Berg

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Hi Mountain Zone, it's Wally Berg calling. I'm back in Punta Arenas. I flew in here late last night, about 11:30. Dave Hahn met me at the airport and here I am again at the tip of the continent of South America [Unintelligible], eagerly awaiting a flight across the Drake Passage and to adventures down on the ice in Antarctica.

This Omega Embree Glacier Expedition is something we worked on very hard this year. Bob Elias is still back in the states awaiting departure; a little closer to when we can get flown down to the ice. And I'm here with these duffel bags full of boxes and wires, scientific equipment — most notably, specifically, these weather probes that were developed by Rich Fletcher and Matt Reynolds at the Media Lab at MIT. We're eager to get these things deployed on the ice and see how well they work. We'll probably still, from my position here in Punta Arenas, we'll be working with the Argos system satellite people, Mountain Zone, and others to try to get this data that will be uploaded onto the Argo system satellite — posted somewhere on the internet. So perhaps people who are interested can see what we're able to generate from the ice down there with this equipment from MIT.

Many people who follow the Mountain Zone will remember a rather uneventful 20 days that I spent in Punta Arenas earlier this year, in January, with eight great friends and Alpine Ascents clients who were eager to get their Vinson climb underway. That trip is still pending due to the failures, the difficulty of flying, in a very unsettled weather season down on the ice, in the last austral summer. We'll see if we do better this year. Right now, we need to get Dave Hahn down to Vinson Base where he'll be working for Adventure Network this year. Get him up on the mountain — he's eager to get Vinson climbed for the first time this season, take a look at the route and get it somewhat established for the groups that'll be following behind him this year.

So, first things first. It was great to see Dave last night. We caught up; we don't see one another often even though we circle around in the same world, in the mountains. I last saw Dave on the West Buttress of Denali about a year-and-a-half ago. We've been often on opposite sides of Everest at the same time and always try to keep in touch with one another. But we don't get together that often and it was great to see that familiar smile when I walked off the plane last night. So, we'll keep you posted about how the science comes together, how the logistics for getting Dave down onto the ice and Bob and myself two flights behind him — how all that goes. But for now, it is great to be back in this lovely little city and down at the end of the continent waiting to go down to the ice.

— Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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