Entries from Vinson Massif

Finally, an all around nice weather day. We made good use of it, carrying food and gear all the way up to our 12,000 ft high camp and then returning to Low Camp. It felt great to walk out of camp at 1:50 PM with crampons on and an ice axe in hand. About thirty minutes into the day, we started up the “fixed ropes”. We gained about 2,500 vertical feet climbing straight up a steep snow slope while clipped in to lines anchored to the hill. While the slope isn’t vertical or even close to vertical, it is certainly steep enough to fall down. After about three hours on the wall, we topped out to walk on an easier angled glacier to high camp. We made it up in just over 5 1/2 hours. Views of the surrounding peaks were magnificent, but there was still a sea of cloud and fog shrouding most terrain under 9,000 ft. Crucially, it was calm and sunny at high camp as we rested for a few minutes and cached our supplies. The descent of the steep slopes took a little time, even with lighter packs. We were back into Low Camp by about 10:30. Dinner took us to 12:30, but of course it is a sunny night so the hour isn’t a problem. Matt Brennan sends his best regards to Gayle Stafford’s reading class and to Karli L. He doesn’t have access to Instagram from down here, but he’ll be back in range when we hit South America. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The sun WOULD have hit our tents at 10:40 this morning, but by that time there was a lot of cloud to get through. As forecast, it was good and windy pretty much everywhere except in our camp. We ate breakfast and hung out talking in the cook tent until midday, at which point a nap was due. We passed the day reading, digging, meditating, and kicking back. The winds above and around us quit in early evening -which was good- but the clouds had increased. It became a world of murk with the lightest of snow falling... the kind of crystals that can come down for hours without adding up to an inch. We did a late dinner from 9 PM til 10:30 and then retired to the tents, this time without the sunshine to make for the warm and easy end to the day that we enjoyed yesterday. The forecaster, back at Union Glacier, suggested some improvement for tomorrow. If we get that we’ll endeavor to carry a load up the fixed lines toward high camp. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Something had changed overnight. We woke to brilliant blue skies and sunshine. Of course we could still see the wind beating up the ridge atop Vinson’s Western escarpment and there were still fog layers lying thick just to our west, but everything looked different and we liked that. The forecast was still calling for another day of wind, but we figured it was time to get on up to Low Camp. We busted out of basecamp at 2:20 in excellent walking conditions. The track in the snow had firmed up a little since all the other teams had gone up in the days previously, stomping their feet and dragging their sleds. We made it in a respectable four hours and thirty minutes. For the last hour we could see and hear the wind on the ridge two thousand meters up over our heads. It was gratifying to reach camp and find it calm and sunny. We rejoined all the other folks on the mountain in a tight little cluster of tents. We threw ours up to one side and worked to dig a kitchen and dining area in the firm glacier surface. That took a little doing, but by 10 PM (still in strong sunshine) we were sitting down to dinner in our new and higher home. Most of the gang was in bed by midnight. I warned them that the sun would continue blazing until at least three AM but that it would then go behind the mountain and plunge us into shadow and bitter cold for the following eight hours. Life at 9,000 feet in Antarctica. Happiest of birthdays to my Dad. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Same storm, different day. When we started rolling out of the tents at 9 this morning it was obvious that the storm was still hitting the upper mountain hard. We ate breakfast and kept watching the clouds, and when the forecast at 11 AM confirmed that we still had some more storm days to come, we opted to stay another day at base. As predicted, the local weather came and went during the course of the day with periodic thick cloud and light snow and a little wind even at Base Camp. We rested and sorted supplies and kept our spirits up. We hydrated and snacked and had a hardy dinner and storytelling session until 10:30 in the evening, at which time the sun finally broke free of the clouds stuck on the mountain range. It broke mostly free, but even diffuse sunshine was welcome for making it a little easier and more comfortable to climb into the tents again. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

As planned, we took the day off. Sure enough, it looked like the storm had arrived on the upper mountain. We could see wind sculpted clouds attached to all of the high ridges and peaks, but it wasn’t that bad down at our level. We ate a leisurely breakfast until it was lunch time, then retired to the tents for naps and reading and organizing personal gear. The sun was never at full power but even through the clouds, we could feel it in the tents and so it wasn’t too cold. We got together for a late afternoon snack and then for dinner at close to 9 PM. Two of the other groups chose to move up to Low Camp today and so we’ll have eye witnesses as to actual conditions up there tomorrow when we are trying to decide whether to move up. The forecast isn’t yet calling for the end of the storm, but these typically blow through in a couple of days. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

