Vinson Massif: First Carry above Basecamp
We've got an entire day on Mt Vinson under our belts now. By the time we turned in last night it seemed we'd been awake for days... Mostly because we had been -with the midnight to four a.m. Ilyushin 76 flight onto the Antarctic continent and then a day of waiting at Union Glacier basecamp. Our Twin Otter pilots came through nicely though and the entire team was on the Branscomb Glacier at 7,000' by early evening. Vinson Basecamp (VBC), but not until we built it. We all felt pretty lucky to have gotten in since visibility and contrast weren't great. It was calm at Vinson Basecamp though, which was nice. And cold, which was expected. We stayed in our warm sleeping bags until 9 a.m. and then wandered out to stare at our surroundings and to eat breakfast. It took several hours to sort ourselves out and to switch gears from hopping continents to hopping crevasses but finally we stretched our ropes and our legs and got busy doing a carry of food and fuel partway to Camp One. The weather wasn't spectacular and we wanted to be careful not to overdue things on this first day, so we covered about two and a half miles before caching the gear and returning to VBC. Weather was slightly nicer by then in basecamp and so having dinner in the strong, warm 9 PM sunshine was a treat. We have big plans for tomorrow. We'd love to move up the mountain but it will depend on how everybody is feeling and what we see for weather.
In the tent now, at 12:45 AM with bright sunshine and a cool breeze blowing down glacier.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Vinson Massif: The Team Moves to Camp One in Good Weather
November 22, 2011
Comments (3)
Happy Thanksgiving! Good look on summit day. David you are missed, thinking of you.
Posted by: Birgitta Schindler on
PRAYING TODAY BRINGS GREAT CLIMBING WEATHER! BE SAFE!!
Posted by: TOM WENDEL on
How cold is cold?
Posted by: Tom on