Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Denali

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We will be moving along the West Buttress today on to 17,000 feet. It's quite a spectacular, steady climb in my opinion. It looks like we won't see much today; we don't have very threatening weather, but we are in the clouds.

Just to elaborate a little more on that snow cave we found last night. Chris Morris and I, as guides, wanted to find that thing. Chris is an old, seasoned Denali guide and in particular wanted to know where it was. That thing can save your life when you're coming back off this mountain. High winds hit these ridges and you're not able to move, you're not able to set up a tent. And knowing where the entrance to that thing is, is an important little piece of safety knowledge for us as we continue on up the West Buttress knowing that, as soon perhaps as the day after tomorrow we'll be descending after our summit.

So I'll keep you posted on how our progress goes. Our Alpine Ascents team, all five members are doing very well this morning. Ate a big breakfast, a lot of hot drinks and granola inside the snow cave. We're rolling out and getting ready to proceed here. One interesting note about what is going slightly above us, is Bob Elias who I've mentioned. Bob Elias and I are going to be climbing new routes in the Embry Glacier, we hope next November in Antarctica. Sponsored by the, our climbs will be sponsored by the Omega Foundation. Bob's up here climbing on his own this year and it's been fun being around him some on this climb. He took off to 17,000 yesterday thinking we were going to follow him. Of course traveling solo and being such a seasoned strong climber he was able to move ahead. He may have wondered what happened to us, but we'll see him later today and it'll be interesting to see what Bob might have decided about moving ahead toward the summit.

Just to repeat, the climbers that I saw descending yesterday looked like a pretty seasoned, hearty lot of climbers. European climbers, a couple a small groups of Americans, unanimously reported that they had turned back due to cold temperatures. We're still early season and I would have to say, for this late into May it seems to me that we have kind of unusually cold temperatures on this mountain. It's always a cold place, but we're wanting it to warm up over the next 48 hours so we can get this thing climbed in some reasonable conditions. We'll keep you posted, once again all of us are doing very well. Bye.

Mountain Zone, Wally Berg calling right back on Sunday morning as I headed back to the snow cave I just saw a scene that for Mountain Zone viewers who don't know much about this mountain, this route, this snow cave, I just thought that I would describe it a little better. This snow cave is dug in to a face on the opposite side of the Col at 16,200 feet from the 14,000 foot camp. Standing on this Col I can look down at the flats of the 14,000 foot camp, and I can look down the very steep slope onto the Peters Glacier. Our interest in the snow cave is on the Peters Glacier side and it's quite the little traverse down into the mouth of the snow cave. In fact it feels much better to do it with crampons on. And right after we arrived yesterday, Jamie fixed a line of climbing rope down from the top of the Col to the entrance of the snow cave.

So this morning I saw Joe and Yian and Basil and Jamie all ferrying loads of gear that they put into the snow cave last night back up to the top of the Col, to pack up and move on along the ridge. Quite a thrilling exit to a place that once again is snug and secure in the mountain environment up here, but as soon as you stick your head out that snow cave and you look straight down onto the Peters Glacier; quite a drop, you're reminded that you're in a serious mountain environment and a very beautiful one. So just thought that I would leave you with that little image and we're going to try to get past [Unintelligible] along the West Buttress. Talk to you soon. Bye.

— Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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