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Posts for Vinson Massif from 01/2010

Back in Patriot Hills, Antarctica

Posted by: | January 24, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif

The Ilyusion landed safely and smoothly a few minutes ago, but it will be another hour or two before we board her for the flight northward. This will be the last time that Patriot Hills acts as the main portal to the continent for climbers. The ALE staff are busily working to relocate the operation to the Union Glacier, some 40 miles away. When we -the last of this season’s tourists- get on the jet and roar off the ice, the move will be made in a matter of days… Tents will come down and a few overland trains of sno-cats and various ice vehicles will drag everything to the Union. But by then we will all be back in the Northern Hemisphere. For now, we should get back to Punta Arenas in the middle of the night… In utter darkness, we hope- it will be our first look at the stars in two weeks.

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After Delay, Team to Fly Back to South America Tonight

Posted by: | January 24, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 7,000 ft.

We are starting to talk about dinner reservations in South America. But realistically speaking, those would be for tomorrow night, since there is a good chance we will be flying back to Punta Arenas during prime dining hours tonight.

Yesterday was spent quietly sitting in the “Guide Tent” with the 25 Vinson climbers, chatting, reading, eating and passing time. The weather wasn’t horrible, but neither was it any good for flying, with low cloud and poor contrast prevailing. Today is a different story, which actually defies the forecasts… It is sunny and calm and the ALE folk have “called the flight” Meaning that the Illyusion 76 is being put through its final preparations and it may be off deck and headed our way within the next two hours.

I’ll let you know of our progress.

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Back at Vinson Basecamp

Posted by: | January 20, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 7,000 ft.

We bailed out of high camp this morning without too much difficulty. It stayed calm and wasn’t even all that cold as we got up, but then snow clouds formed up and blotted out the sun and we felt the true temperatures. We got moving downward at 11:15 AM. The fixed-rope section was strenuous with our heavy packs but conditions were good and so we made fine progress. We were on the last hill overlooking basecamp at 4 PM when we saw and heard a Twin Otter flying out of VBC. This was a good thing, but it was also a little surprising as there was a good deal of cloud and fog hanging around the lower glacier. When we marched in to camp, it was great to see John and the other climbers again. We were told that the Twin Otter crew was intent on flying out to Vinson two more times in the evening and that we were slated for the second of those flights… But as that would be four or five hours off in good conditions -and conditions were deteriorating, we simply built camp again (we are getting fast) and had a pleasant dinner. Sure enough, it socked in and there were no more flights, but we didn’t mind much. We are happy to be down safe and happy that the biggest part of our hard work is finished. We’ll see what tomorrow brings but now things are largely out of our control.

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Vinson Summit!

Posted by: | January 19, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 16,000 ft.

Up to the top of the Massif today. We had an easy time getting out of camp this morning as conditions were perfect, no wind and no clouds above (although there was an ocean of cloud below). We pulled out of camp a little before 9 AM. For the first hour or two, temperatures were mild and most of the team was wondering if all the down gear was necessary, then we caught a minor but persistent breeze and hoods went up and zippers got shut. The cooler conditions were ideal for walking. Vinson summit day is a long, moderate incline (on glacial ice, of course) up a broad valley until you hit the final rock and ice peak atop the broad summit plateau. Then things steepen and tend to get more interesting. Throughout the climb we were treated to increasingly magnificent views of the sharp and lofty peaks to the North. Eventually we were sheltered from wind as we came along our summit peak, but then caught enough of it on the 16,000 ft final ridge that we had to be very much on the lookout for frostbite on each others faces. We walked onto the highest point in Antarctica at 4:15 PM. I’ve had more relaxing times up there -the steady cold breezes needed to be paid attention to this time as one couldn’t take gloves off for picture taking or snacking. But it was stunning and beautiful to see the mountains up and down the Ellsworth chain sticking out of the endless cloud sea.

We got off the ridge without frosting anyone and had a smooth and easy walk down to high camp, which we reached around 7:45 PM. Strength returned as we sat around for hot drinks and dinner. Inevitably, with the relief of having made the top, folks started talking about airplanes, but I tried to keep people focused on the need to climb down safely first. We’ll do that tomorrow, high camp to basecamp, with some heavy loads. And from what we heard, none of the other teams did any flying yet and don’t expect to tomorrow -that sea of clouds envelopes both Vinson Base and Patriot Hills. So perhaps we’ll catch up to all the other climbers soon. My team is looking forward to a good sleep first… It is supposed to reach -30 C at high camp tonight.

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High camp, Vinson Massif

Posted by: | January 18, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,400 ft.

It was plenty cold at low camp last night. Namgya bravely got out of the tent at 11 AM to fire up the stoves, even though we were still in the cold shadow. The weather held, with little cloud cover getting in our way. We watched a blanket of thick cloud fill the valley below and we could see wind tearing at the mountaintops, but we lucked out with calm and sunny conditions for our five hour and ten minute climb up to high camp.

Willie Benegas and Vern Tejas managed to get their teams to the summit deespite the winds and both were back just after we got our tents built and kitchen dug out, around 8:30 PM. Vern is the new world’s record holder for Vinson ascents, with 27. I have a chance to tie him tomorrow if the weather cooperates and if my climbers are feeling fine. They seem to be. Leif Whittaker, who turned 25 the day we flew out of Punta Arenas, is cruising along as if he did this sort of thing all the time. One can’t help just assuming that it is in his blood, since his Dad is Big Jim Whittaker -the first American up Everest. Sashko Kedev, our cardiologist from Macedonia was thrilled with the day on the ropes today and obviously can’t wait for tomorrow. Tim Amos, our producer from New York City, has been strong and steady all along. Brent Huntsman is the team geologist from Ohio and when we slow down enough to permit conversation (not often), he explains the wild “chevron” folds in the rock we are seeing.

