Entries from Expedition Dispatches
We are safe and sound at Camp 3 after reaching the summit with 100% of our team. The weather during the ascent was great and one of the best summit days I have had on Aconcagua. We started very early, at 4:35, because it was predicted to snow this afternoon. It ended up to be a good decision because we just got the beginning of the storm before arriving back at camp.
Now it's snowing hard, but we are cooking in the safety and comfort of the tent. We will enjoy an early dinner and we will go to sleep soon. The team is tired, but everybody is ok and very happy! Tomorrow we will descend to basecamp and the next day we will start the trek out to Pampa de Lenas.
Today the weather continues to be very good. Lots of clouds around the region, but very nice temperatures at Camp 2 and mostly sunny all day on Aconcagua.
The team took an active rest day today, we went for a short hike on the slope that is the first section on our way to Camp 3. Part of the group carried three days of group food, extra fuel and stoves to Camp 3 (Camp Colera). There we were able to talk with a couple of groups that just have returned from the summit, they passed along good news about the route conditions, it looks like crampons are needed above Independencia, which will make the climbing less difficult than the scree on the upper part of the route (Travesia and Canaleta).
Tomorrow we will move to Camp 3 (our higher camp) and prepare for our early summit attempt the next morning! We will be sending dispatches from Camp 3.
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.
Today we moved to Camp 2, at 18,000', the team did again a great job climbing to this altitude. The weather had improved to the point that we climbed with a single layer of clothing. Hopefully it continue in this way for a few more days.
Tomorrow most of the team will take a rest day and a small group of us will carry fuel and food to Camp Colera (our Camp 3). This will allow us to move to Camp 3 with a little lighter pack.
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.
Yesterday the weather deteriorated during the afternoon, wind picked up to 30 mph and clouds bringing snow arrived. It was the first time that we were forced to have dinner inside the tents. The weather this morning improved a lot at Camp 1, but we could see how hard the wind was blowing by the spin drift. The weather forecast that we got last night for the next few days estimates that the strong winds at 18,000' would continue until this evening and then they will drop significantly. So we decided to spend an extra day at Camp 1 today and to avoid moving camp in these windy conditions. Now, the afternoon conditions at Camp 1 are very nice, so hopefully we are enjoying the beginning of the good weather window that the forecast is calling.
Tomorrow we will move to Camp 2 and then rest a day there.
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.
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.
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.
This is the Aconcagua team checking in from Camp 1. Last night we got more snow at Basecamp, not too much, but enough to get the camp completely white when we left this morning. The landscape was unique so we didn't miss the opportunity to take lot of pictures. The group did a great job climbing to C1 today, it took us 4:30hs to get here and everybody is feeling strong. Right now we have started the stoves and will enjoy a nice dinner with vegetarian couscous in a little bit.
Our plan for tomorrow is to carry to our Camp 2 (also known as Campo Lama, because of the remains of a helicopter Lama that crashed there a long time ago).
We hope that everybody there is enjoying the progress of our team, we will keep sending updates!
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