We had a mellow morning at Base Camp today, enjoying the extra time we had to brew up fresh coffee and watch the sun creep across the glacier and bring with it warming temperatures. Not content to hang around for too long, we pulled on our ski boots and headed out for some touring above Vinson Base Camp. The rolling ridge-lines descending from the Massif offer phenomenal skiing and we took full advantage to get out and play. We climbed a couple thousand feet above Base Camp to a small summit and found spectacular views of the surrounding terrain before setting our sights back downhill and skiing some great light Antarctic snow back to camp. As we were relaxing in the evening we received the call we'd been waiting for: the plane from Union Glacier was on its way to get us. We packed up camp and as we closed the last bag the Twin Otter came in with a soft and smooth landing on the glacier. We said goodbye to Vinson and were soon airborne on our way back to Union Glacier camp, our eyes glued to the windows as we watched the massive landscape of snow, ice, and rock flow by beneath us. We're now back at Union Glacier, enjoying the warmth of their large mess tent and keeping our fingers crossed that an Ilyushin flight can come into tomorrow evening to give us a lift back to South America. We're hoping to spend a few hours checking out the mountains around camp in the morning before getting a weather check about the flight tomorrow midday. RMI Guide Linden Mallory & Team

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