Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

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I told you I'd call and let you know we all got down safely; in fact, we did. This was the most successful climb of the season. As you know, 12 of us went all of the way to Uhuru, including Brian and Stacey on their honeymoon. The entire group was up there, tired and ragged, and very much knowing that someday they'd appreciate that summit. But at the time, it took everything they had to get up there—that is what mountaineering is all about.

A number of hours later, we were down at Mweka, the edge of the forest, reveling in the thick air and the accomplishment. Jeff reported to us that at Stella Point he and the guide Michael talked it over and Michael said a couple of times, 'Do you want to go on?' And Jeff's one of those many people that decided 19,000 feet at the crater rim is about as good as 19,340 out at the very true summit of Kili. He was satisfied with his effort and felt really good about the slightly earlier start down the hill he got, as we moved on down the mountain.

Yesterday morning, we awoke in Mweka and had a full view of Kibo with a coating of fresh snow down to quite a surprisingly low level. It had rained as we descended...[Unintelligible]...a beautiful, clear view of Kilimanjaro, with snow down probably about 13-12,000 feet, even—it was a really amazing sight. As we stood there and kind of let our accomplishments sink in, one of Danielle's ravens did in fact, kind of, fly up and just sort of watch us, as we watched the mountain and thought about our accomplishment.

We got on down to Mweka and met my three top-list drivers, probably, for Safari guides—that's Godson, Wosea, and Erik. Those three guides will meet us there at the Mountain Village, in just about an hour, and we're going to be off on safari. I hope to give you some reports from Ngorongoro or Tarangire.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent