Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Aconcagua

Click for [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media]

Requires FREE media player to listen.

"One Mountain at a Time," that's the theme, or, you might say, the name of this expedition, for reasons that I think will be clear as we describe what we're doing here.

First of all, the last time you heard from me was as that C-130 was coming into Patriot Hills, just a short while back, down in Antarctica. To fill you in, since that time I did make it home to Colorado for three days. It was great to see Sally and great to spend time with her and to hear from her that progress on our Climb for the Cure on Kilimanjaro this coming July, is going very well. Her and all the other people who are working on this are making great progress during my absence, down on the ice and elsewhere, and this project is coming together really well, we're excited.

We're also excited about myself, [Unintelligible], Al Hanna, and Mike Stencil, who's guiding with me, on this project here on Aconcagua. Mike, and his wife Ana are guides and have worked with Alpine Ascents quite a lot in the past and Mike and Ana live in San Juan, Argentina, about three hours from Argentina, by bus. I called Mike up, right after we got to Mendoza and he very willingly got on a bus, rode down [Unintelligible] the next day, and then we were off to Aconcagua on this little expedition we've got going.

Our trek into Base Camp, here, was extremely enjoyable — beautiful walk up Vacas Valley. We had a very enjoyable time, with mule support, of course, pleasant hiking. We found very mild temperatures. I noted Base Camp, [Unintelligible] elevation, it was much warmer than most mountains around the world, say Kilimanjaro, for instance, at a given elevation. Windy, though, [Unintelligible] wind is definitely defining everything that's going on. As you know from Todd, yesterday, Allen's group did successfully summit with five climbing members, summited Aconcagua yesterday. They're on their way down, we've been talking to them on the radio.

And Al, and Sal, and Mike and myself are basically just holed up in Base Camp, getting ourselves ready for the first carry up to Camp I, and waiting to greet these guys, who did such an excellent job up on the mountain.

As a guy who guides all over the world, it's been very enjoyable for me and I'm very impressed to see the scene Alpine Ascents is running here on the mountain. It began when I met up with Willi Pritti, Matt Hanson and eventually Neil McCarthy, Charles and a bunch of Alpine Ascents guides back in Mendoza. I felt all the support there — a great logistical scene. And now here at Base Camp, as 14,000 feet, especially, the whole program is hanging together really well.

[Unintelligible] are around. We've got nice, big tents — the same ones we're going to use on Kilimanjaro this summer, which we camp and live out of. Of course, each climbing team sets up its own North Face tents around the area. But it's nice to get into a big tent and stand up have a good time, share some stories. Some people are coming down the mountain, some people are going up. But the support of a full-on Base Camp scene is really great. Great program that's run here on the mountain.

The four of us are proceeding with our acclimatization some, we've all been through before, and I'll keep you posted on how that goes, and more about just the whole gist of this trip, what our goals are, and our approach will be as I do more dispatches in the coming days.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

EXPEDITION DISPATCHES