Angie & Laurie en route to the summit. Photo: Wally Berg

Final Summit Dispatch

It is 10 minutes after 9am on the 6th of March and I am really proud to announce that the entire, 12-member team of ALS, Climb for a Cure Berg Adventures Kilimanjaro 2004 Climb did stand on Uhuru Point (summit) today. When I got to the last dispatch I did, I got a radio call from Elias, one of the Chagga guides, saying that Sharon, Julie and Michel had reached Stella Point. That's the crater Rim. It really feels like the top of Kilimanjaro since it is 19,000ft. You are on the top of Africa, and it takes one hour to go from there all around the Crater Rim. These people were very exhausted, but they came on and I went back and met them. I saw them coming out on the crater rim, hand and hand with the Chagga guides, with no thought of stopping. They knew they wanted to summit and they did make it.

So now we are heading down, and the accomplishment today will stand for a long time - great effort from a lot of really dedicated people. Thanks once again to everybody back home and I got to say to the folks back home that I know that you thought that the efforts from the climbers were going to be very hard, but today as the 29th time I stood on Uhuru Peak I learned once again that it's even harder than you could have known. Coming this high on the atmosphere always takes an exceptional amount of perseverance, strength, determination - more than you can describe.

We didn't lie around on the summit. We didn't unfold a lot of banners - we just knew that you were all with them. They put out a supreme effort today, they came to the top of the continent of Africa and that effort will stand for a long time for the Cause they climbed for and for the great individuals they all are.

After the Summit

It is still March 6th, and now it is about 3pm in the afternoon and I can report you that everyone is safe at the top of the forest. We descended all the way to below 12,000ft, a total different climate with thick air, and I can tell you that there are some very exhausted but very satisfied people here. I told you that I would report from high camp, actually we did stop there briefly for some soup and then we continued down. The sky opened up into a quite an impressive hail storm on the way down, and we were glad we weren't higher on the mountain at that time. The glances that we had through the clouds made it looked like it snowed pretty hard up there after we left at higher elevation.

If you wondered, Hodson has prepared a birthday cake for Laurie and she has not seen it yet. We are taking an early supper tonight and afterwards we will present her with what I think it will be a very special 40th birthday cake at the top of the forest in Kilimanjaro, 12,000ft.

— Wally Berg