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Trekkers Meet Climbers
Pheriche - Sunday, May 7, 2000

DISPATCHES

Berg

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Hey Mountain Zone, I'm calling you from Pheriche again. We're back down here on the afternoon of May 7th. I thought I'd back up and fill you in a little after yesterday's, I think pretty ecstatic call I made, about how great things looked in the Alpine Ascents Base Camp. We've had a lot of adventure and we pushed ourselves really hard, as we do on mountain trips, always, in the brief hours prior to this call. I didn't get to fill you in much on that, but I should back up a bit and tell you.

First of all, it's been snowing quite a lot. We woke to quite a lot of new snow both our mornings in Gorak Shep and I left you on the dispatch before last with the message that we would go up to Kala Pattar and see what happened. In fact, most of us did get up to the uppermost viewpoint on Kala Pattar, where the prayer flags are, in a very aesthetic and swirly cloud, bad weather but really kind of fun afternoon. If felt like a big mountain adventure as we went up there and sat around those prayer flags. We could see the tents at the Base Camp a little bit. We saw Everest, actually, for much of the climb, through the clouds, through the mist. It was really a great afternoon. We were very tired when we got down and several people commented at dinner that night how subdued and quite we were after that little push to 18,700 feet.

Of course, the next morning we got up and we went to Base Camp and I gave you that story in the dispatch previous to this one. We returned to Gorak Shep last night, once again very exhausted, woke up this morning and once again, a lot of new snow. So we plowed our way down here to Pheriche, got here — the last of us were here a little bit past noon, you get down here early...downhill, it doesn't take that long.

There's thick air, our appetites are great, and we're really enjoying kicking back and taking an afternoon off here in Pheriche.

Going back to Base Camp, you know, it was a great time. We saw a lot of climbers that I could tell are going to have a good season. It was uplifting for my group, these trekkers, to see these people, breathe their dedication, their confidence.

After the trip from Base Camp, and what it took out of this trekking group, I think they have a newfound appreciation of what it really takes to spend seven or eight weeks on that mountain and try to go all the way to the summit. But this Alpine Ascents crew looked great.

You knew the story from an earlier on about my efforts to get the One Sport boots quickly up to Stacy Taniguchi and it was only yesterday that I learned that they made it on time. Of course, really fast from Lukla with Salia Sherpa. But Stacy won't be needing them, due to his dislocated knee. But in the spirit of teamwork that comes, without question and without any hesitation in my group of friends, he's there for the duration to support the team. He's involved with the dispatches, of course, and he's right there at Base Camp, supporting Al and the rest of the team, throughout.

I had one photo opportunity up there at Base Camp, I'm going to send you our group photo, with the Icefall behind; I hope that looks good on the Web. But also, I had one photo opportunity that was really special to me, and that was the family portrait, The Dog Brothers, that would be Al Hanna, Todd Hoffman and myself. Al and Todd, as some of you may know, were about 28,000 feet when myself, Pete Athans, Tim Williams and Willi — who are also back at Base Camp this year, trying to summit Everest again. This was on May 10th, 1995. We moved too slowly, we had our turn-around time set, we tried to ascend at a 300-foot-an-hour rate. We didn't hit that, nearly. So we turned around and came back on May 10th, 1995.

Babu Chirri Sherpa, as many of you know, did the same thing two days ago. He went up and found deep snow on the triangular face, thought they were moving too slow, his team did, and they came down. My guess is, that snow's got to blow away, or they've got to go up with some more fire power, or trail-breaking power before these strong teams this year are going to see a summit. But we're all eagerly watching that. I know you folks are on Mountain Zone. We're trekking out and getting word, day by day, as we can.

I'll keep you posted as we head out to Khumbu. Our health is better now that we're down at 14,000 feet and it's going to get better each step of the way. I'll check in with you tomorrow from Namche Bazaar and let you know how everyone is doing and tell you some more stories about this trip out.

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

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