Daily Dispatches
Satellite phone updates from the 1998 American Everest Expedition
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Mencin
Climbers On The Balcony
Monday, May 18, 1998 — 2:50pm PST
Tuesday, May 19, 1998 — 3:35am Nepal Time
Hear Dave Mencin's call from Base Camp
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The Balcony, 27,500'
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(photo: Burleson/ Alpine Ascents)
Mountain Zoners, this is Dave Mencin, with the Khumbu cough [after hacking in an Everest kind of way]... At 3:35, our climbers, Eric, Greg and Wally [editor's note: Mencin misspoke here. The third climber is Charles Corfield. Wally Berg is currently moving from Camp III to the South Col.] checked in briefly from The Balcony — The Balcony is two thirds of the way to the summit. They're moving very fast, and they're very early.

I had a brief conversation, that's all I had from them. They're not talking very much; they're climbing hard. The weather today is absolutely perfect; there's not a cloud in the sky; there is absolutely no wind; it's a perfect summit day. Here is a brief conversation with Eric and Wally. Wally 's a little hard to understand...

[editor's note: this is a radio call between Eric Simonson at The Balcony (27,500') and Wally Berg on his way to the South Col (26,300'). It's mostly inaudible, but Dave Mencin's summary follows. Note in the audio how out of breath Simonson is at that altitude — even though he's using oxygen, he has to take off the mask to speak into the radio.]

As you can hear, there's probably about 20 people with them, that's including Sherpas. Right now, our Sherpas are out in front fixing lines, which should slow things down. There's still a lot of climbing to do even though only one third of the vertical height is left to the top from the Col. As soon as we hear from them again, we'll check in.

— David Mencin, Expedition Scientist

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