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A
Join ALPINE
ASCENTS INTERNATIONAL with guides Wally Berg and Patrick Cook as they
trek and climb through Nepal. See below for
the
dispatches.
Welcome to the Fall 2000 cybercast of
Alpine Ascents International Island
Peak and Kala Pattar expedition, The quintessential
entrance into the world of Himalayan climbing, the
trekking peaks of Island and Kala Pattar offer those
with some technical experience the chance to climb
amongst the worlds largest mountains. Follow the
Alpine Ascents International team on their adventure, as they phone in periodic
dispatches highlighting the days events and keep us
updated on their progress.
The
Team: This expedition consists of a team of 16. Along
with guides, Wally
Berg, and Patrick
Cook, the rest of the climbing team consists of:
Leila C. from Toronto, ON; Barry & Karen M. from
Los Angeles, CA; Angie T. from Sioux Falls, SD; Dan
& Carol R. from Missoula, MT; Blake & Carol S.
from Laguna Niguel, CA; Greg H. from Singapore; Jim B.
from Sudbury MA; Kirk, A. from Seattle, WA; Garry P.
from Olalla, WA; Dick J. from Boulder, CO; Tom J. from
Los Angeles, CA; Chuck P. from Chicago, IL; and Marin
S. from Anchorage, AK.
Latest
Dispatch:
Dispatch #7 11/6/00 4:18pm,
Kathmandu, Nepal
Well,
we've made it back to the Yak & Yeti from
Tengboche where I last reported to you. We had a
pleasant walk into Namche and a very satisfying two
nights spent there with old friends. We actually
rolled out of Namche on a market day: yet
another market day, yet another Saturday for quite a
long walk into Lukla. The traditional
farewell party and Sherpa dancing festivities took
place that evening in Lukla and we had two early
morning flights for our group that had us all back in
Kathmandu bright and early in the morning.
As I
look back on this climb and this trek I can report my
own feelings as being quite bittersweet. The
culture shock of Kathmandu is always enticing and
satisfying but in some way a bit of a let down.
I know the other members of the group feel this
way. We're really enjoying our last hours here
together, of course shopping gets done. But I
know we are all full of memories and feelings of our
accomplishments from this trek. Too numerous to
even go into in a cybercast are our successes, but as people go home,
their eyes are going to be beaming as they begin to
recount stories to their friends. In particular,
I am reminded of Karen Heller-Mason's trip to Base
Camp and her long-standing and heartfelt goal and how
rewarding that was.
And I
reported to you the other day that is was 11 (who
summited Island Peak) Actually including Patrick Cook
and myself and I must also count Shawang Nima and
Mingma, the Sherpa guides, our Everest guides from
past trips who also led rope teams. On the four
rope teams there were 13 of us Westerners and two
Sherpa guides who reached the summit of Island
Peak. This is a fantastic climbing day that I am
still full of memories of, really a great day.
(Second
Call) The main thing about the Island Peak climb that
I would like to finish with, is this little story and
it may kind of show you what it's like, the teamwork,
the community we have, all the Sherpas as well as the
Western climbers and guides. The entire time we
were climbing on Island Peak from about 1am in the
morning when we first got up, till in some cases after
dark that same evening when a couple of rope teams got
back down into base camp exhausted but happy.
Throughout all those long hours, Pemba our cook and
the other Sherpas at base camp were burning a
Juniper fire, a sacred fire, offering to the gods
to secure our blessing on the climb, on Island Peak.
It's a scene that we are really familiar with from
Everest: the smells are really fragrant and nice and
we walk around the fire three times of course before
we head on the climb, even in those early morning dark
hours when we are still half-awake, and knowing those
fires are burning through the day is really reassuring
to me.
Gary
came up with the idea of going to Pemba and asking for
ashes from that fire and distributed those as keepsakes
for those climbers that went on Island Peak that
day. As we descended back down the Khumbu we all
carried those and I know that everyone is flying home
with those few little bits of Juniper ashes that the
Sherpas maintained for us with the fire that day.
As I
said it's bittersweet; Kathmandu is a world of
culinary delights: pizza, ice cream, beer,
and all of the other things we are enjoying back in
civilization. But as we get on the plane, most
of us tomorrow, to return to the US, it will be with
some sad feelings, leaving behind wonderful people
and experiences in Nepal.
Dispatch #6: 11/2/00
9:25am, Tengboche, Nepal
Hi,
this is Wally and this call is coming to you on the
2nd of November from Tengboche. The amazingly
good weather that we've had on this trip continues,
it is getting to be almost boring now . This is
the way October is supposed to be in the Khumbu and in
these mountains: beautiful clear days every day,
it's what we had on Island Peak and now as we are
still savoring our accomplishments there walking back
down the valley. We're enjoying these beautiful
days.
