then onto the Karanga River and our preparation for our summit day, which really will begin at 11:30, probably, when we wake up tomorrow evening, if you can believe that.

So the heart of the trip is here and we're excited, doing well, everybody's in great spirits and we'll continue to keep you posted to what's going on.

On Top of the Wall
Mountain Zone, we're all sitting on top of where we cross the great Barranco Wall at 13,300ft. It's a beautiful morning. It takes us about an hour-and-a-half to get up here from our camp down on the Barranco River.

It's a crime that over the seasons here, many of my Alpine Ascents climbers, who have not done a great deal of mountain walking or climbing elsewhere in the world, always take issue with whether or not this Machame Route is a walk up on Kilimanjaro--when they get on the route coming up the Barranco Wall. In fact, as mountaineer's figure it, it is a moderate walk, not even really a third class, or scrambling route. It's a bit steep and "ledgey" in places and it's all put it in perspective when one of these porters walks by with you with about 50 or 60 pounds and a boundary bag sitting on his head. In fact, we were able to walk up it pretty well this morning. We put our ski sticks away, our trekking sticks...[Unintelligible]...

So, we're excited to be underway on a beautiful morning. I'm watching Tobias and Helen step up on top of the wall right now. We're all pretty psyched; anxious of course about the effort upcoming, but it's a beautiful day to be underway. Katherine, in particular, looked excited this morning as we took off.

We had the rather awesome experience as we were rolling out of bed and getting ready for breakfast this morning of hearing and seeing a really massive avalanche come off the steepest portion of the Heim Glacier...[transmission fails].

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent