Entries from Vinson Massif

Start to finish... another grey day of clouds and snow at Union Glacier... with no horizon, no contrast, not much visibility and zero chance of escape. Except... today was the Antarctic Ice Marathon and everybody was excited. Our own Abdul surprised his climbing team at breakfast by inquiring as to whether he might enter the race... scheduled to begin in an hour. It turned out that he could and did. 26.2 miles was going to be run in whiteout conditions over four laps on a ten kilometer groomed loop. But with new snow falling, the grooming wasn’t all that good. It was a lot like running in sand at the beach. Abdul took off with the crowd at 10:30 AM... his first marathon-and the only one of 59 entrants to have climbed to Vinson’s summit three days earlier. Skeptics expected one lap from him. Abdul finished the marathon, completely comfortable and in control. The winner took 3.5 hours and the final contestant 13 hours with Abdul very respectably in-between. The evening was a memorable and international celebration, with cheers going up from the Chinese, the Australians, the Dutch, the Austrians, the Russians, the Indians and the Sri Lankans... not to mention the Americans and Brits. The end of the day was exactly like the beginning... snow, cloud, murk, calm and quiet. But pretty fun too. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Half the team didn’t even make it to breakfast this morning. Which was perfectly acceptable (although it was the best breakfast we’d had in weeks). We got great sleep without so much as a ruffle of the tents due to the wind. By our standards it was warm, comfortable and easy. Union Glacier suits us just fine. As expected, the weather went from yesterday’s blue bird to today’s gray bird. It was overcast and snowing lightly all day, perfect for napping. Camp is chock full with 60 marathon runners, primed for their big event tomorrow. None of my team has yet been tempted to participate, but we’ll see if someone wakes up extra feisty tomorrow. Today we were content to sit in chairs at tables and to read books about Antarctica while sipping strong coffee. The marathon runners were all curious about our strange tans and our experiences of the last two weeks. We told tales of the big mountains and ate, drank and ate some more. Change is always difficult... except this particular change to comfort and easy living. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Tough start to the day up at high camp as the winds weren’t inclined to give us a break. These weren’t the kind of winds that could rip your tent down, just the kind that make it a little miserable to be outside, say taking down a tent or trying to do up ones crampons. We persevered, with huge help from Patchi and Lakpa Rita, two of ALE’s guides, we carefully got our work done and got walking downhill around 12:30 PM. No surprise, it was tough work getting down the fixed ropes with full packs, but we just kept at it. We pulled into low camp and got back into the world of sleds and flat glacier travel. All were tired from multiple hard days strung together, but we got walking toward Vinson Basecamp (VBC) at 4PM in any case. By this point our radio communications had let us know that an airplane would be on the ground at VBC awaiting our arrival. We couldn’t run, but of course we went down at a business like pace, despite sore feet and worn out muscles. We passed a number of climbing teams headed up the mountain -the next wave- and we wished them all well. We arrived at base around 6:30 and set for some serious and rapid gear sorting. We were busy and motivated, but not so much that we couldn’t connect with ALE’s wonderful staff at VBC to thank them for such comprehensive support and friendship. It turned out that we were sharing the flight with a couple of ALE’s owners and so our Twin Otter pilot, Monica, took the scenic route through the mountains, much to our delight. We got back to Union Glacier on a calm and sunny -warm, by our standards- evening and life got a lot easier. The camp is chock full of marathon runners who’d flown in this afternoon. We missed that flight as an exit and so it seems we’ll get to be here for a bit longer and who knows... perhaps we’ll run in a little endurance race to stay limber. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The team didn’t seem particularly tired today, considering that they’d been within 1,200 feet of the summit yesterday. We had sunny skies and not much wind upon waking at high camp and so we were able to get going at 8:30 AM. We traveled with our big parkas in the packs for much of the day, just putting them on and off at rest breaks. That changed as we got near the final summit ridge. Things got a bit more serious with a ten mph wind that let us know just how cold the air was. We put on parkas, expedition mitts, goggles and face covers in a hurry. Just then it seemed we’d be in a battle to get to the top, but as soon as we did a few of the steeper snow ramps to get on the ridge proper, we got above the wind. It was a calm and even comfortable walk along the top of Antarctica. We got to the true summit at 3:30 PM and stayed for 45 minutes because it was so nice. We could see for hundreds of miles. We shook hands and congratulated one another... and in particular we slapped Dale on the back for completing his seventh continental summit. We took pics and made calls and then started walking carefully downward, mostly in dead calm and easy conditions. We were back in camp at 7 PM. Ironically, there was wind in camp so we served dinner in the sleeping tents. We’ll get down to basecamp tomorrow assuming that the weather holds. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from the summit of Mount Vinson, highest point in Antarctica. Us four remaining climbers are up here. Our fifth climber is safe at high camp. All is well. We have really lucked out. We're up here in windless conditions on top. Very comfortable even though it's probably on the order of -35 degrees. So we're doing very well. We've made good time coming up here. It's 3:30 local time. We started at 8:30 local time. So we're doing quite well and we'll give you a dispatch from high camp when we get back there safely. All the best from Antarctica! RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

