Berg

DISPATCHES

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Mountain Zone, Wally Berg here. I'm calling you in the late afternoon, on the 12th of July, at about 12,800 feet, at the base of the Barranco Wall.

We had a fantastic walk today across from the Shira Camp, as you may remember if you followed the dispatches last year, this is right underneath the Breach Wall on the big glaciers that come down on this side of mountain. Fortunately today, we did this traverse in absolutely clear weather all day; we had virtually no clouds. We walked down through the giant Senecio forest and came down to this Barranco Camp. And we're sitting here right now, I'm in the tent with Paul and Debbie; they're playing cards.

We just spent a considerable amount of time trying to upload some images of the Climb for the Cure team, with their courage quilt over at the Shira Camp yesterday, with Kilimanjaro in the background, and also of our entire team. Haven't been successful yet in sending those images back, but just know that this entire team of 14 climbers is doing very well, loving being up here.

We're taking good care of ourselves and tomorrow we'll have a very easy day around to the Karanga River. The day after tomorrow, of course, we'll move up to High Camp, 16,000 feet, on the side of Kilimanjaro, and the next day will be our big day. Daily we'll keep you posted on how we're feeling, how the progress is going, but this is a team that is underway in excellent fashion.

The entire crew here, as well as all our Chagga porters, are having a good time: a lot of laughter and merriment, and we feel like this is going to be a real successful climb when we get underway, here, in a couple of days.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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