Entries from Vinson Massif
November 25, 2018
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Our bags are packed and stowed on the Ilyushin 76... the big four engine Russian Jet that will take us down to the
Ice. We hope to be off deck first thing tomorrow morning, but that will certainly depend on the weather. The gear got weighed and gathered up just after nine in the morning, so we had plenty of time to go strolling along the shore of Magellan’s Strait. Our next official function was a briefing/cocktail party at ALE headquarters at 4 PM. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions- is our outfitter and they gathered the fifty or so passengers for our flight to orient and educate us on the trip South. They issued Pisco Sours served over Antarctic ice for the occasion, which was something of a reunion for the guides and frequent climbers in the group. They explained that the weather needs to improve a little, but that there is some reason to hope that it will for a flight tomorrow. My team of five went out for a last restaurant meal and then called it an early evening. We’ll get up early...around 5AM... and we’ll see if conditions have improved.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
November 24, 2018
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
A
Vinson climb in the heart of Antarctica begins with a heck of a lot of airplane and airport time. Over the past two days my team assembled in Punta Arenas in Southern Chile. Today, the five of us met after breakfast and began to go over the details of how we’ll get from South America to the Ice. It was an easy day of packing personal gear and resting in hotel rooms. Outside, the weather swirled and cycled in a typical late November Patagonian mad mix. The wind generally howled and white caps were everywhere out on the Straits of Magellan. Rain showers alternated with intense sunshine and blue sky. In the early evening, we walked a few blocks along the busy streets to a trusted restaurant and enjoyed a casual dinner while discussing colder places. We’ll have tomorrow to complete our preparations and these last two nights to get over our jet lag.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
December 16, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Friday, December 15, 2017
Back in South America! It was a fine morning out at
Union Glacier. One could tell our outfitter (ALE) was anxious to get rid of the fifty odd stinky, hungry, hyper climbers in camp. The Ilyushin was off deck from Punta Arenas by mid morning and we were on it ready for take off at 3 PM. The morning at Union was wonderful, saying so long to old and new friends. Everyone commented on how long us “V1” climbers had been down (pretty far into V2) and sure, it is true... we got way behind schedule waiting for storms... but somehow today, it all seemed extremely worth the wait. Landing in rain in Punta Arenas was a novelty. Darkness was a novelty. Showers and plumbing were a novelty. Dinner together was just fun and delicious (starting at10 PM -normal for Latin America). We went to the top floor of a high hotel for a nightcap and found the other fifty climbers we’d traveled with. Lots of fist bumping, back slapping and hugging ensued. It began to crystallize... we’d lived through a great adventure together. We’ll remember it forever.
Tomorrow (later today actually) we’ll bump into each other in airports from Punta to Miami and beyond. It will be back to the same old grind... but not quite... we’ve shared enough of the good stuff in the wildest, weirdest corner of the world to make that same old grind a little finer forever.
Thanks very much for keeping track of our adventure.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
December 14, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Today was just plain easy. The weather was fine, the flight to Chile is still on for tomorrow, the food was plentiful... stress was low, all around. We played games, attended history lectures, rested and talked endlessly with adventurers, explorers and climbers. The dining tent at
Union Glacier is an international crossroads beyond compare. It isn’t uncommon to hear a different language -or two-
at each table as one passes through with platefuls of fresh fruit and veggies flown onto the Ice from South America. Life is way easier here than out at Vinson, but we’re still talking animatedly about summit day there... or about the storms that challenged us. But now we’re also starting to talk about travel plans and what might be next... for climbing or visiting or just for living. If all goes well, we could be back in Punta Arenas tomorrow night, which would require lots of switching gears and reconnecting with the world. For tonight though, we’re still sleeping on snow in a world of our own.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
December 13, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
And just like that... everything started moving again. The storm ended exactly on schedule. By 6:30 AM High Camp was calm and sunny and we started brewing up. We packed and dug our gear out of the snow. We shook pounds of ice and frost out of the tents before stuffing them in their sacks. With crampons on one last time, we departed at 10 AM. After seeing virtually nothing for days, the scenery today was welcome and spectacular. We made good time down the fixed ropes in the morning shadow. Lindsay led the charge, pulling the lines free of the wind slabbed snow for a good chunk of the route. At Low Camp, we re-tooled and set up for hauling sleds. No more crampons and ice axes, it was time to switch back to ski poles. By this point we’d been made aware that there were seats on an airplane out of Vinson Base just for us... provided that we got our tails down there in time. We had the lower mountain pretty much to ourselves for the next few hours of trudging through the frozen beauty of the Branscomb Glacier. There was just time enough on reaching base to hastily organize gear before the Twin Otter floated in to a perfect landing. We said our goodbyes to the mountain and the ALE staff at
