Late Night

After an exhausting night of Twin Otter landings, briefings, and endless
cups of tea, we are finally all here for V1. We finished our evening around
2am. Our 4 clients finally touched down here at VBC around 9pm. After the
initial shock of being here set in and photos were taken we had them settle
into their tents and meet for a briefing over coffee and tea. The Twin
Otter took off from VBC and transported another expedition bound for Tyree.
Darren went with to photograph the route. We were all very jealous, me
especially considering I have been wanting to climb that mountain since I
first learned of its existence. The plane then went back to Patriot Hills
to deliver another group of clients and their guide to VBC later that
evening. Just after midnight the Otter gracefully landed again at VBC and 5
more people joined the fray. Now there are 13 people here. It feels like
city! We are all intending on heading up to low camp today. Pachi and I
will move with our clients and stay there tonight, while the other
expedition will carry to low camp and return to VBC to sleep. Our group is
stoked and seem fit. There is quite an age difference between the one being
my age and the other on almost in his 70's. Helmut, the oldest, is very
resilient. After a failed attempt last season with a different company he
has come back to try again with us. We are very excited to give him his
"last shot", this is also his finally attempt at completing the 7 summit.
We certainly will give it our best shot. We have time and with any luck we
will have good weather. Wish us luck! And with that, I am outta here.
Hopefully speak to you guys next week! Lots of love from Vinson Massif!

Chris

Vinson Base Camp
Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions

Clients on their way.

Today we awoke to clear skies and calm conditions. Although this is typical
for VBC it is the first time this season we have had such stable weather.
The forecast is calling for a stable weather pattern for at least 3 or 4
more days! We received news from Patriot Hills this morning that the IL-76
was to be launched this afternoon and we should prepare to have clients
arrive this evening. We are all excited to get this show on the road. On
this first rotation Pachi and myself and guiding two clients each. Namgya
will serve as a ranger and possibly help with either of our teams or an
additional American team that will be on the mountain at the same time. We
spent the remainder of the morning preparing for their arrival. Prepping
sleds, putting up tents, and preparing the runway for the Twin Otter to
land. Tonight we will all eat together here at VBC and do final
preparations to head up the mountain tomorrow. If all goes well the plan
will be to set off tomorrow early afternoon to low camp. We will either
take a rest day there or continue up to high camp via the fixed lines the
following day. If we have not had a rest day at the point we will rest at
high camp and prepare for the summit the following day. The conflict with
this plan is that Mark (the weather man at Patriot Hills) is calling for
20-30 knot winds on December 1st and 2nd. If that is the case things might
get difficult up high. So hopefully we will either move fast enough to be
up and down by then, or be in good position to hunker down and wait for a
good weather window to summit. My hope is that we can be up in down in 5 or
6 days, but it will all be weather dependent. Also as usual I will try and
convince them to climb something else, like Shinn (the 3rd tallest in
Antarctica), but it always seems like a difficult sell. The next Twin Otter
flight is scheduled for December 3rd, so if we move fast enough, they could
be out on that flight potentially, but not likely. So until I get back
down, hopefully with one more Vinson summit under my belt, I will be out of
touch. Happy December!!!

Thanks for reading!
Chris

Vinson Base Camp
Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions

FW: The Mountain So Far

Vinson Base Camp
Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions
vinson.base@antarctic-logistics.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: Vinson Base Camp [mailto:vinson.base@antarctic-logistics.com]
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 1:42 PM
To: 'bigmountaindreams@blogspot.com'; 'Nick Lewis'; 'Manager.Patriots'
Subject: The Mountain So Far

Hello from Vinson Base Camp

The last week has been very busy here on Vinson Massif. The start-up crew,
Darren, Namgya, Pachi, and I arrived on November 20. The Twin Otter pilots
did an amazing job landing the plane in poor visibility, no contrast, and
very little horizon to go off of. We all sprung into action as soon as the
Otter's doors were opened. The pilots jumped in and helped us with the
laborious task of digging out the Weather-haven and setting up our tents.
The Weather-haven was in great condition compared to last year. The crew
that put things away at the end of last season did an amazing job of leaving
things in an organized fashion. Although there had been some snow
deposition over the winter, the weather-haven was only half covered and our
second storage tent had very little coverage. We worked until 2 a.m. and
got much accomplished. The pilots stayed the night here at VBC as
conditions were too difficult to fly.

The following morning we all set to work, organizing and cleaning. At 3
p.m. the pilots were called back to Patriot Hills to transport a south pole
expedition to their starting point. For the next two days we worked on
getting camp put together. We established VHF/HF communication, erecting
two small comms antennas/towers. We also installed our solar panels and
began to charge batteries within the tent. The weather had been sub-par the
entire time, minus some sun shine one afternoon, in which we took the
opportunity to ski. The snow was better that I had ever seen it.

On the 24th the weather still had not cleared, but we were all anxious to
get going on the mountain, so the four of us set up hill in a white out. We
navigated via GPS until just before half camp, when we punched through the
heavy cloud layer to clear skies above. We got our first view of the summit
this season. We had placed wands on the lower route, almost to half camp,
but had run out of wands to mark the plateau from half camp to low camp.
After a brief rest at half camp we cruised on to low camp. The very large
crevasses that lie in between the two camps were filled in and solid. With
good visibility we put in a nice route all the way into half camp. Once we
arrived we began the process of digging out the cache that had been left
there. Again the break-down crew had left the cache organized and finding
our kit was relatively easy. And with a calm and cold evening ahead we set
up tents and cooked dinner in our tent vestibules. The following morning we
had intended to move up to high camp, but winds pounded the ridge above
sending plumes of snow over the knife edge ridge an into the thin air above.
We decided to take the opportunity to build low camp. Namgya snuffed out a
good quarry for snow blocks and the group spent the entire day building snow
walls to protect our tents and to protect the toilet. Digging and moving
heavy blocks all day left us tired and we all crawled into our sleeping bags
for some much needed rest.

The morning of the 25th we awoke to find the winds on the ridge still
present, but less threatening than the day. We all decided to start working
on establishing the 1200 meters of fixed line up the prominent ridge above
low camp that eventually leads to high camp. Our goal was to have two
parties, one team working on the line, Pachi and I, and the other, Darren
and Namgya travel on to high camp putting in the route and digging out our
cache. However once Darren and Namgya reached the upper ridge the winds
increased and forced a retreat back onto the lines. The four of us dug up
bags full of rope and tossed them down in 200m sections. The bags were full
of snow and ice, but the ropes were in immaculate condition. We unearthed
each anchor from their hibernation, to our surprise there had been very
little ablation and the Dyneema slings put in last season were in perfect
condition. We each took turnes on various sections of lines. We placed
intermediate pickets and ran lines out to lunch ledge (a rest spot, half way
up the route). Once the lines were intact we continued back to low camp as
the night became crisp and cold. Our work day ended around 11 p.m..

November 26 we all awoke to do a scheduled communication with Patriot Hills.
The wind had increased up high and sounded like a freight train rapidly
descending upon us. Although we were eager to move up higher the winds
would not allow. Rather than go up high an risk an epic we decided to
descend to VBC and get some additional in camp tasks finished. The way down
to VBC was fast but we did take the time to put in wand markers, that we had
stolen from low camp, and marked the route to half camp. The weather closed
in above us however the weather down at VBC was as it should be, sunny and
calm. The first clients that were intended to be here on the 27th have been
delayed in Punta Arenas. We are still unsure when they will arrive. Until
then we will continue to prepare camp, lay down runway markers, and put up
client tents in anticipation of their arrival.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed friends and family.
Miss you guys!

Over and out...
Chris

Vinson Base Camp
Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions
vinson.base@antarctic-logistics.com

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Flight Day

It is Thursday the 12th of November and we are preparing to fly to Patriot Hills, Antarctica. The call was just made to try and launch, to which a frenzy of activity in-sued. The pick up here at the Condor del Plata hotel is in 30 minutes. From there we have a 30 minute bus ride to the airport were we all must have our passports stamped to exit the country. The we will board the IL-76 Russian jet and prepare for take-off. Once in the air we have a 5 hour flight over to the ice. This will be the first time in 9 months these pilots would have landed on ice, so there is much caution and deliberation before the actual touch down. Once on the ice we will begin the hard task of building the camp at Patriot Hills. The Vinson guide will most likely stay at Patriot Hills long enough to help get the camp mostly established before setting off to build our own camp at the base of Vinson Massif. So the next blog update will most likely come from Vinson Base Camp in a week or mores time. Until then my friends.

Preparing to fly to Patriot Hills

There is a weather system that has been blowing hard at Patriot Hills for the past few days. The forecast is calling for a break in the winds tomorrow, followed by cloud cover. If the visibility is good and the cloud cover not so server, we will try and fly to Patriot Hills tomorrow. It seems to be a 50/50 shot as to wether or no that will actually happen?

Life in Punta has been busy. Many thing to get accomplished in a short amount of time. Briefings on medical protocol and weather observations have been the most time consuming. Mixed in we have been occupied with smaller tasks like preparing packing labels for baggage, doing gear checks for clients, and helping the kitchen staff cooking prepackaged meals. After many meetings and discussions among various higher ups, the four guides going into Vinson Base camp now have a clear idea as to the tasks and the order in which things are going to be prioritized this season. Although we are well organized there is a feeling of stress among the four of us. While this is my 3rd season and Darren, Pachi, and Namgya's 2nd, we all have our reservations about the systems and tasks in front of us that we only little knowledge of. For example, while i have seen our energy system and solar lay out for Vinson Base camp, I have never actually installed it. Same goes for the comms antennas. We all know what we need to do in theory and I am sure we will have little problems executing, I think we are just a bit anxious. If any of you remember last season we arrived at VBC to find our Weather-haven tent half buried in snow and spend the better part of a week clearing snow. With estimated high winds through the winter this season I am a bit concerned we will find more of the same. With an additional Weather-haven tent and half the staff, we may spend the first week or two just digging out camp.

The tasks on the hill are all very much within our comfort zones. Establishing the route, camps, and fixed lines are all easy projects for us to tackle, just time consuming. As of now, myself and Pachi will guide 4 clients on the first rotation. Namgya Sherpa will be helping out a group guided by Phil Ershler, and Darren will act as Base Camp Manager on V1. There is no ALE clients on V2 so we will all be working on various projects including finishing the fixed lines, organizing base camp further, and potentially scouting an alternate and more challenging line to the summit. All and all it sounds like a fun season and we are all looking forward to getting things underway. I will keep you posted on when we actually fly to the ice. Possibly tomorrow? Stay tuned.

Back in Punta Arenas

Well gang, I am back in Chile now. It was a long flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas to Santiago de Chile and on to Punta Arenas, but I am here. It is strange, but I feel as though I were here yesterday. It is as though not much has changed really. With all the time that has elapsed since I was in this very hotel, the infamous Condor del Plata, it seems only hours ago I was here. Time has flown by. This last year has been jam packed year or climbing and fun. I have had to pleasure I getting to climb the majority or the year and was able to climb in Mexico, Colorado, Quebec, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, and Alaska this year. I got the opportunity to climb with old friends and new and push myself and new ways and in new areas. I am excited to be going back down to Antarctica this year. I will be the first to admit how hard it is to leave loved ones behind, but in the end this is my passion, it is what I do, it is an inner voice I cannot ignore. I am lucky to have a strong group of people who I surround myself with who love and support me. They are truly what keeps me going when times are difficult out here.

Over the next week we will be preparing to fly onto the ice, which is scheduled for November 12th. We will be training, packing gear, loading planes, and making last minute preparations for this seasons activities. Much work needs to be done on the mountain and my time on the ice will be busy. The fixed line that I helped establish last year and the year prior is due for more maintenance. The repeater, that relays a radio signal from base camp to high camp and summit needs to be tested in more remote areas of the mountain, i.e. in crevasses. Alternative routes need to be established on the mountains and safe ski descents need to be determined. A mock rescue from high camp to low camp, and low camp to base camp needs to take place at some point during the season as well. I am intended to be on the ice from Nov 12th-Dec 31, weather permitting. I will do my best to keep up to date on this blog. Since I will be updating this blog via satellite phone through SMS or text I wont be able to answer any questions until after I return from Antarctica, but please comment, I will still read them at some point! Thanks again for checking this out and for the continued support! Much love!

Chris