2021/2022 season Mount Vinson expedition dispatches

100% Summit Success!

Mount Vinson summit ridge

Great news!  Garrett and the entire team made the summit of Mount Vinson today.  Way to go team!  Special congratulations to Jen for completing her Seven Summits quest!!  Here’s Garrett via sat phone just minutes are from Mount Vinson High Camp with the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team.  Today is Tuesday, December 28th and we reached the summit of Mount Vinson today – the highest point in Antarctica.

We had a beautiful day, just fantastic weather, and great route conditions.  Myself, John, and Jen got up to the top around 5:30 PM, a beautiful evening summit with 24-hours of daylight here in Antarctica.  We just got back to camp, had dinner, and heading to bed now at about 11 o’clock.

All’s well here and we’re heading down to Vinson Base Camp tomorrow.  Hoping this great weather sticks around for a while.

We’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

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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Getting ready to fly to The Ice!

Checking in for the flight to Union Glacier, Antarctica

Our Mount Vinson Team Two is ready to fly to Antarctica tomorrow morning!  Here’s guide Terray Sylvester with today’s expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition of our season.  It’s December 28th.

We’ve had a beautiful few days here in Punta Arenas enjoying some nice summer sunny weather, also a little bit of rain.  But today was a good day, we checked in for our flight down to “The Ice.”  We received our boarding passes, which is exciting.  We are all looking forward to getting on our flight tomorrow morning.  We’ll take off from Punta Arenas and then head south across the Strait of Magellan and the Southern Ocean and along the Antarctic Peninsula to Union Glacier Camp.  We may stay there tomorrow night or we may be able to continue directly on to Mount Vinson base camp.  We can’t wait for that!

We can’t wait to get the climb started and we’ll be in touch!

Checking bags

Checking bags

Dinner at La Marmita in Punta Arenas. Great seafood!

Dinner at La Marmita in Punta Arenas. Great seafood!

Punta Arenas architecture

Punta Arenas architecture

Punta Arenas statues

Punta Arenas statues

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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Update from Vinson High Camp

Near High Camp on Mount Vinson

Team member John provides today’s expedition update from Mount Vinson High Camp.  Spoiler-alert:  tomorrow they will make a summit attempt!

Hello, everybody. This is John checking in from Vinson High Camp on behalf of my fellow teammate Jen and expedition leader Garrett Madison.

Today we enjoyed a very relaxing rest day advance of our summit day tomorrow.  The weather was glorious today so we took advantage of it to taking some photos, walk around, get some exercise, and it’s an early night in bed in advance of our big day tomorrow.

All is well, spirits are high, and we look forward to giving you an update tomorrow night!

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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Mount Vinson High Camp!

Vinson High Camp

Vinson Team One made the move up to High Camp on Mount Vinson yesterday.  It was a nice climbing day from Low Camp to High Camp up the steep fixed ropes.  The team is now enjoying some good weather.  Everyone is happy, healthy, and doing well — not to mention super psyched to be getting ready for the summit push!  Stay tuned…

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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Merry Christmas from the Slopes of Mount Vinson!

Hauling sleds!

Merry Christmas from our team at Mount Vinson Low Camp (2774m/9,100ft)!  Here’s Garrett with holiday wishes and the climbing game plan:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team.  Today is Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas!

We are at Low Camp on Mount Vinson, and our plan is to head up to High Camp (3536m/11,600ft) tomorrow if the weather is good.  We’re about ready to get to bed here for a good night’s rest.  And then, tomorrow, wake up, have breakfast, and take a look at the weather.  If it’s good, we’ll head up to High Camp.

All’s well here on Vinson.  Have a wonderful Christmas Day!  We’ll check in soon.

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 Arrives Punta Arenas

Our second Mount Vinson team arrived at the jump-off city of Punta Arenas, Chile, and are making their preparations, getting ready to fly to Union Glacier, Antarctica in a few days.  Terray Sylvester provides the first expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition.  The whole team arrived today here in Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan.  It’s a beautiful Christmas day, a beautiful mid-summer warm Christmas day here, light until past 9 o’clock.

We had a nice dinner and we’ll be there for a few days while we wait for our flight to Antarctica.  Merry Christmas!!

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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Celebrating Christmas at Vinson Low Camp!

Mount Vinson Low Camp

Today our Mount Vinson team one moved into their Christmas location of Low Camp on Mount Vinson.  Meanwhile, in Punta Arenas, Chile, our Mount Vinson team two arrived and will spend the next few days preparing for their flight to Union Glacier, Antarctica.  Here’s Garrett via sat phone with the recap of the day on Mount Vinson:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team.  It’s Christmas Eve, December 24th here and we climbed up from Vinson Base Camp to Low Camp today on Mount Vinson.

We left base camp mid-day after packing up and caching our gear.  We climbed about eight hours up to Low Camp (or Camp 1) on Vinson.  We had nice weather, it was a little blustery and snowy starting out for the first few hours and then the wind let up a little bit and we actually got a little sun up here at Low Camp and had a Christmas Eve dinner.  We had some salmon, some mixed vegetables, some empanadas, and some mangos and chocolates for dessert.  It was a fun evening.  We’re glad to be up here at Low Camp.  It was a long and tiring day but we’re feeling good and we’re looking forward to a rest day tomorrow on Christmas Day.

All’s well here at Low Camp on Mount Vinson.  We’ll check in soon and happy Christmas Eve to everyone out there!

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 Base Camp and Carry Completed

Base camp at the Antarctica expedition

Our first Mount Vinson team of the season has flown from Union Glacier Camp to Mount Vinson Base Camp and made their carry towards Low Camp.  Expedition leader Garrett Madison provides the day’s dispatch via satellite phone:

Hello. This is Garrett calling for the Mount Vinson expedition team.  Today is Wednesday, December 22nd and we are in Vinson base camp.

We arrived late last night just before midnight on our flight from Union Glacier Camp and we set up tents and moved in.  Today we got up, had breakfast, and did a carry up halfway to Camp 1. We carried up food and fuel and some other gear and cached it about halfway from base camp to Camp 1.  We got back to base camp, had dinner, and are just getting tucked in for bed.

We’re doing well here.  A little marginal weather at the moment, a bit stormy.  But we’re hoping it will clear out in the next day or two and we can resume heading back up the mountain – hopefully, get up to low camp and focus on getting to high camp.

All’s well here at Vinson base camp and we’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

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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Still Hanging at Union Glacier

Our first Mount Vinson expedition team is waiting out the Mount Vinson base camp weather at Union Glacier camp.  Here’s Garrett with the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team.

Today is Monday December 20th and we are still at Union Glacier camp.  No one is flying out of Union Glacier camp for a few days to Vinson because of the bad weather at Vinson base camp, but we’re doing well here.  We’re eating lots of good food and resting and getting organized.  Excited to fly over there to start climbing Vinson when the weather cooperates.  But until then will just keep hanging out here eating well.

All is well and we’ll check in soon!  Thanks!

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 One at Union Glacier, Antarctica

Aerial View of Union Glacier Camp in Southern Ellsworth Mountains

The team for our first Mount Vinson expedition of the season has arrived at Union Glacier camp in Antarctica and is getting things ready for the flight to Mount Vinson base camp.  Here’s Garrett with the details:

Hello. This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition. This is the first expedition on Mount Vinson for our season here in Antarctica and yesterday we flew in from Punta Arenas, Chile to Union Glacier camp in Antarctica.

Right now we are in Union Glacier camp, just had a nice dinner. Good day here organizing our gear, and we’re hoping to fly to Mount Vinson tomorrow if the weather is good.  But we’re not quite sure.  It’s a little foggy and cloudy over at Mount Vinson base camp.  So not flying at the moment.

We’re hoping we’ll get an opportunity here in the next few days and be able to get over there and start climbing.  We’re really happy to be here in Antarctica and having a good time here, just relaxing and enjoying the sites at Union Glacier camp and all is well.

So we’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

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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