Vinson Base Camp and climbed aboard. Back at Union Glacier, we got out in early evening to a far easier environment... hard packed level snow, mild temps and walk-in tents with tables and chairs. We caught up to the gang of Vinson climbers we’d originally gone to the mountain with. It was a pleasant reunion with guests and staff and everybody trading notes on weather at the top of Antarctica, out at the penguins, back in the Alps or off in the Himalaya. Word is that an Ilyushin flight may be inbound for us the day after tomorrow... on the 15th. Better late than never. In any case, my team is looking forward to a low altitude night without a storm tearing at the tents. Union is certainly good enough for now.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
December 12, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,400'
Still at
High Camp. True to the predictions, today was a lot like yesterday. Windy, snowy, socked-in, cold and consistently poor for going places. We passed the day in our sleeping bags, with a little more frost and snow building up in the tents each and every hour. But we are still smiling. We’re fed. We’re hydrated. Well-rested, tanned and ready for action. This evening, although we are still in murk and a ground blizzard, the peaks are out. Cloud free and shining in sunlight. The forecasters back at Union Glacier tell us we are in store for rapid clearing and calming tomorrow. In which case we’ll shake off the frost and get moving again.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
December 11, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Seminar Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,300'
Our summit has clearly angered the mountain gods. We woke to a blizzard at 12,300 ft. Not the worst blizzard though, winds are steady at about 25 mph, visibility is barely to the neighboring tents, the air is chock full of snow -at least some of which is “falling” from the cloud we are in. Moving -even to lower and more comfortable climates and airplanes- was out of the question. Besides, on the radio at midday it sounded heinous at
Low Camp, with fifty-knot gusts and busted tents. So we sat put. Our tents are holding up well, although great quantities of snow and frost seem to find their way inside. We recovered from yesterday’s climb with bed rest and hot meals and coffee and cocoa. A small price to pay for a visit to the highest point on the continent.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
December 10, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Elevation: 16,067'
We made it to the summit of
Vinson today! In the nick of time as it turned out. While our time of ascent was a blazing fast seven hours, the mountain was anything but easy today. We started with blue skies, bright sun and a nagging 10 mph breeze when the stoves were fired shortly after seven this morning. That breeze made things like fastening harnesses and crampons quite cold. We roped up and got moving at 9:45 hoping to lose the wind as we got into the protection of the valley glacier that would take us to the summit. That worked a little, things were reduced to occasional gusts. Those gusts increased in frequency and force as we got up near 15,000 ft. By the time we were scrambling onto the summit ridge, it was blowing a more or less steady 30 mph. We worked pretty hard to keep each other’s faces frost free and to keep sunglasses and ultimately goggles from fogging up. Hitting the top at 4:45 was a thrill, but not at all one we could linger over. We squeezed off just a couple of photos (which we’ll post after getting back to the Wi-Fi world) but it really wasn’t the day for bare hands on the summit. We set out to get off the ridge and down to high camp. This was accomplished in about three hours, during which we watched winds increase and a storm move into the Ellsworth Mountains. At 8:00 when we pulled into camp, the sun was in the clouds and winds were rock steady at about 20 mph, moving plenty of snow around. The victory dinner was in tents as it is far from pleasant at High Camp tonight. We snuck this one in... now to get down the mountain.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
December 9, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,300'
Today was just right for moving. We were up and getting ready shortly after the ten thirty sun hit the tents. Launch time was 12:50 PM and with perfect conditions, we made steady and excellent progress. Certainly the 2,000 vertical feet of the fixed lines were still difficult with heavy packs, but we had the benefit of being on familiar ground. We cruised into
High Camp at 6 PM, still feeling strong, but also noticing just how much colder it is up around 12,300 ft. We dressed up and built camp, got stoves going and sat down out in the sunshine for dinner. The views from here are other-worldly, with ice stretching beyond the visible horizon in any direction and mountains rising to ridiculously sharp summits all around. The teams we waited with at Union Glacier all hit the summit today and we greeted them each with a “congratulations” and a fist bump when they rolled into camp on their return.
Perhaps we’ll get as lucky tomorrow. We will be ready.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
December 8, 2017
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,100'
Still just a bit breezy up high. The teams at
High Camp reported steady 15 knot winds but thing looked a lot better from Low Camp today, the giant airwave lenticular cloud to the west of the mountains was gone and we had high hopes for going high if the snow streamers off the ridge died down. They did, a little later than we would have liked but we decided to break camp and make the move. We only got to the base of the fixed ropes before deciding to give it one more day. The team wasn’t firing on all cylinders and the continuing cold winds above the fixed ropes could make the last hours into High Camp quite difficult. We set up Low Camp again and set our sights on tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Thinking many warm and fuzzy thoughts to all of you. Can’t believe that this morning I complained about a few flurries in Worthington!
Posted by: Janet Brennan on 11/27/2018 at 9:01 am
Looking forward to reading about your adventures Matt! The Theta Chi team is behind you 10%!
Posted by: Steve Magas on 11/25/2018 at 8:23 am
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