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The Trilogy of Volcanoes
Sunday, July 25, 1999

Wally
Berg
Hear Wally's Call from Africa
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Mountain Zone, it's Wally calling you on Sunday July 25th from the edge of the Shira Plateau.

The Shira Camp that we use, it's at about 12,300ft, and we're above the forest, well above the forest now, in the arid, heather zone of the mountain — really beautiful, a lot of vegetation and a landscape that reminds many people of the American Southwest — open, spacious views. And of course the one we're most interested in is looking off at the summit block of Kibo. Kilimanjaro, as we all know it, the profiles that we all know from the...taken from the plains of Africa, that's so appealing to us.

There's actually three extinct volcanoes that make up Kilimanjaro. There is Kibo, the center one. We'll climb the Uhuru Peak, 19,340ft, the rooftop of Africa, of course the highest point in Africa, and that's on Kibo. Mawenzi is another of the volcanoes and right now we're out at the edge of an old volcano that's known as Shira. It's a little lower and much less distinct from a distance than the other two, but it's all part of Kilimanjaro, which is, as you probably know, one of the largest free-standing mountains/features in the world—probably about 5,000m in general from the plains of Africa around it. And really a huge, beautiful feature that, as a mountaineer, we've all...I've always had an image of it in my mind and I think many of you have, too. Anyway, much more about Kilimanjaro and what it represents as we go through the season here.

All four of us, Adam, Jamie, Kate and Elizabeth, are doing very well. In particular, I would say this group acclimatizes really well. We'll go slowly on our route—they slept really well here at 12,300ft last night—but all the same, we're taking a rest day here. And tomorrow we'll move on to the base of the Barranco Wall. It'll be probably the most beautiful hike, or trekking part, of the whole trip—I'll tell you more about that as we're doing it. We'll camp once again in the same approximate elevation between 12 and 13,000ft; that will give us the acclimatization we need to move on and off the mountain pretty soon here.

One interesting thing that I want to describe to you that's going on this year—that we really supported when we heard about—is on this route, as well as all the other principle routes, all the routes on the mountain this year, is the Tanzanian Park Service has imposed a ban on firewood. It's been a tradition for years for porters in particular and most trekking groups to carry firewood up from the forest below, gather what little firewood they can find up here in these arid zones, and burn it for all purposes: cooking, keeping warm at night, and just the pleasure of having a fire. It is now banned and we've very much supported that. We're carrying a couple propane canisters and in particular we're carrying kerosene stoves which is the same type we use all over the world, in Nepal especially and this is what we're doing our cooking on. It's pretty interesting to us, I have to report so far that we seem to be the only people doing this. There are a number of local outfitters, African companies, that are working up here with clients and I'm seeing as many fires, as I look around this area, as I ever have. There are some other groups travelling with us and I suppose this law will be taken into effect a little more slowly as some of us might have hoped, but hopefully influence of the government saying it should be this way as well as trekkers and tourists from all over the world—Europe, Japan, the States, wherever; this new spirit of preserving the resource here will take effect. I'll keep you posted on that as we go along this season. I think that's enough for now; there will be many stories to tell as we go along with this climb and others this season.

Beautiful day here: I'm watching in the late afternoon, about 5 o'clock, I'm watching what's close to a full moon. It's already visible and beginning to rise above the glaciers, the southern glaciers on Kibo up there, and it's against a still, blue sky. The early moonrise here is really a beautiful sight to see. So we're psyched; we're happy to be here. As I said the four climbers on this group are acclimatized...[transmission fails].

Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent



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