Tag Archive for: Mount Vinson

From Vinson High Camp to Union Glacier camp

Our Vinson expedition team had a big day today as reported by expedition leader, Garrett Madison:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Mount Vinson expedition team number two.

 

Today is Friday, January 11th and we have reached Union Glacier camp!  We had a great day descending from our high camp on Mount Vinson all the way down to Vinson base camp.  And then we were picked up by a Twin Otter aircraft and flown back to Union Glacier camp where we all are now tucked into our tents and looking forward to a good night’s rest.

 

The team will be here at Union Glacier camp for a few days until the scheduled flight back to Punta Arenas on the Ilyushin-76 aircraft on January 14th.  So all’s well here, everybody’s doing great.  We had a wonderful summit day, again yesterday.  Everyone made it to the top and down safe and we had wonderful views of Antarctica from the highest point on the continent.

 

Thank so much for following along.

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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Summit Attempt Tomorrow!

Near High Camp on Mount Vinson

As the team readies for their summit attempt, team member Linda gets the honors and provides today’s dispatch from High Camp on Mount Vinson:

Hello, this is Linda calling in from the Madison Mountaineering Vinson team two.  We had a wonderful day here at High Camp, resting, enjoying the scenery, and getting ready for our summit attempt tomorrow.  The weather looks beautiful!  We just had our summit talk and a good dinner and we are getting ready to settle in.  We are going to get up early and hopefully head to the summit tomorrow!!

 

Sending our love to friends and family!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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Vinson team two at High Camp

Vinson High Camp

Our Vinson team two is now at High Camp!  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, has this exciting update:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Mount Vinson expedition team number two:  Conan, Garrett, Shawn, Fon, Linda, and Paul!  Today is the eighth of January and we are up at High Camp.  We had a great day climbing from Low Camp up the steep fixed ropes to High Camp at just over 12,400 feet on Mount Vinson.  Beatiful weather today, clear skies, sunny, very calm, just a slight breeze to keep us cool on the way up so that we didn’t overheat.

 

Tomorrow we’re probably going to take a rest day.  We are going to sleep in and get up and see what the weather is doing.  But most likely we’ll be resting here before looking at our summit attempt in the next few days.

 

Everyone is doing great here on Mount Vinson and we will check in again soon.  Thanks!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archive)

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Vinson team two set to move up to High Camp

Vinson

Today, team member Shawn provides the update from Mount Vinson!

Hi this is Shawn calling in from the Vinson two team.  We are at Low Camp and just finished our haul up to High Camp.  Linda, Paul, Shawn, Fon, Garrett and Conan are all feeling healthy, happy, stable, strong and very enthused for our move tomorrow to High Camp.  The weather has been fantastic!  We hope it stays!  The food has been out-of-this-world!!  Thank you to Fon and Le Cordon Bleu.  So we want to send our love to our family and friends at home.

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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Team Two Completes Carry

Guide Conan Bliss reports in for Vinson Team Two:

Hey good evening!  This is Conan calling in for Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson Team #2.  We are again at Vinson Base Camp.  Today we had a really good carry; caching food, fuel and extra equipment high on the upper Branscomb Glacier getting ready for our move tomorrow to Low Camp.

Stay tuned!  Talk to you tomorrow!!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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New team on deck!

Our expedition leader, Garrett Madison phoned in this report from Union Glacier Camp:

Hi this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Vinson program with the Japanese group.  Today we flew back to from Vinson Base Camp to Union Glacier Camp in the morning.  The Ilyushin jet arrived and our Japanese team was able to successfully depart Union Glacier Camp and arrive in Punta Arenas, Chile.  So we had a wonderful expedition, very successful and safe and all is well!

 

Our second Vinson team has arrived:  (Guide) Conan with (climbers) Shawn, Linda, and Paul and they are currently at Vinson Base Camp.  They are setting up their camp and getting ready to make their first climb up the mountain tomorrow.  Myself and (climbers) Fon and Jimmy will be starting Mount Vinson in a couple days time.  Jimmy is completing his Ski-The-Last-Degree program to the South Pole and once finished, we will all head to Vinson Base Camp and start climbing, which we’re very much looking forward to.

 

We are all enjoying our time here in Antarctica and wishing everyone back home well.  Thanks very much!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archive)

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Vinson Summit!

Reporting from High Camp on Mount Vinson, expedition leader Garrett Madison provides this update:

Hi, this is Garrett calling for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition.  Today on New Year’s Day, our team the Adventure Guides and Madison Mountaineering team made the summit of Mount Vinson (4892 m / 16,050 ft) [garbled].  We had a beautiful day with perfect weather.  We had the summit all to ourselves.  Now we are back in Vinson High Camp.  We are planning to head down towards Vinson Base Camp tomorrow.  All is good here and we look forward to getting down to base camp the next day!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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Team Two Getting Ready in Punta Arenas

Vinson team two team photo

Our second Mount Vinson expedition team has assembled in Punta Arenas.  And they are looking forward to kicking off 2019 in style!  They rang in the new year in Chile last night and now are completing the pre-flight expedition logistics.  Today and tomorrow they will be organizing gear and attending the Antarctica flight briefing.  Hopefully, the weather continues to cooperate and the team will fly to Antarctica as scheduled on Thursday, January 3rd.

We are stoked to start off this exciting year of climbing adventures with teams on the ice in Antarctica!

Did you know:  Since 2017, the city of Punta Arenas and its region have their own time zone: they use summer time during the whole year (UTC−3).

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Vinson Summit Attempt Coming Soon!

Happy New Year!!!  Via sat phone, Garrett Madison reports in on the progress of team one’s climb to the highest peak at Antarctica:

Hey!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition in Antarctica.  Today is December 31st and we climbed up to High Camp (3536 m / 11,600 ft) today and moved in.  We setup our camp and had dinner and now we are all tucked in and ready for bed.

 

We had a good day; it wasn’t too windy, clear skies for the most part and sunny.  We are happy to be up here at High Camp.  We are thinking about going for the summit tomorrow or the next day, depending on the weather.  We will check in soon.  Thanks!!

(photo: Madison Mountaineering archives (Vinson, Jan 2018))

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Team at camp 1 (aka Low Camp)

Expedition leader Garrett Madison phoned in this dispatch via satellite:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition!  Today we climbed up to camp 1, “Low Camp”, from base camp.  We settled in here a few hours ago.  We had a nice dinner, some hot drinks and now we are tucked into our tents getting ready for bed.

 

It was a nice day!  It started off warm and sunny and then the overcast clouds kept it cool for us as we made our way up towards Low Camp.  Tomorrow our plan is to take a rest day.  Everybody on the team here is doing really well and we are happy to be on Mount Vinson!  We will check in soon.

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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