I'm
calling you from Mingma Yangzi's lodge in Tengboche,
the Himalayan View. Mingma is an old
friend of mine and as you probably know is one of
the Sherpani women who attempted Everest on the
women's expedition last Spring that I told you about from
those dispatches.
We'll
be leaving Tengboche here soon, and be arriving back
at the Panorama lodge in Namche for two nights as we
head back down the Khumbu, again savoring our
accomplishments. We are going to also going to
savor the opportunity to walk around these hills,
visit people, do a little shopping of course, and
visit friends that we've made, and that we've had for
years in this area. I'm going to post you again
on just how all of this has been going; health
is good of course it is better daily as we walk down
hill. The Sherpa staff has continued to do a
great job and back home in Namche over the next couple
of days, we will be doing a bunch of organizing and
getting ready to eventually fly out of this place.
But it's going to be with bittersweet feelings
because its been a great trip and continues to be.
Dispatch #5: 10/31/00
1:05pm, Chukkung, Nepal
This
is Wally Berg, I'm checking in with you guys from
Chukkung on the 31st of October. Really great
day for me because we have rejoined our trekkers,
that's: Karen, Barry and Angie here in Chukkung.
And I'm back down here with all the Island Peak
climbers and I'm happy to report the really phenomenal
success of their efforts yesterday; we had a great
day on that Island Peak climb.
From
Island Peak Base Camp, we began climbing through the
darkness at about 3am. We reached the glacier
fairly early in the morning, and we went up that
headwall which was, I think its fair to say, fairly
intimidating for most of these climbers. We
had a crystal clear, beautiful morning in four rope
teams we moved along that knife-edged ridge with
amazing views of the south face of Lhotse and then
Makalu and eventually of Cho-Oyu as well as we
continued on up to the top of Island Peak.
There
were some special things that went on up there;
things that were left for people that are dear to some
of the climbers. 11 of us did reach the
summit. We returned quite late in the
evening I'll have to say down low enough where we were
met by our Sherpas and their compassion for rather
exhausted climbers was something I think really made
an impression on everyone.
Now
as I said we are all back together and we are
really psyched to have four more days in the Khumbu
visiting friends more interesting places and in this
crystal clear weather that continues to be with us
each day looking around at the grandest mountains on
Earth. I'll try to give you reports as we
continue our trek and get down to lower altitudes
where our bodies are going to begin to recover a
little and we can savor our accomplishments and
continue to enjoy trekking.
Dispatch #4: 10/28/00
11:14am, Dingboche, Nepal
Hey
EverestNews.com its Wally Berg on the 28th from
Dingboche. Beautiful, absolutely clear
midmorning here. Sorry we've been out of touch,
we've had some power issues with the satellite phone
and then sometimes we are up against these great
mountain walls here in the Khumbu and we just can't
hit the satellite.
Just
to update you, the entire group has continued very
well with their acclimatization, as we trekked up the
Khumbu. We stayed of course at the Italian
Center, "the 8000 meter Inn" above Lobuche
like we always do, enjoyed the amenities there. And
then yesterday Karen Heller Mason and Leila Caudwell
and myself and Nawang the Sherpa guide, all went up to
Everest Base Camp. For Karen in particular this
was a long held dream; I know her friends, many
of her friends at home know how dear this effort to
get to Everest Base Camp has been to her for a while.
We had a lovely hike up there, a very emotional time
at base camp which is, as you might not realize,
absolutely non-existent right now in terms of
identifiable features. The Autumn expeditions
are gone, and believe it or not there is no trash
up there (high altitude chuckle). And even
the tent platforms that were constructed for this
season are beginning to kind of break apart. But
its a powerful place to be as you might expect, and to
Karen it was a long held dream to get there and it was
really rewarding.
The
rest of the group continued after climbing Kala Pattar
yesterday back around to Dingboche, and we were
reunited last night Today we are moving up
to Chukkung. The Island Peak climbers are of
course beginning to get very focused on that, we are
going to go over some rope techniques and review some
knots this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we'll
move to base camp and Patrick and I will do some fixed
line practice, and with luck, the day after
tomorrow we'll be making our Island Peak ascent.
I'll
keep you posted on that; just know that everyone
in this group is doing great and the exceptionally
good weather we're experiencing this fall, which
is not unheard of, but of course the Sherpa people,
our old friends, and the grandest mountain scenery
on Earth is a big part of that. We're all
doing really great.
