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Pheriche is Filling Up
Italian Research Center - Thursday, May 4, 2000

DISPATCHES

Berg

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Hi Mountain Zone, Wally Berg. We made it to the Pyramid, the Italian Pyramid — the Italian Center. We're at 16,400 feet above Lobuche. As the entire group walked in here today — there's 15 of us, 16 including myself — there was definite signs on faces and in respiration rates of being at 16,400 feet. Our two nights at Pheriche definitely helps the acclimatization but this is a big jump up.

We're up here at this rather posh place— big, thick mattresses certainly. It's a bit, it's a bit misleading though. It's kind of extreme up here in some ways and you remember from other information you've heard from us and the climbers that it was a dry winter. And there's no water up here at the "8000-meter Inn" at the Italian Center so our Sherpas run down, quite a ways down the hill to get water from a running water source and they're able to cook for us there. And we're in these big comfortable beds with indoor plumbing and toilets setting down the hall, but all the water that's here is carried up. So, you know, it's pretty hardcore in the mountains always and even when you get a big swank-looking building like this you're reminded of that.

Pheriche was filling up with people coming down from Base Camp. We saw a lot of members of different teams who, given the high winds and the rather on-hold nature of the climbing that I'm sure has been reported to you from the climbing teams, seemed a good time for a lot of members to bail down to Pheriche, breathe some thick air and eat a lot of food. That town's filling up with climbers coming down from Base Camp.

I know Willi Prittie, Vern and the entire Alpine Ascents team on the other hand are still hanging at Base Camp, and we're looking forward to seeing them day after tomorrow. Don't know exactly what their plans are, they may be moving up the mountain ahead of us, they may themselves decide to move down, but I'm kind of counting on them being in Base Camp and certainly this team's looking forward to hooking up with them. Several of us have, several of this group, have climbed with Willi and or Vern in the past and we're all looking forward to meeting those climbers and wishing them best before their big days come up on their summit attempt.

— Wally Berg, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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