Tag Archive for: Punta Arenas

Rest Day at Union Glacier

Another relaxing rest day at Union Glacier Camp in between Mount Vinson climbs.  The climbers from the second team are waiting to catch their flight back to Punta Arenas and the third team is ready to fly into Union Glacier.  Guide, Terray Sylvester, phones in today’s expedition dispatch from Union Glacier Camp, Antarctica:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expediton.  It’s Wednesday, January 5th.

Today we woke up to a bit of stormy, cloudy weather.  So, we hunkered down, took hot showers, enjoyed some great meals, and attended a history lecture on the famous polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.  And then in the evening, we watched a movie and stepped outside to see that the skies had cleared.  Antartica has some of the clearest, cleanest air on the planet and of course it is sunny 24 hours a day here.  So we stepped out into bright blue skies with mountains that surround us on both sides and the massive glaciers that pour down between them as well as the flat expansive ice that extends out towards the Weddell Sea to the northeast of us.

Tomorrow we will have a rest day while this group of guests waits for their flights and with luck we will go explore the Drake Icefall, which is a several hundred meter tall icefall just to the west of us.

So, we will 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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Vinson Team Two back at Union Glacier Camp

Our Mount Vinson team two was able to quickly catch a flight back to Union Glacier Camp right after arriving down at Vinson Base Camp.  Guide Terray Sylvester checks in with the details of the day:

Hello, this is Terray calling in for the second Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition of the season. It’s January 3rd. Today after their successful summit, the team descended the route back to base camp where a Twin Otter was waiting for us and we’re headed directly back to Union Glacier Camp. So, in just about 24 hours after summiting Mount Vinson, we’re were eating a great dinner at the buffet here in Union Glacier Camp – chocolate cake, white fish, and fresh veggies. It tasted great!

Now, our team has dispersed – some of us have headed to bed and others are watching a movie. We will be here for the next few days while we wait for our flights back to the North.

We will 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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Vinson Team Two Summits!

Best Christmas

Congratulations to Sarah, Thomas, and expedition leader Garrett Madison for making the summit of Mount Vinson (4892m/16,050ft)!!  Here’s Garrett via sat phone from High Camp with a recap of the day:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Vinson team number two.  Today is January 2nd.

Today we reached the summit of Mount Vinson!  We had a beautiful, glorious day all to ourselves up at the summit.  Nobody else was around and hardly any wind, clear skies, great climbing conditions.  So, a great day up there for myself, Sarah, and Thomas.  We are back at High Camp (3536m/11,600ft), had dinner, and are heading to bed.

Tomorrow we’re going to get up and head down to Base Camp.  So, all’s well here on Vinson…

[remainder of sat phone call was garbled and cut 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:

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Vinson Team Two Moves to High Camp

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:

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Happy New Year from Vinson Low Camp!

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:

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Vinson Team Two Moves Up To Low Camp

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:

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Team One Departs and Team Two Arrives Vinson Base Camp

Victorious Vinson Team One departs Vinson Base Camp and Team Two arrives!  Expedition leader Garrett Madison calls in from Vinson Base Camp with a recap of the day:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition season.  Today myself, Jen, and John all came down from High Camp after our summit yesterday and made it to Vinson Base Camp where the Twin Otters came in, picked up Jen and John and brought them back to Union Glacier Camp where they will be awaiting their flights back to Punta Arenas in a few days.

Meanwhile, guide Terray Sylvester and climbers Thomas and Sarah arrived at Union Glacier Camp and flew to Vinson Base Camp today, so we’re all together here.  It’s a beautiful sunny evening – very calm and warm considering we’re in Antarctica.  We’re glad to be here, everything’s on schedule, and nice flights coming in today – great views and we’re looking forward to getting our second expedition of the season on Mount Vinson underway!

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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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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