Tag Archive for: Punta Arenas

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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Polar Explorers Mount Vinson team at high camp

Garrett Madison checks in with the Polar Explorers Mount Vinson expedition team. Our team climbed up to high camp in a single push and had a nice dinner before bunkering down for the night. The weather is holding good and the team will probably take rest day tomorrow before their summit attempt the following day. The team is doing well and everyone is enjoying their time in magical Antarctica.

Madison Mountaineering is a partner with Polar Explorer’s for this expedition.

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Explorers Mount Vinson

 

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Second Vinson team departs to Vinson after skiing to South Pole

After completing a ski trip to the South Pole, our second Vinson team departed Union Glacier Camp for the Ellsworth Mountains. After arriving at Vinson the team quickly moved up to low camp. Tomorrow our team will enjoy a rest day while reviewing technical climbing skills for the upper mountain ascent. All is well on Vinson and fingers crossed for the beautiful weather to continue!

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Audio dispatch by Garrett Madison

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Second Vinson team

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Vinson team returns to Punta Arenas, Chile

After a quick Twin Otter flight back to Union Glacier Camp, the Mount Vinson team took off on the Russian Ilushyn 76 for Punta Arenas, Chile. Congratulations to our climbers for reaching the highest point in Antarctica at 4,892m / 16,050ft!

Garrett will remain at Union Glacier Camp until the following team arrives from a ski trip to the South Pole. All is well on the ice and we will check in soon!

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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison

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punta arenas

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punta arenas

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Mt Vinson team reaches Camp 1 in the Ellsworth mountain range

Our Antarctica expedition team has safely made the ascent to Camp 1 on Mt. Vinson in the Ellsworth mountain range. Mt. Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, approx. 600 miles from the South Pole and over 1,200 miles from the beginning of the Antarctic Peninsula. Garrett Madison reports beautiful conditions and a strong team as they move up the mountain. Today our climbers will either have a rest day or complete a carry of supplies and food up higher on the mountain. All is well in Antarctica and our climbers will check in soon!

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Ellsworth mountain range

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Mount Vinson climbers arrived in Union Glacier Camp!

Our Mount Vinson climbers left Punta Arenas, Chile and have now arrived to Union Glacier Camp in Antarctica. The Union Glacier Camp is a seasonally occupied research and expedition staging site located in Ellsworth Land in Antarctica. The camp is located in the Heritage Range, south of the Ellsworth Mountains.

Garrett Madison checks in below after a night flight into Union Glacier Camp. The team will now organize their equipment before flying over to Mount Vinson in a couple hours. Our climbers plan to move up to low camp after a couple days of training with favorable weather conditions in the forecasts.

Happy New Years!  : )

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Mount Vinson climbers

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Team departs Union Glacier Camp for Punta Arenas!

Yesterday we left Mount Vinson base camp in the morning and flew by twin otter aircraft to Union Glacier camp, where we waited just a short time until the Ilushin 76 aircraft flew us to Punta Arenas, arriving late in the evening. Currently all members are in Punta Arenas or are enroute home. We have enjoyed 3 spectacular weeks in Antarctica, skiing to the South Pole and then climbing the highest peak on the continent, Mount Vinson, at just over 16,000 feet in elevation. Everyone on our team succeeded in both reaching the South Pole and reaching the summit of Mount Vinson.  This has been an awesome journey, a great way to start off 2017! We look forward to repeating this program next season in Antarctica!

– Garrett Madison 

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Union Glacier Camp

Mt. Vinson Summit

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Union Glacier Camp

Antarctica Expedition Team 2017

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Union Glacier Camp

Descent on Mount Vinson

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Union Glacier Camp

Joel Schauer on the summit of Mount Vinson!

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Union Glacier Camp

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Union Glacier Camp

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2017 South Pole expedition reaches 89.24 degrees

Hi, this is Garrett Madison calling in with the South Pole expedition ski team. Today is Saturday, January 7th and we had another great day skiing across the polar ice caps of Antarctica. It has been our fifth day without internet access and we are enjoying the feeling of being unplugged. We had beautiful skies today, hardly any wind no clouds. Just perfect weather for skiing in Antarctica. We are now at 89.24 and we are going to 89.6, at 60 nautical miles to the South Pole. Everyone is doing well, we just had dinner and are tucked into bed and will be up early tomorrow morning, starting our day. Thanks for following along!

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South Pole Fun :)

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Ski the Last Degree team reaches 89.14 degrees

Hi this is Garrett calling in for the South Pole team skiing the last degree, that’s the last 60 nautical miles or 110 kilometers. Today is Friday, January 6 and we had a great day skiing, we skied from 9:30AM to 5:30PM. We traveled a good distance, we are now at 89.14. Beautiful day today, no winds, clear skies and no clouds. Just a beautiful day to be out on the polar plateau at about 9,000ft. Just snow in every direction on the horizon. Everybody is doing great, and we just had a good dinner of quesadillas and salmon and looking forward to another day of skiing tomorrow. We will check in soon. Thanks.

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South Pole team reaches 89.07 degrees!

Hey this is Garrett Madison calling in for the ski the last degree to the South Pole team. Today is our second day on our ski journey, we started off from camp at about 9am and skied till about 3pm this afternoon. That’s all daylight, 24/7 down here. Had a good ski today and we got to 89.07 degrees and we are going to 90. We are still probably 6-7 days out from the South Pole minimum. Everyone is doing well, we had a little wind today. The team is strong and feeling good. We had dinner and are tucked in to bed for a good nights rest then get in another day of skiing tomorrow. Hope all goes well on the other side, we will check in soon. One final note we did see a kite today that we believe is Mike Horn. Mike Horn is from South Africa who has been skiing from the coast to the South Pole. I believe we are the first sign of human life that he has seen in the last couple months, it was fun to see Mike Horn on the kite. We will check in again soon.

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South Pole Team 2017

South Pole Team 2017

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