Pumori Climbing Expedition Dispatch

October 22, 2009 – Climbing Team: Advance Base Camp to Camp I

This is Wally Berg and it about 12:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, October 22. I am calling you from a really amazing place, the summit of Kala Pattar, over 18,300ft above sea level.

This morning Ken, Mike, Charlie, Ang Tsering (our base camp manager) and I started from Pumori base camp to climb to this famous summit of Kala Pattar.

We are at the top of Kala Pattar, which means “black rock” in Sanskrit because it appears as a big brown bump below the impressive south face of Pumori. It is a very international destination with trekkers from around the world climbing to the most accessible point to view Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse. It is a very popular destination with trekkers from around the world climbing to the most accessible point to view Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse. All of the trekkers on Kala Pattar knew about our climbing team at Pumori base camp and were very interested in the climbers. We talked to them a lot about Jamie’s expedition and then when he reached the top of camp I, Jamie’s voice came over the radio checking in with me describing the camp. Jamie and his Pumori climbing team including the Sherpa’s are doing remarkable work pushing forward. Last night Jamie and Scott spent the night at advanced base camp and today they climbed higher to check out camp I.

It was really great because Jamie got a best wishes and good luck call from everyone listening in several languages: Russian, German, Nepalese, and a few others. People from around the world were fascinated that he and his team were so high on the steep faces of Pumori. It was a very special moment for Jamie, the team, and all the travelers.

Yesterday Leila, Paul, David, Lovinder and the main trekking team all started on the long trail back to Lukla. They spent last night at Pheriche and are doing great. In addition, Sara and Todd dropped down to Pheriche to work on their acclimatization. Todd had a respiratory infection which we knew was going to be better if we descended lower and Sara has being acclimatizing slowly and wanted to get a boost by descending down lower. They both went straight into the Himalayan Rescue Association. When they arrived they got examined and the report I got back this morning was good. We look forward to being reunited with them both soon. Life’s great here at Pumori base camp. The team has done excellent work advancing the route and they will all join us back at base camp this evening.

Greetings to everyone from the Himalayas Hanes brands Pumori 2009! It is continuing to be a great adventure so please watch for our dispatches in the coming days!