Tag Archive for: Antarctica

Primed to Start the Climb!

Photo pulled from Madison Mountaineering Archive. Photo: Terray Sylvester

After settling into Vinson Base Camp in the day prior, the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team wasted no time as they continue their preparation to move higher up Antarctica’s tallest peak! The team spent today sorting gear, resting up, and reviewing rope travel, ice axe arrest, and crevasse rescue techniques. Everyone is in good spirits and is itching to start the climb tomorrow! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, checks in via Garmin inReach Mini with a brief update from Vinson Base Camp:

Nice day resting, sorting gear, and training in Vinson base camp (2140m/7,020ft)..

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 daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

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Arrived in Vinson Base Camp!

Photo pulled from Madison Mountaineering Archive. (Photo: Ted Hesser)

After a week full of travel, our team has finally arrived in Mount Vinson Base Camp (VBC)! With the team settled into their camp, expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this brief update from VBC:

Hello! This is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson (4892m/16,050ft) expedition team. We made it to Vinson base camp (2140m/7,020ft) and are all settled in! The team is doing great!

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 daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

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Pre-Departure Day!

Photo pulled from Madison Mountaineering Archive.

Our bags are packed and we’re jonesing to get this expedition going! With good weather tomorrow, our team expects to depart from Chile en route to Union Glacier, Antarctica. The team plans to spend the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying a nice dinner this evening, before their expedition begins on the ice! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with todays pre-departure dispatch from Punta Arenas:

Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson (4892m/16,050ft) expedition. We are in Punta Arenas (34m/112ft); just got all of our luggage checked in for our flight to Antarctica and fingers crossed we’ll be flying out tomorrow morning from Chile to Antarctica! So, we’re really excited to go out and have a nice dinner tonight and the expectation of a flight tomorrow.

So, we’re ready to go! Can’t wait to get down there and start our climb 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 daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

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Mount Vinson Expedition Kickoff!

Photo pulled from Madison Mountaineering Archive.

The 2022 / 2023 Mount Vinson season is underway for the first of two, Madison Mountaineering teams! Our team has arrived in Chile where they’ll spend the coming days preparing to depart on their expedition to one of the most remote and pristine places on Earth. Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with todays dispatch from Punta Arenas, Chile:

Hello, this is Garrett checking in for the Mount Vinson (4892m/16,050ft) expedition team! We are in Punta Arenas (34m/112ft), Chile and we are preparing to head to Antarctica the day after tomorrow. We’ve been doing our gear checks, packing up last minute items, and I’m very excited! Fingers crossed for good weather. Hopefully we will get to fly to Antarctica on Thursday, and start our expedition to the highest peak in an Antarctica!

Please follow along on the dispatch page, I’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 daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

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Vinson: 3rd Expedition Recap

Ed Viesturs and Garrett Madison on the summit of Mount Vinson, Antarctica

We were honored to have Ed Viesturs co-guiding our third successful Mount Vinson expedition of the season!  And here, from Punta Arenas, is Ed with an expedition recap:

Hi, this is Ed Viesturs reporting from Punta Arenas, Chile.  It’s Sunday (January 23rd).

Yesterday, very early in the morning, at around 4 AM we managed to leave Union Glacier on the 757 which flew us here to Punta Arenas.  It was the end of a pretty interesting expedition and in the end we made the summit of Vinson!

After arriving at High Camp on January 12th, the next day in a window of weather, we made an attempt for the summit which failed due to high winds and very challenging conditions.  We came back to High Camp and made the decision to wait several more days for another opportunity period.

Our patience paid off after five nights of waiting in quite a challenging storm – high winds and snow.  Eventually, we reached the summit on January 18th.  So all-in-all our patience paid off.

It was a great trip, we had a lot of fun, and I look forward to doing more guided expeditions alongside Garrett Madison and Madison Mountaineering.

Ed Viesturs signing out from Punta Arenas.

2022.01.05 Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team

2022.01.05 Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team

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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Celebration at Vinson Base Camp

Clients Sarah Brittain and Thomas Moore move from Low Camp to High Camp with guide Garrett Madison on a Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition in the Sentinel Range of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains on January 1, 2021. (📸: @terray_s)

With the full team down to Vinson Base Camp, expedition leader Garrett Madison checks in with today’s dispatch recapping summit day and the journey down to base camp where everyone is celebrating:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team. Today is January 19th.

Our team came down from High Camp today after reaching the summit of Mount Vinson yesterday on January 18th. We had a good summit day and a nice trek down from High Camp. We arrived in base camp this evening and had a fun, celebratory dinner with our team – everyone was present. We enjoyed some champagne and burgers and had a good finish to our expedition here on Vinson.

We might be here another day or so at Vinson Base Camp. We’re not sure when the Twin Otters will be able to arrive to fly us out – hopefully in a day or two. But everyone’s in good spirits; we’re happy to be down safe and had a great summit yesterday, especially being up there with Ed Viesturs on the highest point in Antarctica was really special.

It was a wonderful expedition, and we’re just going to be here in Vinson Base Camp, hanging out, enjoying Antarctica until our flight back to Union Glacier and Punta Arenas, Chile.

(📸: @terray_s – Team Two climbers Sarah B. and Thomas M. moving up to high camp with guide Garrett Madison earlier this month)

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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Perseverance Pays Off – Vinson Summits!

Happy New Year 2022 from Antarctica!

After persevering through five nights at Mount Vinson‘s High Camp, our Team Three’s patience and tactics paid off and they were successful today in making it to the highest point in Antarctica, the summit of Vinson Massif.  Guide Terray Sylvester provided this text message from the mountain:

Good news from Antarctica! Most of our climbers summited Mount Vinson today in excellent weather.

The rest of the team is already in base camp relaxing and enjoying some good meals: pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast today, and hamburgers and french fries for dinner.

Tomorrow our summit team, led by Garrett and Ed Viesturs, plans to descend to base camp to await flights back to Union Glacier and Punta Arenas. 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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Waiting out the weather at High Camp

Clients Sarah Brittain and Thomas Moore move from Low Camp to High Camp with guide Garrett Madison on a Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition in the Sentinel Range of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains on January 1, 2022. (📸: @terray_s)

Checking in from Mount Vinson, guide Terray Sylvester provides an update on Team Three’s status and plans for another summit attempt:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition here in Antarctica. It’s our third climb of the season.

Our climbing team is currently up in High Camp, with Garrett and Ed Viesturs waiting on a weather window to go to the summit. It’s been stormy. Two fronts have come through this weekend, and right now, it’s windy and snowy up at High Camp. But it looks like the precipitation and the wind are going to taper off tomorrow for favorable conditions on top of Antarctica‘s highest peak.

So the team is in good shape, and we’ll be in touch!

(📸: @terray_s – Team Two climbers Sarah B. and Thomas M. moving up to high camp with guide Garrett Madison earlier this month)

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 Three Update

Quick update on our third Mount Vinson expedition team:

On Friday (Jan 14th) made an attempt at the summit but were unfortunately forced to turn around due to wind and cold.  Some other teams turned around as well.  Yesterday (Jan 15th) was another stormy day, so the team hung tight at High Camp.  Conditions are expected to improve on Monday, so they are hoping for another shot then.

Everyone is doing good and all’s well at Mount Vinson High Camp.

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Vinson Team Three Moves to High Camp

Mount Vinson High Camp (📷: @johnhorgan73)

The team is in place at Mount Vinson High Camp and preparing to head for the summit tomorrow.  Guide Terray Sylvester checks in with the details:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition.  It’s the third climb of the season.  Today’s January 14th.

We moved from Low Camp (2774m/9,100ft) to High Camp (3536m/11,600m) today.  Now everyone’s tucked into bed and we’ll head for the summit tomorrow because tomorrow looks like the best weather – it may get a little windy after that.

So, we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

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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