The team had a relaxing and slow morning at
Vinson Basecamp. Many commented on how good it had been to sleep well and warm once again. Life at Basecamp seemed a million times easier than it had before we climbed the mountain. However, yesterday's predictions and proclamations that we'd shuttle from airplane to airplane and from continent to continent... were overly optimistic. We did succeed -in late afternoon- in catching a twin otter out of VBC. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and so the high mountains of the Sentinel Range were spectacular whereas they'd been cloaked in murk when we flew in. Union Glacier camp was even cushier than VBC, naturally, and so nobody expressed great frustration when it was announced that the Ilyushin 76 would not be coming today due to deteriorating weather. We're plenty happy for the moment, sitting in chairs and eating food that guides didn't cook. The gang wouldn't mind flying tomorrow though... We'll see.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
The day dawned clear and sunny again but with wind tossing a little snow around up high. We ate a farewell breakfast at high camp and got packing. The team was roped up by 11:15 AM and ready to climb down. Considering our heavy packs, the long and steep fixed rope section went quite well. With no particular difficulty we reached low camp and got busy shuffling and resorting gear, food and garbage for hauling sleds on the lower mountain. Travel was easy then, on a well-packed snow trail and we reached
Vinson Base by 4:30 PM. Up went the tents, one more time. Although the weather was fine for flying, ALE's planes were elsewhere and engaged with other missions. We are told that prospects are excellent tomorrow for getting not only to Union Glacier but all the way to Punta Arenas, Chile. If that holds, then perhaps
JJ's steak dinner over camp stoves tonight was our last meal together. If so, it was an excellent and peaceful gathering. We've shared success and plenty of hard work these past weeks. The team loved hearing the "blog comments" that the RMI office emailed to us (we don't have the ability to surf the web ourselves). It helped a great deal to know so many were following our progress. Thank You.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We went for it today. The weather was greatly improved. The clouds were gone, but there were still dust devils of snow twisting off the ridges as we watched from high camp. Obviously, we hoped for a calming trend as the day went on. One of our climbers stayed in camp, satisfied with yesterday's effort. This worked out as there were two ALE "rangers" also in camp along with a guided group taking a rest day. The rest of us set out at 10:37 AM. We were in still air for the first hour, but then we went through a few gusty portions of the route for several hours. The fact that the winds weren't sustained didn't mean they were any warmer. We bundled up pretty good in down coats and pants and tried hard to keep our faces from freezing. By about 15,000 ft, we'd reached a calm area, which was a great relief as the mountain was getting tough to climb even without a distracting wind. Most were working quite hard to compensate for the lack of oxygen and the steepening snow and ice. As we worked our way out the 16,000 ft summit ridge, we found the wind again. This made it tough to enjoy the view of the
Ellsworth Mountains spread for two hundred miles around and below us. We walked onto the mountain top at 10 minutes to 6 PM. Excited, but also very much on our guard against frostbite. We took a bare minimum of pictures, did quick but heartfelt hugs, handshakes and high fives, and then beat feet out of there. We were safely back in high camp by 8:45 PM.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
We were fresh out of good weather today. Ran out sometime during the night. By morning, the high peaks were capped with wind-sculpted clouds and things had a decidedly unstable look. We procrastinated...ate breakfast and watched the progression of cloud formations. We got a weather forecast from
Vinson Basecamp around noon, and decided to go for a walk. The thinking was that we'd be climbing in relative calm for several hours, in which time the day could turn sparkly and fine. That isn't what happened though. After a couple of hours and perhaps 1,300 feet of vertical gain, we were in wind and cloud... The times when we were granted better visibility, we could see more wind and cloud up higher. Ultimately, the decision was made that -with the "normal" cold temperatures (-15 to -20 F) we were enjoying, we couldn't fight against very much wind. We turned back to high camp, intent on waiting out this non-storm. The gang cut snow blocks to beef up the tent walls and we dug in just in case a real storm shows up. We are hopeful that morning will bring better things.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Our luck with the weather continues. It was another perfectly calm, blue-sky, sunny day on
Mount Vinson. We took full advantage, moving up from Low Camp to High Camp. It is plenty of work to break camp and hit the trail in this cold environment. This "morning" it took us about 2.5 hours. We were walking by 1:45 PM. We had the advantage today that we were all familiar with the route and the fixed ropes -thanks to our carry on the same terrain two days ago. This time we shaved about forty five minutes off, reaching 12,150 ft High Camp in five hours and fifteen minutes. We set to building camp and digging in, which took a few more hours of hard work, but eventually we were all sitting face to face in a freshly excavated dining room. We talked over exactly how summit day might work out for tomorrow. After dinner, the team pitched in to build some snow-block walls, just in case the wind comes up. Then folks wandered about a hundred feet west to look over the edge. It is a stunning view, peering over this dramatic and abrupt escarpment to see almost every footstep we've made to date. In the distance, the Nimitz Glacier is prominent and beyond that it seems that we can see forever on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The team went to bed ready to go for the top, we'll see if our weather luck holds.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
