Tag Archive for: Low 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:

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:

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:

With beautiful weather and route conditions, our Vinson Team Two moved up from Vinson Base Camp (2140m/7,020ft) to Low Camp (2774m/9,100ft).  Here is guide Terray Sylvester with a recap of the day and plans for the days ahead:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition season.  It’s Thursday, December 30th.

Today we made the most of the beautiful weather and moved up to Low Camp.  We’re here now, just had a great dinner, and we’ll rest here tomorrow and celebrate New Year’s Eve here in Low Camp.  We are going to keep taking advantage of this sunny, beautiful weather and head on up to High Camp (3536m/11,600ft) the following day.

So, we’ll be in touch.  All’s well here!


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:

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:

Vinson High Camp

After a long day of making the move (+2,500 ft) from Mount Vinson Low Camp up the fixed lines to High Camp, guest guide Conrad Anker, phones in via satellite today’s expedition recap:

Greetings folks, this is Conrad from Vinson High Camp. It’s the 2nd of January 2020. What a great way to welcome in the new year. Our team set out from Low Camp, climbed up the shoulder on the fixed ropes for a little bit, and then some really beautiful terrian and yeah things are great and we have good weather, everyone’s healthy and we’re very thankful for the opportunity to be here with friends. And yeah we’re happy! That’s a good thing. Take care.

(photo: Madison Mountaineering archive)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on Mount Vinson for the 2020/2021 season next December!  Contact our office for details.


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the teams as they make their attempts to summit the highest mountain in Antarctica on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking maps:

Mount Vinson Low Camp

Today our Vinson team conducted some training and skills review near Low Camp, making ready for a possible move up to High Camp tomorrow.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, phoned in today’s dispatch:

Hello. This is Garrett calling in for the Mount Vinson expedition team #2 with Garrett and Conrad Anker. Today is January 1, 2020. We had a great day. We had a rest day here in Low Camp on Mount Vinson. We slept in and had leisurely breakfast of pancakes and bacon.

 

And then we did some training today. We reviewed all of the fixed line climbing techniques – ascending and descending fixed lines. And after that we orginized our gear for our climb up to camp 2 tomorrow, High Camp – weather pending. We’re gonna [inaudible], have breakfast, check the weather forecast, and if it all looks good, we’re gonna leave around 1:00 PM and climb up to High Camp.

 

So fingers crossed for good weather. We’re all doing well here. Everyone’s having fun and we’re enjoying Antarctica.

Thanks!

(photo: Madison Mountaineering archive)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on Mount Vinson for the 2020/2021 season next December!  Contact our office for details.


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the teams as they make their attempts to summit the highest mountain in Antarctica on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking maps:

2019.12.27 Vinson team #2 celebrates New Year's 2020

Make sure and listen to our Vinson team #2 ringing in the new year from Low Camp on Mount Vinson, Antarctica’s highest peak:

Hey, this is Garrett calling in for the Vinson expedition.  We are up here at Low Camp.  Everyone did great today.  We got into Low Camp, set up our camp, and we’re counting down to the New Year’s celebration.  It’s all happenin’ here.  …5…4…3…2…1… Happy New Year!!

(photo: 2019.12.27 Vinson team #2 celebrates New Year’s 2020 at Low Camp)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on Mount Vinson for the 2020/2021 season next December!  Contact our office for details.


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the teams as they make their attempts to summit the highest mountain in Antarctica on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking maps:

Union Glacier Camp

Our Mount Vinson team #1 is now back at Union Glacier camp and getting ready to return to South America tomorrow.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, calls in from camp with a recap of the busy day:

Hello. This is Garrett calling for the Mount Vinson expedition team #1. Today is Saturday, December 28th and myself, Bartek, Aga and Motoki have all return back to Union Glacier camp from Mount Vinson.

 

We had a wonderful day. We woke up this morning at Mount Vinson High Camp after our successful summit yesterday. We descended from High Camp all the way down the fixed ropes past Low Camp and down to Vinson base camp. And then a couple of hours later we were met by a Twin Otter aircraft where we boarded and flew back to Union Glacier camp. It was a very scenic flight, great views all around.

 

We had a nice dinner here at Union Glacier camp, and a shower and the climbers are looking forward to the flight out on the Ilyushin 76 jet tomorrow from the Blue Ice Runway back to Punta Arenas. Hopefully, the weather is good and our three climbers will be flying back to Chile and our next group of Mount Vinson climbers, along with guest guide Conrad Anker, will be flying into Union Glacier camp and heading to Mount Vinson.

 

All’s well here in Antarctica.  We will check-in again soon!  Thanks!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archive)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on Mount Vinson for the 2020/2021 season next December!  Contact our office for details.


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the teams as they make their attempts to summit the highest mountain in Antarctica on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

Instagram:

Vinson High Camp

With Christmas wishes to everyone following along, expedition leader Garrett Madison provides an update of today’s climbing on the highest mountain in Antarctica:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Mount Vinson expedition.  Merry Christmas, it’s December 25th and we made our way from Low Camp up to High Camp today.

 

We had a great day climbing up the fixed lines and beatifull views, hardly any wind, no clouds in the sky, just perfect conditions all around.  We made it up to High Camp, dug out our cache, set up our tents, and cooked some dinner.  Now we are tucked in our sleeping bags, ready for bed.

 

We are not exactly sure what we are going to do tomorrow.  We are either going to rest or we might give it a shot going to the summit.  We’ll see how we’re feeling.  The forecast looks good, so we are happy to be up here.  Everyone’s doing well and we’ll check it soon.

 

Merry Christmas!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archive)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on Mount Vinson for the 2020/2021 season next December!  Contact our office for details.


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the teams as they make their attempts to summit the highest mountain in Antarctica on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates

Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking maps: