Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Aconcagua

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Mark and I decided to switch our hats and take our guide hats off and become porters. We carried, together, about 60 kilos all the way up here to Camp II today. Now, the set plan we have still involves staying at what we call the Col, back down at 17,000ft. We'll move up there tomorrow, all four of us, and then we'll move here to the traditional Camp II. Which is, today, a beautiful spot. I know a lot of climbers have grim memories of this place being windy and cold and a place that is pretty inhospitable and, especially on the descent, they probably just want out of here, but it's a really nice day.

Mike and I are very taken with how good the Polish Glacier looks, always brings up ideas and dreams of course. But the "One Mountain at a Time" expedition is now in very much "one camp at a time" mode. As I said, we're all doing very well, and we're looking forward to climbing this mountain together, in a methodical, and hopefully, with the continued good weather, a very pleasant style.

Friends show up around the world in these climbs and it is amazing how often that happens. I haven't mentioned yet that Todd Hoffman and his partner, John Leonard, are actually on the same route, climbing basically with the same plan, and, in the case of Todd Hoffman and Al, for the same purpose. So, both those guys were with me above the Balcony, just over 28,000ft, on May 10th, 1995, on the Alpine Ascents climb when, at about nine or 10 hours into the day, we planned to try to ascend 300 feet an hour to the summit of Everest — an average of 300 feet an hour — it was actually Al who first told me, 'We aren't...'

And we did turn around up there that day, May 1995, based on time. It was Pete Athans that had moved out just a little bit, just past where we were standing, and came back in the deep snow and said, 'You know guys, it is four or five more hours to the South Summit.'

So we all turned back and I can report that Todd Hoffman and Al Hanna both have Everest in their blood very much still. The thing about getting above the Balcony, in bad conditions like that, is you know you can...Everest, if you've been there on the right day, you could have made it. It's a big incentive to try to return. Both those guys came up with a plan of coming to Aconcagua as their final preparation before they do attempt up again this spring. So this is a training mountain for those guys.

It is going to be my seventh summit, if I'm lucky to get up there. I'm thrilled to have Mike Stencil along as a guide because it's something like his 11th trip on this mountain and he knows it really well. And I'm very thrilled to have Sal Pomponi who is a competent, able mountaineer...[transmission fails].

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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