Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Aconcagua

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We're up here watching our bodies, which is a big part of what goes on when you're acclimatizing. Today, as I reported to you yesterday, will be a rest day. Hypoxia is the issue here, our lack of oxygen, our low O₂ stats in our blood, which is a normal condition in the lower air pressure up here, as our bodies adapt. Our bodies are wonderful machines and the changes that take place quickly and effectively, usually will allow us to climb up here. Al Hanna, at 69, I'd have to say, over the years, as I've climbed with him, is one of the best people at acclimatizing, trip after trip, that I've ever seen. And I've talked a great deal about how Sal has that confident mountaineer's strong pace wherever he goes, but he would have to be the one to tell you a little bit about hypoxia this morning. I don't think he slept all that great.

But, that's all normal — every person, on every trip, adapts a little differently and the name of the game of climbing at these altitude is just paying attention to yourself; pushing when it's appropriate, making the right decisions. Fortunately, we have sun to sit around and so that in today [Transmission Fails]

Hi Mountain Zone, it's Wally Berg calling you on Saturday again, with a hypoxia report, from here at 19,000ft. I talked about that a little this morning, we talked about it here through the day; we're basically doing very well. We're old hands at this business, I probably spoke too soon about Sal not looking good this morning. After his first cup of hot spiced cider, he looked great and, in fact, reported that he had slept quite well.

You just move a little slower, you learn to adjust your expectations to your body's compromised state, as it makes the adaptations that it makes. Probably the best way that I could describe hypoxia is, when you take your trip around the world, someplace, and you climb a great mountain, and you come triumphantly home, with you accomplishment behind you, and you give your slide show to your friends, you always have to explain why you have such a blank expression on your face when you're on the summit. And the reason, of course, is that your spirit soars, but your physiology struggles up here. It's something I'm really familiar with. I'm really happy to be with Sal Pomponi and Al Hanna, who've been through this business up high with me around the world, and on other adventures, where I wasn't able to be with them, many times. They're old hands; know what they're doing.

And, of course, being here with Mike, who is a seasoned and really accomplished young guy, we've got a really strong team. We decided to go for it tomorrow morning. Our plan will be to kind of wind down here early this afternoon, hydrate ourselves, eat an early meal, try to get some rest, and I want to be moving, up on our route, at about 3am. I chose 3am because I want to move — we're expecting this to be a 16- to 18-hour summit day, and I want to move in the cold, dark hours early, maximize out light and warmer hours as we get higher, but I don't want to start too early, because if we're not able to climb fast enough, sometimes it's hard to get warm enough, early in the day, to really give yourself a shot. So there's the strategy.

There is a camp higher, but we've determined that this particular team's strength is long summit days, as opposed to doing carries. And we're not really sure we've got in us to do another carry to another camp. So we're going to fall back on some stuff that we've done together before, and that's the old 18-hour summit day. We'll see how we do; Sal and I were talking today about how humble you get, when you return to altitude and you remember things that were nothing back home — say, carrying a 60lb. pack — becomes just really unreasonable and un-doable. And even the simple tasks become something you have to focus on.

And it's what we intend to do tomorrow; we have a humble attitude, but a confident one, and this is a great mountain and we're pleased to have the opportunity to go up there and give it a shot.

As we're doing so, the weight of this Iridium phone is not going to be too much for me to handle, so, in fact, I'll try to keep you posted as the morning goes on. There might be some wind, and I might make it short — it's a cold situation — but we'll give you dispatches as we climb and certainly, if we're lucky enough to be up there, from the summit of Aconcagua some time tomorrow.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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