Hello from high camp on Ixta! Everyone did great today, the tents are up and I'm about to start cooking dinner.
This morning we got up at 6:30 and had bacon and eggs for breakfast. After packing our gear we got a ride from our driver to La Joya, which is where the trail starts. It took us five hours to reach high camp with the big packs but we have plenty of time to relax before we go to the summit.
Hopefully the next time I check in we'll be standing on top of Ixta!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
We're on Ixta! Well we're actually at the Altzimoni Hut but we did get up to 14,600' on Ixta today. That means we set new altitude records for the whole team. That's always cool.
The day started with an 8 am pick up from La Malinche. Our fantastic driver, Rogelio, took us to the best breakfast in Mexico at the Hotel Mission Tlaxcala. Very nice.
Then we hit the market in the town of Amecameca for some last minute food and water before driving to the Altzimoni Hut. After dropping our gear we set out for a hike. We took the same route that we will follow tomorrow and I dropped some water at our high point. We'll pick that up on the way through on our way to high camp and I'll check in again from there.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
The first full day of the trip has been a blast. We started off with breakfast at the hotel in Mexico City. While we were eating the military honor guard raised the national flag in front of the presidential palace giving us quite the show.
After that we peeled out of town and headed for the mountains. On our way out we stopped to get some water and one of the guys found a soccer ball that he just had to have. So now we have a team soccer ball.
The drive was real smooth and we pulled into the cabanas at La Malinche before noon.
Once we moved in we set off for a hike. We ended up getting to about 13,700 feet on La Malinche and set a new altitude record for Dave!
We have just returned from the hike and we're all starving. Dinner is in 8 minutes so I've got to go!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Buenos noches from Mexico City. Everyone has arrived without too much incident and we just spent the evening getting to know each other. Our hotel is located right on the zocalo (historic center) in the city so there is tons of activity all around. We had a great dinner overlooking the square and now we're getting ready for a fairly early start tomorrow. Our next stop is La Malinche where we begin our acclimatization in earnest.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
An easy and slightly surreal day for the team, after so much walking and dealing with discomfort... to be thoroughly inactive, waited upon and flat out comfortable in the luxurious dining tent at Union Glacier.
The team wasn't visibly anxious to be missing out on exercise, nor did anyone seem worried over whether the Ilyushin airplane would fly on time. We sat, we ate, we concurred. Life is good. There was a persistent and slight breeze blowing all day long at the Union Glacier camp, but the air temperature is so warm (compared to anywhere on Vinson) that we routinely walked from tent to tent without gloves or jackets, crunching along on well-packed snow.
If all goes well, the plane will fly from Punta Arenas tomorrow and the RMI Vinson team will head back to South America and a victory feast with Seth Waterfall. I'll stay in to greet the next RMI Vinson team and get started on a new adventure. Many thanks to those who have followed our trip for the past two weeks. Your comments were passed on to us (we don't surf the web, but we exchange email with RMI headquarters) and produced many smiles on twelve sunburned faces.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Thanks to you Dave & Seth and the whole RMI team. Sterling had a wonderful experience.
Sue
Posted by: Sue Foreman on 12/17/2012 at 9:39 pm
Dear Dave & Seth: Thank you very much for taking the time to write all those informative blogs every day after a hard day of climbing in extreme cold. They were the first things I checked for in the morning and last things I read at night. They made me feel like part of the expedition (albeit in the comfort of our home), living the ups and downs of our loved ones through your postings. Thanks for guiding another successful climb! Happy Holidays! -Fan
There was a wind blowing in the night at high camp. It was just a few miles per hour, but it was steady and we'd been exceedingly lucky in not having any wind for four days up high, so it was a worry. But a needless worry, since by morning it was gone. We ate, we packed and by ten in the morning we were walking downhill with great big packs. Everybody was thinking about getting those big packs down the steep fixed ropes... the last real obstacle to our safety, but we caught those ropes and slopes in perfect condition. They were still in shadow and the tracks of teams that had descended several days earlier were still in perfect condition and useful as stairs. We made it to our old digs at low camp in just a few hours, packed and repacked there and then plodded down the Branscomb Glacier toward Basecamp. Cresting the final hill, we saw two Twin Otter airplanes sitting patiently and waiting to take us away. This was a pleasant surprise as we hadn't really discussed an exit strategy yet with ALE, our logistics company. At Basecamp by four in the afternoon, we shuffled duffels and boarded the planes. Some of us were treated to a magnificent scenic flight as the pilot performed a mountain reconnaissance for future climbs on our way back to Union Glacier. The Twin spiraled around one Matterhorn after another and dove through tight v-shaped passes. A smooth landing at Union got us in just in time for dinner. A wonderful dinner, whilst sitting in chairs, with backs. True luxury. We caught up with fellow climbers from the mountain (who we hadn't seen for days) and with the wonderful staff at ALE. Life is considerably warmer and easier at Union Glacier, and the team is excited about being a step closer to home, but we're all still buzzing over the mountain that we lived on for the last nine days. And climbed.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
HW: Great to know you are be step closer to home. Hope you will be ale to fly to Punta Arenas soon. We had a lot of fun at the birthday party. Love, -Fan
Posted by: Fan on 12/16/2012 at 6:22 pm
Sterling, The plane ride sounded like it might have been another highlight of this trip. We hope to see you New Years Day. Have a great trip home.
Posted by: Dave & Shirley on 12/16/2012 at 10:43 am
Back to perfect weather. We made the summit of Mt. Vinson one more time today. Just a small rope team to get the final climber -who rested yesterday- up to see the sights. And there were unlimited sights to be seen. The entire Ellsworth chain was visible from end to end and beyond, at least two hundred miles of jagged peaks and endless ice. There wasn't any wind at all on the summit today, so it was the most comfortable -30 C one is ever likely to see. We made the top in 6 hours and 45 minutes, spent a half hour up there saying "wow" over and over, and descended to high camp in two hours. Seth Waterfall and the rest of the team took things easy at high camp throughout a nice long sunny day, snacking and catching up on hydration. Tomorrow we'll all drop back down the mountain and begin the journey home.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on 12/15/2012 at 3:21 pm
HW: Very happy for the whole team to reach 100% success rate. I hope you have taken many pictures at high camp today. Wish for good weather so you can come down and fly out soon. Kudos to Dave for going up the summit two days in a row to make sure everyone could summit! Over here, we had a fun birthday party for M today with 10 kids coming. Please stay safe. Love, -Fan
If at first you don't succeed... The forecast really wasn't all that good for today, but when Seth Waterfall and I looked out of the tent at 7:30 AM, we couldn't find too much wrong with the day. We started stoves, woke the team and geared up once again for a summit bid. We got out of camp at around 10 AM and made steady progress in bright sunshine. Eventually the sky clouded up (as we'd been told it might) but we kept a careful watch out for wind on the heights... and didn't see any. The team moved well, with many commenting that they actually felt stronger today than they had in yesterday's bid. We reached the old high point and then seemed to be getting above the clouds as we worked our way onto Vinson's summit ridge. We all thought it was going to be cold and windy on the final ridge but instead it was delightfully calm, sunny and even warm (it certainly didn't feel like the forecasted -28 C...although it might have with any wind whatsoever). The team loved the big blocky rocks and delicate traverses of the summit ridge. We got on top at 5:00 PM and stayed there for thirty minutes, shooting pictures and shaking hands. The clouds took a way a good chunk of the view possibilities, but we had glimpses enough through the mist to know we were way up in the air over Antarctica. The descent took a mere 2.5 hours and we were back in camp by 8:00 PM. Tired and happy. Our plan is for the majority of the team to rest at high camp tomorrow while I make one more try at the top with a climber who sat out today's bid.
Weather permitting.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
[Transcribed audio] Hey this is Seth checking from the summit of Vinson Massif, highest point in Antarctica. Had a great day of climbing. Started out in sun, ended up in the clouds, but we were on top in almost zero wind and light snow flurries. We are up pretty high. We are going to take a couple of photos and head on back to high camp and we'll check in then.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall from the Vinson Massif summit
THREE CHEERS!!! So excited for everyone!!!! Can’t wait to hear all about it. Continued Blessings.
Steph and Jane
Posted by: Steph and Jane on 12/14/2012 at 9:26 pm
FELICIDADES CAMPEONA, gracias por este hermoso regalo, si se pudo, tu espíritu inquebrantable, fortaleza, y Dios lo hicieron posible, FELICIDADES PRIMERA TICA EN ANTÁRTICA, te esperamos sana y salva ,, si se pudo la num. 6, Bravoooo, mami te manda felicitaciones de corazón, pensando que siempre sales adelante eres una pequeña gran mujer.
Posted by: Graciela Carmona Soto on 12/14/2012 at 3:37 pm
Hard day of mountain climbing. We got up at five minutes to six this morning, excited that the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing. As we ate breakfast, we could see cloud moving in from the Northeast, but our hope was that we could climb before anything serious moved in. We set out from high camp at 8:15 and made good and steady progress. It was a tough day to dress for as everyone continually cycled from too hot to too cold and rarely spent any time being just right. We watched cloud caps forming and dissipating on the peaks as we gained altitude, but eventually the clouds just kept building on Vinson. We'd reached 15,340' with 700' to go... roughly two more hours to the top. But we couldn't do it. The winds had picked up and snow was flying and people were tired, so it was a lousy combination for tackling the exposed summit ridge in cold conditions. Down we went and into a cold headwind. As expected, life was a lot easier when we got out from under the cloud cap, and by the time we'd reached high camp we were back in blue skies and sunshine. Hard to come so close and come away without the summit... But we'll keep trying. We have more food, more fuel, more muscles and more ambition.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Sterling, Tough Luck! But then that’s what all that training was about. You could probably do this a few more times. Hopefully the second try will be successful.
Good Luck!
Posted by: Dave & Shirley on 12/13/2012 at 3:21 pm
Hi, Jules!
Good luck on summit bid #2 and Seven Summits #7! You rock!
Lily
The clouds fled Low Camp around 1:30 this morning and we woke to sparkling skies about ten hours later. Moving day! Breakfast got us set for a flurry of gearing up, knocking tents down, and roping up for the big climb to high camp. We are old hands at climbing the steep fixed rope sections now, but most were startled at the scenery (which eluded us on our cloudy climb the other day). We had unimpaired views of hundreds of square miles of the Antarctic interior today, including the big jagged, crazy peaks just north of Vinson (Shinn and Epperly). As we worked our way higher, our "Low" Camp began to seem low indeed, reduced to a collection of specks on the big Branscomb Glacier. We pulled into high camp six hours after setting out, at a quarter to Eight PM. As usual, it was a fair amount of work getting tents up and stoves burning and snow melting for dinner, but the entire team is well practiced now at such chores and it went quickly. One by one our climbers wandered over to the edge of camp to peer out over the edge of the world. At least the big drop-off back down to the Branscomb seems that way now. Precipitous to the tune of more than three thousand vertical feet. A physical cliff, as it were. Tell congress we've found it.
Tomorrow, relatively bright and early, we'll get up and see if the weather will work for a summit day. It is forecast to be -28 degrees Celsius on top tomorrow. Which is normal. By the way, that converts to minus brrrrrrrr degrees Fahrenheit.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
You’re making me tear up, Seth!
Soo thrilled!
Posted by: Laura on 1/16/2013 at 8:31 am
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