Berg

DISPATCHES

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

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Hi Mountain Zone, Wally Berg. I am calling you at about 9:25am on the 15th of July from the high point of the continent of Africa — Uhuru Peak, the very summit of Kilimanjaro.

I probably ought to be able to tell you...I wish I could tell you that our Climb for the Cure Alpine Ascents Kilimanjaro 2000 team was still milling around here, savoring their accomplishments, taking photographs and taking it all in, but in fact that has passed. They've done that briefly this morning and they're on their way back down.

Our story today is as you know if you're familiar with these climbs, we awoke at 11:30 last night, got ready to begin climbing and were moving at 1:15am. Through long, hard hours of darkness we ascended more than 3,000 feet to the crater rim of Kilimanjaro and we were there just past 7 this morning.

That walk out from the crater, from Stella Point, where we hit the crater rim to Uhuru is a long one folks, if you've never done it. Any of these Climb for the Cure Kili 2000 folks will tell you that when they get home. Unfortunately, earlier in the morning, Debbie Dunker had decided that she just was not acclimatized at Base Camp, or High Camp, and decided to stay down there. So one of the Climb for the Cure team had a high point of about 16,000 feet down the ridge aways.

And then Bill Dunker, one half of our Dunker father-son team, made the judgement, at about 16,900 feet, that it wasn't his day at altitude either, even though he had been very conscientiously training and was really systematic in his preparation during this trip. It just wasn't Bill's day. He very wisely descended with an African guide, a Chagga guide. And the Dunker family was well represented a few minutes ago by 16-year-old Paul Dunker as he came to the summit.

We had a really emotional, joyous time up here on top, but the wind's blowing and as I said it's about 9:25 and we have a long ways to go to get down to the forest. The courage blanket did come out, and I know with the Climb for the Cure ladies, and myself as well and other team members who have been taken in with what we're doing here, loved ones we're remembering and doing this in honor of, were very much on our mind.

It was less of a public sharing than I thought it might have been just because of the seriousness of being up here on the top of Kilimanjaro, but I could see the wistful looks. And I looked at the other members and could see, beneath the big sun goggles and balaclavas and hoods up and everything else, I could see tears were being shed up here for the memory of many people we are doing this experience for.

We're going to have a beautiful walk down today. Once you start down the crater rim, things start perking up immediately. And even though people are very extended by the time they get up here, every step down the air's a little thicker. And every hour that passes between now and late this evening, we're closer down to the Mweka camp and, by late morning tomorrow, closer to beginning our safari adventure.

I'll definitely keep you posted on how this team enjoys that and tell you some stories about our safari, and let you know that we did in fact safely get off the mountain, in a dispatch tomorrow. But for now, time being, I'm the last person on Uhuru Peak and I'm enjoying being up here.

	Summit Sign

Interesting little addition to that sign post that's been up here for years and some of you have seen the pictures of. There are three strings of prayer flags, Nepalese prayer flags, coming off this thing. Very brightly colored, they haven't been here many days and I know where they come from. Mutual friends have been telling me for a long time that David Breashears and an IMAX film crew were going to be up here, and in fact that they probably had a couple of my Sherpa friends helping with the work they were undertaking to do here, and I got a feeling those are the guys responsible for these Buddhist prayer flags that I think very fittingly and very aptly are streaming down from the long-standing Uhuru Peak, rooftop of Africa, 19,340-foot signpost at the top of Kilimanjaro.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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