more for an ending rather than a pause. The weather has finally began a
trend of significant improvement. This morning we woke to the clearest and
calmest skies we have had in ten days. We immediately put in a call to
Patriot Hills requesting that the twin otters be launched. Unfortunately
Patriots doesn't seem as motivated as we are here at Vinson base. They were
partying hard last night and our call was the call that got the ants moving,
sad really. Hopefully the pilots kept their heads and didn't get so "shit
faced" they can't fly? With our call we also may have rallied the movement
of the IL76 to think about getting off deck in Chile. With any luck tonight
I will be eating bad Chilean food at "Santino's" and repacking to get on a
LAN flight to Santiago the following morning.
As any of you have read and could have imagined this delay has been hard on
me. We have had clients stuck here with us as well, so there has been work
to do. Cooking, entertaining, trying to sound positive and optimistic, even
though we all were frustrated and antsy. The crew has been amazing. Only
some of us are leaving, the majority of guide shifting happen on the last
round of flights, so many of the guides here now, just arrived in the scheme
of the season. They have been patient with my impatience. They however
feel the stress of this delay in that all of their clients will come on to
the mountain ten days delayed. They will all feel stressed about making the
flight at the end of their trip, will be soon. They will feel the need to
rush their climb and pressure their guides to move on a faster pace than
normal so they may make their return flights. To top that off we have two
Korean clients, one deaf, and one with NO fingers. I guess you could say NO
hands, but he has palms, just no digits on either of them. So he comes with
an interpreter who "doubles" as a pair of hands. Don't even ask me how that
trip is going to go down, let's just say I am thankful I am not the guide.
We also had the Lord Major of Prague on this next trip, but cancelled due to
all the delays. So the new guides will have their work cut out for them.
I was thinking about everyone yesterday and I hope everyone had a wonderful
holiday! Hopefully I will get to see you guys before New Years. Thanks
again for reading and those that have written, thanks for keeping in touch!
Hopefully this will be my one of the last dispatches of the Antarctic 08/09
season, but as previous ramblings have explain the only thing out here that
is constant is "change". Love you guys.
Chris
Vinson Base Camp
Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions
vinson.base@antarctic-logistics.com
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