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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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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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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On January 7th at around 3pm our Antarctica expedition team summited Mount Vinson! Garrett reported clear skies, hardly any wind and nice temperatures. The whole team had the summit to themselves on this special summit day. Now our team will rest and recover at high camp before making the descent to base camp. Everyone is doing well and looking forward to their return flight back to Union Glacier Camp. Team photos and video will be shared soon!
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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison
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Looking out over the Ellsworth Mountains 🙂
On January 7th at around 3pm our Antarctica expedition team summited Mount Vinson! Garrett reported clear skies, hardly any wind and nice temperatures. The whole team had the summit to themselves on this special summit day. Now our team will rest and recover at high camp before making the descent to base camp. Everyone is doing well and looking forward to their return flight back to Union Glacier Camp. Team photos and video will be shared soon!
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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison
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Looking out over the Ellsworth Mountains 🙂
Garrett Madison checks in from high camp in Antarctica before our climbing team makes their Mount Vinson summit push! The plan is to leave high camp at around 9am and reach the summit by early afternoon. This final day to the top involves climbing the summit ridge with breathtaking views of the surrounding peaks as well as looking to the horizon of ice as far as the eye can see. Mount Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, at 4,892 meters (16,050 ft). Weather report is looking favorable with light cloud cover and low winds, stay tuned!
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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison:
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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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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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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
Hello this is Garrett calling in it is Wednesday, January 4 for the ski last degree team. Today we were dropped off in a DC 3 Basler aircraft after flying from Union Glacier Camp about four and a half hours down towards the South Pole at the 89th degree. We skied for about an hour, about one mile, and set up camp and now we are tucked in camp and just had dinner and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow our plan is to get up around 7 and head out by 9 and ski for a full day and cover some of the distance between here and the South Pole, which is about 60 nautical miles away, around 110 kilometers. We are happy to be here beautiful weather blue skies a horizon of ice as far as the eye can see in every directions, everyone is having a great time. We will check in again tomorrow. Thanks.
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Preparing team gear out of the DC3 Basler aircraft
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Ski Last Degree Team