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Vinson Massif: Dave & Team Back at Camp After Summit

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 11, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,400'

Conditions today can only be described as having been perfect for a summit climb.  It is tough to recall that we ate breakfast and geared up in cloud at high camp.  But when we roped up and got going at 9:45, it only took us fifteen minutes to climb out of the cloud and into a world of bright snow, brighter sunshine and a big and brilliant blue sky.  In our ten and a half hour round trip to the top, we barely noticed anything that could actually be described as a breeze.  And so it is possible that the summit temps were the forecasted -38C but we sure didn’t notice or mind the cold with the sun’s super strong radiation at 16,067 ft above sea level.  There did seem to be plenty of cloud down low -we couldn’t see basecamp and a few hundred odd peaks were obscured.  But a few thousand others were not.  TA, Vlado, Mindy and myself all considered that we’d gotten extremely lucky… And so we made good use of the day in tagging Vinson’s summit.  We were back for a relatively early and relaxed dinner, and got to enjoy diving into the sleeping bags with plenty of good sun left on the tent walls.

Tomorrow we’ll head for basecamp on the Branscomb.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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