Older
Dispatches:
Dispatch:
10/19/00 5:17am, Kathmandu, Nepal
We had a really outstanding City Tour yesterday. We
have a first rate guide; Climbers and Trekkers were
very impressed with him and enjoyed the day. It is
about 5:00 AM at the Yak & Yeti right now.... we
should be out of here before 6:00. We have a
really good group. The sat phone showed up with
Patrick - we will get underway with dispatches from
Lukla.
Dispatch: 10/19/00
8:56am, Lukla, Nepal
This is Wally Berg. I am
calling you from Lukla on the morning of the
19th. Patrick Cook and I had the good luck along
with our Alpine Ascents Island Peak-Everest Base Camp
group to get out of Kathmandu really early this
morning: we're actually here in Lukla, on the
ground by 7:30 in the morning. (Transmission ends...)
Dispatch:
10/21/00 7:56am, Namche, Nepal
Hey
Alpine Ascents, this is Wally, I'm calling you
from the National Park viewpoint, the overlook above
Namchι Bazaar. We came up here this morning on
a beautiful, absolutely clear morning for our first
view of Everest and the big peaks above, for a group
photo. I could tell amongst various members of
the group, with the expressions on their face, the
excitement at 6 o'clock this morning when we took our
bed tea and got started that this was a dream come
true: Being in this area seeing these big
mountains being around the Sherpa people. Those
of us who love the mountains read about this area, its
part of our lives our mythology if you will, always,
and I can see a number of members here have
fulfilled a lifelong dream just by being here this
morning.
Of
course we are staying at the Panorama lodge,
and its still very early in the morning, and today is
Market Day in Namchι, so we are going to go back down
and have a breakfast and then we are going to walk
down into town to the famous Namchι market which
takes place every Saturday morning.
Looks
pretty interesting down in town today because I see as
I look down there, that there's a lot of Tibetans
in town as well. They have, in addition to
the normal market spot, there is a big camp full of
Tibetan tents and traders who have come over the
Nangpa-La, the glaciated pass that connects the
Khumbu with Tibet. And they've come over with Chinese
goods to trade, probably sheep, wool, maybe salt and
some other goods. And there is an unusual number
with their own area set up apart from the market, and
I 'm looking forward to going down and checking that
scene out today.
Today
is our acclimatization day, our get familiar with
Namchι day and this afternoon Patrick and I will
be doing a gear check for the equipment that the
climbers are going to use on Island Peak. Before
we leave Namchι we want to get all of this squared
away because we know more gear is available if we need
it, and we want to make sure we have the equipment
ready before we move higher up into the Khumbu .
I
will call you tomorrow from Tengboche the famous
monastery, or else on the way. Today we are
going to get into renewing our friendships in Namchι
and enjoying the markets.
Wally
Berg
Guide:
WALLY
BERG SENIOR GUIDE,
INTERNATIONAL Acclaimed mountaineer, outdoor
educator and consummate professional. The combination of his personal climbing
achievements and ability to guide others has
brought praise and respect
throughout the guiding world. Wally has stood on
the top of Mt. Everest four times, most recently
he was the leader of the highly successful '98
"GPS" Expedition. He is one of the
most active climbers on 8,000m peaks
successfully summiting Cho-Oyu and Lhotse. Guiding
highlights include three expeditions to
Antarctica's Mt. Vinson (100% success),
Carstensz Pyramid, Mera Peak, Elbrus and
Kilimanjaro, including five successful trips in
the past two years. He is one of the few
climbers who has guided multiple expeditions to
each of the Seven Summits.
PATRICK
COOK
GUIDE, INTERNATIONAL
& MOUNTAINEERING SCHOOL.
EQUIPMENT MANAGER: Patrick has been climbing for the past ten
years. His expertise lies in the Northwest and Canada
and boasts a familiarity of the region with over 25
ascents of Mt. Baker, a dozen ascents of Mt. Rainier
and numerous climbs of Mt. Waddington, Glacier Peak,
Adams, Shasta, etc. Whether skiing or climbing,
Patrick brings sheer enthusiasm for each new
experience. Patrick has guided for us on the Volcanoes
of Mexico, Island & Mera Peak, Alaska, Mt Baker
and Mt. Rainier and is simply tireless as he seems to
spend uncountable hours in the rugged mountains of the
Northwest. Additionally, Patrick is a true gear maven
and an authority on quality
mountain climbing equipment. When not guiding, Patrick
manages all of the Alpine Ascents International company, rental and expedition
gear. This is not an easy task!
