Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

Click for [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media]

(Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media)

I'm not alone. I'm here with Adam and Jamie, and Elizabeth and Kate, Tobias and Michael came up with me as guides and it's a beautiful morning. We're sitting here savoring the accomplishments. We left High Camp at about 1 o'clock this morning and as is always the case—and I'm looking at some satisfied but straggled and exhausted faces around that will agree with me—that trip, that climb, up to Stella Point is a long dark night in a climber's consciousness [laughs]. And all I mean by that is these guys have just climbed high into the atmosphere with the kind of resolve and determination that only the most dedicated mountaineers know.

And now of course we've got to go home and we've got to start hearing people talk about 'oh, you just climbed Kili,' things like that and 'it's a walk up' and all of that. And we'll be able to live with that. But, the accomplishment right now feels very good in a very deep sense as only a mountaineer who has dug down deep and put his all into an effort knows about.

So, I am going to close with that. We will be enjoying this view. I'll report to you as we begin our descent. We started at 1am; it's about between 8 and 8:30 in the morning right now; we moved for seven hours to get here to Uhuru Peak. I hope things go well and maybe in nine or 10 more hours we'll be down in the forest at the Mweka Camp savoring the thick oxygen and really soaking in our accomplishments. But in the mean time...[Unintelligible]...take the view in here and start a long descent. It is 14,000ft down to the Mweka Gate where we'll be sometime mid-to-late morning tomorrow. So, I'll give you a report on the way down. We're happy and thrilled to be here.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent