All Antarctica expedition dispatches

Our Antarctica expedition team has safely made the ascent to Camp 1 on Mt. Vinson in the Ellsworth mountain range. Mt. Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, approx. 600 miles from the South Pole and over 1,200 miles from the beginning of the Antarctic Peninsula. Garrett Madison reports beautiful conditions and a strong team as they move up the mountain. Today our climbers will either have a rest day or complete a carry of supplies and food up higher on the mountain. All is well in Antarctica and our climbers will check in soon!

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Ellsworth mountain range

Our Mount Vinson climbers left Punta Arenas, Chile and have now arrived to Union Glacier Camp in Antarctica. The Union Glacier Camp is a seasonally occupied research and expedition staging site located in Ellsworth Land in Antarctica. The camp is located in the Heritage Range, south of the Ellsworth Mountains.

Garrett Madison checks in below after a night flight into Union Glacier Camp. The team will now organize their equipment before flying over to Mount Vinson in a couple hours. Our climbers plan to move up to low camp after a couple days of training with favorable weather conditions in the forecasts.

Happy New Years!  : )

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Mount Vinson climbers

Yesterday we left Mount Vinson base camp in the morning and flew by twin otter aircraft to Union Glacier camp, where we waited just a short time until the Ilushin 76 aircraft flew us to Punta Arenas, arriving late in the evening. Currently all members are in Punta Arenas or are enroute home. We have enjoyed 3 spectacular weeks in Antarctica, skiing to the South Pole and then climbing the highest peak on the continent, Mount Vinson, at just over 16,000 feet in elevation. Everyone on our team succeeded in both reaching the South Pole and reaching the summit of Mount Vinson.  This has been an awesome journey, a great way to start off 2017! We look forward to repeating this program next season in Antarctica!

Garrett Madison 

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Union Glacier Camp

Mt. Vinson Summit

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Union Glacier Camp

Antarctica Expedition Team 2017

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Union Glacier Camp

Descent on Mount Vinson

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Union Glacier Camp

Joel Schauer on the summit of Mount Vinson!

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Union Glacier Camp

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Union Glacier Camp

Hi, this is Garrett Madison calling in for the Mount Vinson climbing expedition. Today is January 19 and today we came from high camp down to Vinson base camp. We had a nice day, it was cloudy some light snow but not windy. Everyone did great coming down from high camp to low camp and all the way to base camp. Had a big meal hamburgers, pasta and a little champagne to toast our successful climb. Now we are just hanging out at base camp getting ready to go to sleep and waiting for a flight back to Union Glacier hopefully tomorrow. Then onward back to Chile and home. We have had a wonderful expedition we are down safe to base camp just waiting for a airplane to fly back to union glacier camp then a jet back to Chile. We will check in soon. Thanks.

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Mount Vinson climbing expedition

Mount Vinson climbing expedition

Hello, this is Garrett Madison with the Mount Vinson expedition. Today is January 17th and we are at the summit of Mount Vinson! Beautiful day up here, got the summit all to ourselves. We are the only team up here on the mountain on high camp. And we are going to savor the top here for 45 minutes, take a few photos and then head on down to high camp and spend the night. Everyone did great today worked hard, and just a glorious day up here blue skies. Views of the Sentinel range, Ellsworth mountains, Tyree, Shinn and just a spectacular day up here, we will check in soon. Thanks.

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Mount Vinson expedition

Hey this is Garrett Madison calling in for the Mount Vinson climbing team. We had a great rest day today at high camp. Our plan is to go for the summit tomorrow. We are going to depart high camp by around 8am and hopefully reach the summit sometime in the afternoon and make it back to camp in about 12 hours time. Beautiful weather up here, hardly any wind today, suns been out all day and no high clouds. Really lucky hoping this good weather holds for us tomorrow. Then we will be down the following day to Vinson basecamp. Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow and a fantastic summit. We will check in soon.

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Hello, it is the Mount Vinson team here in Antarctica. This is Garrett calling in today with a big day here for us, it is actually early 2am on January 16th and we are just getting ready to go to bed after a huge day climbing from low camp up to high camp. We made it up here a couple hours ago, took a while to have dinner and heat up our water bottles and get ready to bed. Everyone is doing well. We are up here at high camp the weather forecast looks good, we are going to take a rest day tomorrow. Hopefully summit the next day, the 17th of January if all goes according to plan. Beautiful views up here, 24 hours of daylight as usual in Antarctica this time of the year. Bright blue skies above us, all is well here in Antarctica, we will check in tomorrow. Thanks.

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Follow along with our friends at Polar Explorers for exciting news and photos as our team climbs Mt. Vinson! Stay tuned!!

 

Hi, this is Garrett Madison calling in for the Antarctica, Mt. Vinson team. Today is Sunday, January 15th and today we flew from Union Glacier Camp to Mt. Vinson base camp. And then began our climb up Mt. Vinson to low camp, which is at 10,000ft. We had a great day, very lucky to fly out of Union Glacier Camp arrived at Vinson base camp mid-day and then roped up and carried our packs and sleds up to low camp. Took us about six hours to get here. Had beautiful conditions, sunny skies and a few clouds to keep us cool. Everyone is doing really well up here and we just had a big dinner and are tucking into bed. Looking forward to a great day tomorrow we are going to try to climb up to high camp tomorrow as long as the weather holds. All is well here on Vinson, we are doing well and we will check in tomorrow.

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Follow along with our friends at Polar Explorers for exciting news and photos as our team climbs Mt. Vinson! Stay tuned!!

Hello, this is Garrett calling in with the Antarctica expedition. Today is Thursday, January 12th and today we flew from the South Pole back to Union Glacier Camp where we are going to spend a night rest up and prepare to head out to Mt Vinson for the next part of our adventure. Just had a great dinner here in Union Glacier Camp and we are looking forward to a good night of rest and hopefully tomorrow if the weather is good we will be able to fly by Twin Otter about 45 minutes out to Mt. Vinson base camp. We will check in soon.

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Follow along with our friends at Polar Explorers for exciting news and photos as our team continues to Mt. Vinson! Stay tuned!!

Hi, this is Garrett Madison calling in for the Antarctica South Pole ski expedition. I’m calling in from the South Pole, we made it in here yesterday afternoon and had a wonderful celebratory dinner, toasted some champagne. Today had a tour of the United States – South Pole station. Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. Now we are getting ready to fly by Twin Otter back to Union Glacier Camp where we are going to prepare for our next leg of the journey which is Mt. Vinson. We had a wonderful ski to the South Pole, 60 nautical miles about 110 kilometers everyone did great, beautiful weather. Now were are back to Union Glacier for the next part of our adventure.

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Antarctica South Pole Expedition 2017

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Antarctica South Pole Expedition 2017

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Antarctica South Pole Expedition 2017