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Wally Berg
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Now It's The Wind
January 12, 1999 — Punta Arenas, Chile
Ola, Mountain Zone. Wally Berg here. Tuesday A.M., 12th of January. I just want to give you some numbers from the numbers down at Patriot to kind of keep you abreast of the situation you're watching, so people might be able to just watch it with us as this plays out.
Yesterday the reports were encouraging through the day about the runway being cleared, and in fact it was cleared to Koos's stated standards last night. Now we are watching the weather, which is not an unusual situation as people get ready to go down there every year. And the weather is not that great, has not been over the last 24 hours as the weather began to clear.
Specifically, cloud ceiling is too low; there's alto-cumulus at 6,000. The crew says they need 7,500, that's been their standard for some time. The wind speeds have been 19 gusting to 25, and actually last night at the 9 o'clock sched were 21 gusting 28 — too high to land. Of course, that situation can change in the six and a half hours it takes to fly down there. But wind speeds are probably helping clear that runway even more, as I speak right now. Not weather that unless we get indication it's going to improve, the crew is going to want to undertake the fuel flight with.
—Wally Berg, Expedition Leader
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Alpine Ascents International, Inc.