There was a lot more fog and cloud around basecamp this morning, which was predicted, but it had many of the guides (there are four separate teams) looking for more information before committing to a move up to Low Camp (aka camp one). The consensus was that the weather is deteriorating and that waiting for an improving trend would be a good thing. Low camp isn’t often windy, but when it is, it is often really windy. For our team, we decided to go ahead with a carry of food, fuel and equipment. Our goals were modest. We figured we’d aim for caching halfway along the route to Low Camp and then returning to base. We pulled out of VBC at 2:20 PM. But at that halfway point, the team was doing great and the weather was holding steady. So we kept on moving our packs and sleds higher. There were signs of the overall weather situation worsening, but it was wonderfully calm where we were and we kept making good progress. We pulled into Low Camp at 7:30 PM and took about thirty minutes to secure the cache. Then, with lighter packs, we skedaddled. In two hours and twenty minutes, we were back at base (at 10:20 PM). The sun hadn’t been getting through the clouds much in those hours and we were cold and tired after our eight hours of exercise in the freezer. But also quite satisfied with our accomplishment. We ate a quick dinner and climbed into our tents at our typical midnight target. We’ll rest at base tomorrow in order to let the bad weather play through. Best regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We woke to calm conditions and good sunshine around 9 AM today. After breakfast and a powwow among the guide companies regarding route conditions, weather predictions, emergency procedures and communications, we got into some basic review of how we intend to rig up and climb Vinson. At 4 PM, when the sun was getting good and strong, we roped up and set out for an acclimatization hike up the first few hills of the climbing route. Conditions were pleasant -by which I mean that we were warm and comfortable as long as we kept moving. We got a few miles up the Branscomb Glacier to where we could start to see neighboring peaks like Shinn and Epperly, to the north. By 7 PM we were back in camp, just as clouds began to form up and obscure the views. We had a long and leisurely supper in our dining tent, and headed for the sleeping tents at 11 PM. Weather forecasts call for some potential nastiness these next couple of days... we’ll hope they are wrong, but of course basecamp is not a bad place to be if the predictions pan out. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Greetings from Vinson Base Camp, 7000 feet in elevation on the Branscomb Glacier. We were reasonably confident that we’d get here today, but it wasn’t a slam dunk. The weather wasn’t quite right at the start of the day for flying through big mountains, so we took it easy, enjoying breakfast and lunch in the fine dining tent at Union Glacier. The clouds out at Vinson began to break and a Twin Otter fired up to start doing laps. Ours was the third lap... off and on again as clouds drifted in and out, but finally on for real. We left Union a bit after 4 PM and considered ourselves lucky to squeak in to VBC... there were no more laps after ours as snow clouds rolled into the Branscomb. We began building camp at 5 PM. It took a bit to get sorted out, dug in and anchored down, but we were right where we wanted to be for all of that. Eventually the team assembled for dinner in our very own, freshly built dining tent. The snow clouds rolled out again and we had views of Vinson’s great Western escarpment and even of the summit pyramid up at 16,000 ft. It stayed cloudy and murky in every other direction, but we got enough sun to make going to bed easy. It is definitely colder here, up about 4,000 feet higher than where we started today, but right now, at midnight it is pleasantly calm and the sun is shining on our camp. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Sure enough, we lucked out. I’m touching base from the Union Glacier at about 80 degrees South Latitude. Our flight was smooth and easy. We made a stop in Ushuaia across the border in Argentina, before leaving South America. The runway in Punta has a construction project underway, effectively shortening the strip for the time being, so we took off light and then topped off fuel supplies in Tierra del Fuego. Then it was off across the Drake Passage and a few hours later we were winging our way over endless ice. The Russian crew brought the Ilyushin 76 down perfectly on the Union ice runway at around 3:30 PM. We bundled up and trundled down the stairs to take our first slippery steps on the continent. It was blowing about 30 knots but the cold wasn’t vicious -just about -9 C- so we snapped a few shots of the airplane and surroundings before mounting up in a highly modified Ford van on big wheels. The twenty-minute journey on a snow highway took us to the other side of the Union Glacier, where winds were mild and where a fine basecamp and support staff welcomed the team. After a brief tour and orientation to environmental and safety concerns, we sat in the dining tent for some hot soup. At that point it was thought that we’d only be in Union a short time before flying out to Vinson Base in the ski equipped Twin Otters, but before long the word came that the weather at Vinson had deteriorated. We ate dinner and went out to build tents in our own deteriorated weather. There was snow and blowing snow to make the job a little more interesting. It certainly would have been convenient to hop right out to Vinson, but none of us minded the chance to dine at Union and to socialize with the staff and fellow climbers and adventurers. We’ll turn in for a first “night” without darkness, and we’ll see what the morning brings. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

So far, so good. We left our Punta Arenas hotel at 6 this morning to come out to the airport. After a little wait-and-see period, we’ve loaded onto the plane at 9:45 and the engines are spooling up. All systems are go. With any luck, the next dispatch will be from Antarctica. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn