Vinson Team Two Summits!

Best Christmas

Congratulations to Sarah, Thomas, and expedition leader Garrett Madison for making the summit of Mount Vinson (4892m/16,050ft)!!  Here’s Garrett via sat phone from High Camp with a recap of the day:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Vinson team number two.  Today is January 2nd.

Today we reached the summit of Mount Vinson!  We had a beautiful, glorious day all to ourselves up at the summit.  Nobody else was around and hardly any wind, clear skies, great climbing conditions.  So, a great day up there for myself, Sarah, and Thomas.  We are back at High Camp (3536m/11,600ft), had dinner, and are heading to bed.

Tomorrow we’re going to get up and head down to Base Camp.  So, all’s well here on Vinson…

[remainder of sat phone call was garbled and cut out]

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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Vinson Team Two Moves to High Camp

The view from Vinson High Camp

To start the new year, our second Mount Vinson expedition team moved up to High Camp to position themselves for their summit push within the next couple of days.  Terray Sylvester calls in today’s dispatch:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition of the season.  It’s New Year’s Day.

Today we woke up and had bacon and french toast for breakfast and then moved from Low Camp (2774m/9,100ft) to High Camp (3536m/11,600ft).  We had beautiful weather all day – clear, sunny skies and basically calm air, no wind.

Now we’re settled down in High Camp.  We had hamburgers for dinner with risotto and veggies.

[remainder of sat photo call garbled and cuts out]

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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Happy New Year from Vinson Low Camp!

Mount Vinson base camp

Our Mount Vinson Team Two wishes everyone a Happy New Year from the Low Camp (2774m/9,100ft) on Antarctica’s highest mountain!  Here’s to the great 2022 for everyone!!  Just before heading to bed, guide Terray Sylvester calls in via sat phone with today’s expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition of the season.  It is…, while now it is New Year’s Day – January 1st!

It’s about 2:00 AM and we are just going to bed.  The beautiful weather has continued so we took the day to practice some skills and review mountaineering techniques.  We celebrated the new year with a dinner of pork chops, corn, and spinach and a dessert of cheesecake, peaches, and strawberries.  So now we are turning in.

The camp here, Low Camp, is about to go into shade so it will get much colder even though, of course, the sun is still out.  When the camp comes back in the sun, we will get started and start moving up the mountain.

So we’ll be in touch!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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