It was just as cold in the final hour before the sun hit this morning, but somehow that didn't matter as much since we didn't have to get up. It was a rest day at 9,000 ft on
Mount Vinson. We eventually assembled the team in the POSH tent for an early afternoon, four course breakfast. After three good and long days moving food and fuel and gear around, it was very nice to just kick back and take it easy. It fits well with our acclimatization plan as well, to have worked up high yesterday and now to be resting at "low" altitude. RMI Guide Linden Mallory and his climbers came through in mid-afternoon on their way to Basecamp and it was good to hear of their summit day. The weather was perfect again today and so the sun and lack of wind had us forgetting what the actual temperature was. We napped, drank water, read, chatted, and snacked the day away. Finally it was time for dinner and tall tales in the strong evening sunshine. All are feeling healthy and ready to move up the mountain.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
We knew it was going to be a cold morning here at
Low Camp, the sun doesn't make it around the mountain until 11:15 AM, but it was still somewhat shockingly cold. True, we are in 24-hour daylight, but any shadow reminds you very quickly what the actual air temperature is. We ate breakfast and put our crampons on for a day of carrying loads as we warmed up in the sun. Before too long, we'd begun the fixed rope section of climbing on the way to high camp. This section of steep and continuously firm snow meant that the day would be about vertical gain and not a great deal about distance covered. It took six hours to make it the 3,500 ft to high camp, which sits at 12,500 ft. Since it was perfect, cloudless weather, we could see forever as we got higher. But what we could see was ice, ice and more ice. Our timing was perfect, pulling into high camp just as
Linden Mallory and his small team were getting there after their summit. Todd Passey, ALE's guide, was in camp with his team as well and very generously shared cups of hot water with the gang. We cached food and fuel there and then got moving back toward Low Camp, which we reached at 11 PM. It was a big day, finished off with a midnight supper in the POSH tent. Our climbers were excited for the new vistas, but also for the great sense of accomplishment in getting such a tough day under our belts. We'll rest tomorrow, and hope to move up the following day.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Hello RMI!! I have to tell ya...it is so nice to be reunited with the team! No one at Union Glacier camp would let me put my head on their shoulders and cry. However, when my team saw me at
Vinson Base Camp they all gave me big bear hugs!
Today we packed up camp and started our climb to Low Camp, close to 10,000 feet. Everyone had a fun day and we worked well getting camp set up. The usual happened with hots and dinner and more hots. Dave is currently buttoning up the kitchen as I write.
Tomorrow the team plans on carrying gear towards high camp. We get to travel some fixed line as the terrain steepens. Stay tuned! AND GO PACKERS!!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
It was an eventful day, by our standards. Conditions still were not flyable when we crawled out of the tents at 9:15 (not too much use getting up before that time in this camp as it is pretty cold). But ALE, our logistical partner, offered one of their guides for the day so that we could accomplish a carry of food and gear to "
Low Camp". We were excited for the chance to get on the move and for the opportunity to work with Lakpa Gelu. Lakpa has climbed
Mount Everest 15 times and holds the speed record there. We were honored to rope up on
Vinson with him. We left camp at 2:30 PM hauling a few sleds and carrying full packs. Snow conditions were perfect, we weren't sinking in much and the sleds dragged without much resistance. Despite the persistent cloud parked on the landing strip, a few hundred feet higher up we were walking in bright sunshine with blue skies and big views. We made great time, gaining two thousand feet of vertical and covering 5.6 miles (one way) in 4.5 hours. It felt great to pull into Low Camp, cache the load, and turn for base with light packs. The scenery for the day was spectacular, with views of the third and fourth highest mountains in Antarctica as well as a very close up view of a very big wall on Antarctica's highest mountain. The day was made perfect when, just as we crested the final hill and could see basecamp again, a Twin Otter aircraft, found a way through the clouds. JJ Justman made it into Vinson. We enjoyed our first dinner together on the mountain.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Another no-fly day at
Vinson Base. We were at the edge of a thick sea of clouds for much of the day and from what we heard, weather wasn't very nice at Union Glacier either. Temperatures were low again today, reportedly -23 C but most of the team felt more comfortable with the conditions today, perhaps we are acclimating. It was a little tough to be anchored down in VBC today as a couple of our neighbors and friends pulled out and moved up to "Low Camp" but we'd very much like
JJ Justman to be along for that journey. So we did a bit more training and preparing. Tomorrow, perhaps, we'll have the whole team in one place... the way we like it. And we'll go climbing.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Congrats on a successful trek. Look forward to getting John back home.
Posted by: Dudley on 12/7/2014 at 5:42 am
Thank you for all your updates! It has been awesome reading and great pictures. Looking forward to Chris’ stories.
Love, Mom
Posted by: Carol Colleran on 12/6/2014 at 10:39 pm
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