We got close to the top today and we’re trying again tomorrow. A persistent 10 mph wind rattled the tents all night long and carried into the morning as well. That -combined with the cold- made gearing up and getting ready difficult. We hit the trail by 10 AM. At first, it was something of a hassle to keep glasses and goggles from fogging and our faces from freezing, but within about 90 minutes we’d left the wind behind and could just concentrate on good walking. The weather up on Vinson’s peak seemed perfect and we were growing steadily closer. At 3 PM we’d reached 14,800 ft (Vinson is just over 16,000 ft) when one of our climbers made the difficult decision to go no higher. Running the fuel tank dry anywhere is a hassle, but it can be life threatening on a high, cold, remote Antarctic peak. We needed to turn around and get back to high camp. We were down by five and the team immediately set to “work” resting and rehydrating. Four of us will go for it tomorrow while our teammate rests in high camp. The forecast is still looking good for tomorrow and of course we hope to get the job done. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

One of the days we were waiting for. It was obvious from the start (10 AM) that this was our day to move up to High Camp. Skies were brilliant blue, peaks were clear of cloud caps, and little wind could be detected off the High Camp ridge three thousand feet above us. By midday we’d spoken to Vinson base and learned we had the forecast in our favor as well -conditions improving on each of the next two days. That could work out well. It wasn’t actually so nice down at Vinson Base Camp... they were in fog and murk and couldn’t get airplanes in or out. We left Low Camp -which had been our home for six nights- at 12:42 PM. Having the fixed ropes to ourselves was pleasant in a lot of ways, but it was still uphill forever and our packs were heavier than when we’d gone up for our carry. As we neared High Camp at 6:20 PM, the “wind” was about three miles per hour... but that little bit of movement reminded us quickly just how cold the air was (likely 10 or 15 F below zero). We built our tents and ate dinner while strategizing over a summit bid tomorrow. It would be tempting to stay out in the late night sunshine looking over “the edge” for hours (one hundred feet from our tents is the upper rim of the great western escarpment of Vinson) the peaks are jagged and vivid, the backdrop is an endless sea of clouds and ice... but we’ll stare at it all some other time. Gotta get our sleep. Big day coming up. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

There was improvement all around when we checked weather this morning, but not enough to permit moving up yet. The clouds were almost gone, which seemed to fit with the forecast that high pressure was building, but there was still wind up high blowing big streamers of snow off the ridge overhead. In the below zero temps we work in down here, one just can’t get a whole lot safely done while walking into wind. But today’s winds were nothing like yesterday’s. We followed our familiar Low Camp rest day routine of alternating naps reading and feeding. We didn’t cut blocks or add to our snow walls today though... we’re finally feeling temporary, like we’ll leave this camp tomorrow. We checked in with Base Camp a couple of times today, as usual. Their weather was actually worse than ours and the climbers were still waiting for clearing to be able to fly back to Union Glacier. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The weatherman was spot on. By morning there were wind sculpted space ship clouds stacked over all the peaks and the ridge above us began to sprout streamers of snow flying out into the air. Not a whole lot of choice for us but to stay put. The teams at high camp were able to get moving downward before things strengthened at midday. We greeted and congratulated our traveling companions as they did a quick reshuffle of their gear and got hauling sleds down to basecamp. And we went back to cutting snow blocks and building stout walls to protect our tents. Before long, the winds were visible reaching all the way down the fixed lines and it was blowing pretty hard -perhaps 40 or 50 mph- on the glacier just a few hundred meters from our camp. We’re considering ourselves quite lucky that it stayed relatively calm and even sunny in camp all day. The jealousy for the victorious teams that hit the narrow two day weather window perfectly has passed and we are now a little excited to have the entire mountain to ourselves. It feels a little more “Antarctic” in some way. What better way to commemorate that Antarctic feeling, than with burrito night in the cook tent. We are each confident and motivated for climbing Mt. Vinson just as soon as the wind drops. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Definitely the nicest day of the trip so far. We spent it resting at Low Camp. Rest was welcome after the big effort yesterday, but the day would have been a bit more relaxing had we not received the news that the wind would come back tomorrow. Things worked out well for the other teams on the mountain. While we all climbed the fixed lines to High Camp yesterday, ours was the only group electing to carry and return to Vinson Low Camp. The others stayed up and went to the top today. Of course we are happy for them, but we’ll be truly happy when we’ve gotten equally lucky with a calm day of our own up high. We enjoyed the profound quiet today, without people and without weather. We read and rested, cut a few snow blocks for walls and ate a few more meals in our kitchen tent. We’ll enjoy the late sun on the tents tonight and we’ll hope the weatherman and the weather have both had a change of heart by tomorrow. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map