It is calm now (12:30 AM) at high camp, we want it to stay that way.

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Rest Day at Low Camp

Posted by: | January 17, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,200 ft.

We paused for a rest today. It turned out that our hard work of the past few days had acted to bring back a chest cold that poor John thought he was done with. While he didn’t seem greatly incapacitated by it, we decided that it was the sort of thing that would get worse by going higher and colder. We chose instead to get John lower and warmer. Namgya and I brought him down to bascamp where ALE’s staff graciously agreed to look after him until we get down from our summit bid. Meanwhile, Leif, Sashko, Tim and Brent rested and rehydrated at low camp, enjoying a lunch of quesadillas and aji sauce. Namgya and I cruised back up in a businesslike 2 hrs, rejoining the gang in time for a late dinner in the strong sunshine. It was still brilliantly clear except for some sculpted wave clouds forming and fading on the high peaks. The word from up above was that it was cold and windy. Even so, Scott made the summit with his climbers. Vern and Willie chose to rest their teams at high camp for the day. We are hoping for a drop in winds tomorrow and a green light for moving up.

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Spending Time at Low Camp

Posted by: | January 16, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,200 ft.

It is 1:30 AM, the sun is still shining brightly out and I’ve just crawled in the tent. It has been a long day -in lots of good ways. Once the sun runs into the western rib of Vinson at around 3 AM, we don’t get it again until 11:30. That is the downside of being so close in to the massive west wall of Vinson, but there are upsides. We get an incredible view of this 2,000 meter face of rock and snow with its three immense ice strreams tumbling downward in the slowest of motion. We climbed the northern end of the wall today, carrying a load of supplies up a thousnd meters or so to high camp. A snowstorm had been forecast, but instead we got nothing but intense sun and a giant blue sky. It was literally the perect day for climbing in Antarctica. Most of our day was spent working up a long section of fixed rope. Before we’d gone very far up the steep snow we were treated to unlimited views out to the west. Ice, ice and more ice… Way out to the horizon where it usually gets tough to tell the divide between Earth and sky. It took us six and a half hours to get up to high camp, which we reached at 8 pm (we don’t do early starts in such a cold place when camp is in shadow) and we were back down at low camp again by 10:30. Dinner was a welcome chance to sit around and talk over the roar of our stoves. It does take hours to melt all of the snow we require for water after such a long day out.

Tomorrow we may move up to high camp, or we may rest for a day… It depends on how strong the gang looks at our 11:30 breakfast, and on whether that snowstorm finds us.

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Vinson Low Camp, Branscomb Glacier

Posted by: | January 15, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,200 ft.

We accomplished our move up from basecamp in fine style today. Within the first thirty minutes on the track, we burst out of a low cloud layer into brilliant sunshine and the bluest of skies. All seemed to be feeling strong and as our loads were lighter than on yesterday’s carry, we cranked up the pace a notch. We cruised in to camp in just over 4 hrs. Namgya Sherpa led a rope with Tim Amos and Leif Whittaker. I tied in with John Kelly, Brent Huntsman and Sashko Kedev. I enjoyed chatting with Namgya at our rest breaks. He has climbed Everest 9 times along with ascents of Cho Oyu, Dhalagiri and Shishipangma. When I thought about those numbers a bit, I realized something peculiar about the approximately 25 climbers that make up Vinson’s current population. I’ve got eleven, Willie Benegas and Vern Tejas have about nine Everest summits each, together with a healthy handful by guides Scott Wollums, Michael Horst and David Hamilton… Throw in a few more for the clients on our teams who have been up (like Sashko on our team) and the grand total must be up near sixty. But none of that will be very comforting if we can’t manage to climb Vinson in the coming days. Luckily for us, Namgya has already been up Vinson three times this season and knows the way. He is from the eastern part of Nepal, near Kangchenjunga, but these days lives part of each year in Kathmandu, part in Cambridge, England and part in Antarctica.

The other teams on the mountain have spread out a bit, with some now at high camp, some having carried high and with ourselves bringing up the rear. Fine with us, that way. Today was a classic antarctic climbing day. The air temperature probably didn’t pass 5 degrees F, but with intense sun reflected off extremely clean white snows, the apparent temperature was downright Carribean. We were treated to splendid views of the big and steep mountains to the north which are seldom climbed. Shinn, Epperly and Gardiner are massive and formidable and don’t exactly beckon to those of moderate skill (we couldn’t see Tyree today, but it is even more massive and more formidable and does even less beckoning).

We enjoyed a fine dinner in our new home and turned in, tying everything down in case of storm… such a thing is difficult to imagine just now as there isn’t a hint of wind and the midnight sun continues to blaze away in the summer sky. It will get intensely cold in a few hours when the sun ducks behind Vinson… But as I say, who wants to think about that now?

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Better Weather Today

Posted by: | January 14, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 7,000 ft.

Good weather today and perfect route conditions. We carried a load of food, fuel and gear to “low camp” and then returned -as planned- to VBC. Five and a half hours up, about thirty minutes to cache the gear and bask in the high altitude sun and then two and a half hours down. All did well, all are cheerful… More tomorrow.

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No Carry Today As We Wait Out A Storm

Posted by: | January 13, 2010
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 7,000 ft.

A moderately stormy day on Mount Vinson. We chose not to do our intended carry because of persistent wind and cloud, which when combined with the normal cold temperatures makes travel a little dicey. Or at least a little more dicey than we hoped for for our intro to the mountain. Instead we practiced a bit with our avalanche beacons, beefed up the snow walls around our dining tent and went for a three- hour hike with light packs when conditions improved slightly in the afternoon. Forecasts call for less wind tomorrow and we’ll hope to take advantage.

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