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Rendezvous with Russian-Georgia Team
Pheriche - Thursday, April 6, 2000

DISPATCHES

Berg

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Good morning Mountain Zone. Beautiful, sunlit morning in Pheriche. I'm looking up at Kantega which always gets the most amazing light on it from this vantage point down here in Pheriche. We're already rolling out of town.

The group is, as I speak, walking up toward Dugla, which is at the bottom of the moraine, and we'll have a lunch there and then climb up onto the moraine of the Khumbu Glacier and we'll be at Lobuche at something over 15,000 feet this afternoon. So we're moving up into the real country now in terms of our visit to Everest Base Camp.

We had a great time visiting with a Russian-Georgia team, a joint team from Russia and Georgia, and these guys, many of them I've known over the years on other climbing trips. Their project involves something that's been close to my heart for a long time. They're going to try to — a group of four of these guys — are going to try to climb Lhotse Middle. They will be the first people who have actually gotten to the summit of Lhotse Middle, if they can do this. It's undoubtedly the highest named 8000-meter feature that's left unclimbed, I believe. And it's been something we've eyed for years.

It will involve a traverse. There have been several efforts undertaken to do this over the years, to date it hasn't been successful. So this is a project that needs to get done and I've got a feeling that these guys will do it.

Evgeni is here; he and I are comrades or brothers in the sense that, through the '90s, in the most recent era of climbing on Everest, we've each been fortunate enough to summit four times — sometimes in the same year. Evgeni was with Anatoli and Apa when they successfully got the Indonesian team to the summit in '97. A lot of these guys have been around at various times at Base Camp when I've been around.

Sometimes it's easier to visit and get to know one another a little better down here in the warm sun and the thick air at Pheriche. We've enjoyed doing that. We're all moving to Lobuche today. The Russian-Georgia team as well as us. Our 14 members are looking strong and acclimatized. Appetites are great. A lot of laughter and good times as we're moving up higher, and our reports are going to continue to get out daily, I hope. So, we'll talk to you from Lobuche.

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

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