Entries By 12/2018

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