Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

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This good omen group—the third expedition this season—the trend continues here. We're setting up here and I talked about the sandwich layers of clouds we were between on the last climb and no sandwich this time—I guess you'd call it an open-faced sandwich, if anything. The cloud layer down low that's ever present is, of course, still there, but I'm looking up at absolutely blue skies across at Mount Meru, up at Kibo, of course.

And we're looking at an ideal rest day scenario here. Ideal in two senses—the weather's good and, also, when I gave my "Wally Berg acclimatization is not conditioning" rap to this group—everyone who climbs with me here hears this—this is where I make the point that your body adapts as you go to higher elevations with or without your effort. The miraculous adaptations that's taking place go on without you, primarily, probably, while you are asleep. And we can't run in place, or go on long hikes, or do push ups, or anything else to speed this up. Our motivation often causes us to want to do that sort of thing, but rest days or acclimatization days should be that and we should leave conditioning behind. I gave that speech to this group and to my surprise they were totally into it. And we may go for a short hike here, since it is such a clear day. But, I see people already, at this early hour, grabbing some books, finding a nice spot in the sun, doing a little photography, and enjoying what a rest day should be all about.

I'll report as the day goes on, perhaps, if we do a short hike. But, we're in big-time mellow mode, as we enjoy being at a warm place, finally, here on the mountain in Africa, and let our bodies adapt and get ready for the climb ahead.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent