Tag Archive for: Summit Success

Union Glacier Camp

Here’s Conrad with the final dispatch for the second of our two successful Mount Vinson expeditions for 2019/2020:

Greetings folks, this is Conrad Anker with the final dispatch from Vinson 2020 with Madison Mountaineering. It’s a beautiful sunny day here at Vinson base camp and all the team is safely back at Union Glacier camp. They are awaiting the Ilyushin to fly home.

 

We’ve had a successful expedition. It wasn’t the best of weather, but, as we well know, the strictest teachers are the best teachers. So, we all came away with knowledge, experience, and newfound friends.

 

Thanks for listening in. Stay tuned. Talk to you soon. Bye!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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:

Twin Otter aircraft at Vinson Base Camp

Another day at Vinson base camp where the team is keeping themselves entertained while waiting out a change in the weather that will allow the planes to fly:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Mount Vinson climb with Conrad Anker.

 

Well, we had another nice rest day in Mount Vinson base camp and the weather wasn’t good enough for the Twin Otters to fly from Union Glacier camp.  So, we just rested and relaxed here in Vinson base camp.

 

We had a nice, leisurely pancake breakfast this morning and lounged around this afternoon and had a nice salmon, chicken, asparagus, and risotto dinner here in camp, played some music, and then a few members of our team went off to make a few laps on the ski hill here next to Vinson base camp.

 

Everyone’s doing well.  We’re still savoring our summit success and looking forward to hopefully some good weather tomorrow and getting the team back to Union Glacier and onward back to Punta Arenas, Chile and on to home to family and loved ones.

 

So, it’s been a great expedition and we’ll keep our fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow.  All’s well here at Vinson base camp.  We’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

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:

Mount Vinson Antarctica

The team is at Vinson base camp waiting for good flying conditions so they can get back to Union Glacier camp.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, provides today’s expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Mount Vinson expedition climb with Conrad Anker. Today, January 9th, we had a rest day in Mount Vinson base camp.

 

We were hoping for good weather and good flying conditions so that the Twin Otters could come from Union Glacier to Vinson and pick up our climbing team to return everyone back to Union Glacier camp but it was foggy here at Vinson base camp. So, instead we relaxed and orginized gear.

 

We had a nice breakfast and then this evening had a fun team dinner and then after dinner Conrad Anker gave a lecture on the discovery of George Mallory on Mount Everest and his 1999 expedition where they found George Mallory on the north side of Everest and also recounted the 2007 recreation of the Mallory and Irvine climb with period specific clothing and equipment. It was a fun day and a fun evening here at Vinson base camp. We had a couple of other teams join us for the lecture and now we’re off to bed.

 

Hopefully on January 10th we’ll have clear skys and good flying conditions so that our climbers can get back to Union Glacier camp and then hopeful catch the Ilyushin jet which is now scheduled for the 11th back to Punta Arenas. But, all’s well here. We’ve had a full value expedition.

 

Everyone’s doing well and in good spirits and we’ll check-in tomorrow. Thanks!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering December 2019 Vinson team #1)

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:

 

Mount Vinson base camp

The team is now safely down to Vinson base camp and Conrad Anker reports on the day in this expedition dispatch:

Greetings sports fans!  This is Conrad calling from Vinson base camp.  It’s the 8th of January 2020.  What a way to start this fresh, new decade.  We’re all back here after a wonderful and adventurious and trying expedition to the summit of Antarctica, Vinson Massif.

 

We had bad weather and a couple clear windows and today we started out at about 6am in a blizzard and we had to pack up camp, and head down to Low Camp, and then all the way back to Vinson base camp.  The team was really excited for everything that went on.

 

What we have now at Vinson base camp is probably about 45 climbers that are all backlogged hoping to get out on a flight tomorrow.  But it’s been foggy and no flights here for the last week to get to Union Glacier, all be it with weather in the mountains.  But our team was happy to have spent six nights at High Camp inside a small tent that turned into a Top Raman sauna everytime we cooked.

 

Taking our changes on less then optimal weather and getting shut down and then coming back to wake up on a beatiful crystal clear day and getting the summit.  So that’s what you come to expeditons for is to challange yourself, to make new friends, to be in scene places, and maybe have a laugh along the way.

 

For all of us here a big shout out especialliy to Roxy – yup that’s her – for her Seven Summits success and everyone else on the team.  So wishing you all the best.  Take care and stay tuned.  Bye

 

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:

Today the Vinson team bided their time at High Camp waiting for the weather to clear.  Conrad Anker provides a recap of the day and the plan for tomorrow in this sat phone dispatch:

Greetings folks, this is Conrad Anker from Vinson High Camp.  It’s the 7th of January, 2020.

 

Well, the weather gods, we like them, we honor them, we respect them. After our 15-hour window of good weather where we had the majority of our team make the summit, it came in fast and furious. It was blowing wet snow coming in off the Amundsen Sea. So, we did the right thing, which was to hibernate, sit in our tents, and not go down the ropes, seeing as it was, we could barely see across camp.

 

It’s about 9 o’clock in the evening here local and it’s calm and clear.  Well, it’s clear – it’s still blowing. But relatively calm after these last few days of a steady 20 knots to 25 knots of wind coming from the east. So, it’s looking good.

 

The team is out breaking their tents out of the snow that has kind of cemented them in and getting them ready. We are going to wake up early tomorrow and get down to advanced camp, the Low Camp and then from there head to Vinson base camp.  And, weather permitting, we’ll catch our Twin Otter flights to Union Glacier.

 

And for the team of V4, we’ve had a wonderful time, we’ve made new friends, we’ve experienced the highs and lows that Antarctica has to offer. Pretty much the consensus over our humble fare this evening as we had dinner was that the trying and challenging trips are the ones that leave a lasting memory. So, we’re coming home with lots of memories and we’re thankful to all of you out there in the far reaches of the world that tune in and listen to us.

 

So, this is Garrett and Conrad signing off.  Be well.  Talk to you tomorrow.

(photo: Madison Mountaineering December 2019 Team #1)

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:

2019.12.16 Vinson Summit

We encourage you to listen to the audio of Conrad Anker’s entertaining sat phone dispatch about today’s activities high on Antarctica’s Mount Vinson:

Greetings folks, it’s the 6th of January 2020 and this is your intrepid journalist/mountaineering Conrad Anker calling from Vinson High Camp.

 

Well, if you listened to yesterday’s dispatch, you kinda got the news that we got hammered by some fierce winds, turned around at the rescue cache, came back to camp with our tails between our legs.  We were humbled – properly.  And the weather forecast was calling for today, the 6th, to be even more fierce and even more big stormy weather with a low coming in from the Amundsen Sea.

 

But then strange things happen in the mountains.  At 6am it was calm, the sound of our tents flapping was replaced with silence.  We poked out – it was a bluebird day.  Nary a gust of wind or anything like that.  We squeaked around camp and Garrett and I look at each other with ear-to-ear smiles and we said, “Let’s go!”

 

The weather forecast, well, never trust electronics, go with your mountaineer sense.  Both Garrett and I felt that we had 12 hours of good weather and that’s what we had.  So our team coalesced and we headed up and we all made it to the summit.  Especially proud of Roxy on the culmination of her Seven Summits.

 

Now we’re here back at camp.  The 12-hour window closed back up and we’re sitting on the anvil as the hammer descends upon us.  But tomorrow we slide down the fixed ropes and ski back to Vinson base content knowing that we set out to do what we came to do, which was climb Vinson.  We’ll keep you posted as more news happens.

 

Thanks for listening in.  Take care!

(photo: Madison Mountaineering 2019 Team #1 summit on 12/27/2019)

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:

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:

Best Christmas

Great news from Antarctica where 100% of our first team reached the summit of the continent’s highest peak, Mount Vinson!  Here’s Garrett’s report from High Camp:

Hello, this is Garrett Madison calling in for the Mount Vinson expedition team #1. Today’s December 27th and we reached the summit of Mount Vinson today, the highest peak in Antarctica! The team did great.

 

We left at about 9:30 AM from High Camp after a quick breakfast and climbed all day, had some windy conditions and a bit of a cold on the way up, and then the weather got a little bit nicer and we got up to the summit ridge.  Got up to the summit, had it all to ourselves for a bit, took some photos and then made our way back down to High Camp.

 

We got back to High Camp around 6:00 PM and just finished up some dinner.  So, heading to bed early tonight and looking forward to heading down to Vinson base camp tomorrow and onward back to Union Glacier camp.

 

So it’s been a great climb here on Mount Vinson with the first team, very successful.  We were lucky with good weather and good route conditions and great climbers.

 

We’ll check-in soon.  Thanks!

(photo:  Garrett Madison’s overused Vinson summit pic from the 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:

Expedition leader, Conan Bliss, and the team have returned to Ama Dablam base camp and Conan provides the happy news:

Ama Dablam Expedition Summary: At 7:40 am on November 4th, the Madison Mountaineering team stood alone on the summit of Ama Dablam. The sky was cloudless, offering amazing 360-degree views including Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu. This was the culmination of weeks of effort, patience, and perseverance and we were fortunate with an excellent weather window. The team is back at base camp today resting and will trek out tomorrow and the following day. We would like to say special thanks to our amazing Nepali crew, both climbing Sherpas as well as our outstanding base camp crew. Thanks for following us on this epic adventure; we hope to see you in the mountains soon!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

We are excited to report that our Climb for Conservation charity climb of Mt. Rainier enjoyed a 100% team success in reaching the summit this week.  The group had a beautiful sunset climb with perfect conditions.  Way to go team!