High Camp on Mt. Vinson!

Whew!  Saturday’s climb was not difficult but was VERY LONG!  7.5 hours of climbing – 5 hours of which was on fixed lines at a 45% angle.  But we successfully reached High Camp and are now preparing for our summit attempt.  Sunday has been a rest day and we are planning to start our summit climb tomorrow – Monday.

I got very cold for the first time yesterday and was really shivering the last 45 minutes of the climb.  When we stopped at High Camp I had to huddle in my sleeping bag for a few hours and warm up!  But we had a great dinner in our tent and are now all snug and cozy in our down bags.

Today has been crystal clear without a cloud in the sky.  It is so beautiful here.  The silence is striking (I guess we have a constant hum of noise around us everyday).  But here there are absolutely no sounds whatsoever most of the time.  We had a nice visit with some climbers from Spain who were descending from a successful summit.  There is such a fantastic mix of people from all over the world doing all kinds of interesting things here in Antarctica!

So… our plan is to summit tomorrow (Monday) and come back down to High Camp to spend the night.  On Tuesday we will descend all the way to Base Camp, skipping Camp 2.  We do have sleds to pick up on our way down, and will hopefully be able to get all the way to Base Camp with all our gear by Tuesday night.

Wish us luck and clear weather tomorrow!  Mt. Vinson will mark number 5 of the Seven Summits – leaving me only Australia and Mt. Everest to complete my mission.  As cold as it is, there is no where on earth I would rather be at this moment.

Climb On!

Camp 2!!

1/4/08: Brooke and I have successfully reached Camp 2 at 8,700′. The climb from Base camp was approximately 7.5 miles and took us about 5 hours. The area was heavily crevassed and we arrived around 2 am (Antarctic time!). It is incredibly beautiful here! The snowy landscape and the sky seem to blend together. Right now I am looking at a headwall with a 45-50% angle that we will have to scale tomorrow as we climb to High Camp. We’re expecting about 1000 meters (6 hours) of very technical climbing ahead.

So far, I haven’t even needed to don my new down suit. Right now I’m wearing 4 tops, 3 pairs of pants, a down coat and a hat – and I’m perfectly comfortable. Although the temperatures are frigid, the sun shines brightly on the snow most of the time and it is pleasant. The sun never sets – it only sinks low behind a mountain range for a few hours and that’s when the cold really hits.

Saturday we will be climbing to High Camp where we will cache a lot of gear. Hopefully Sunday can be a rest day before our push to the summit. Cross your fingers for Monday – it’s the BIG DAY!!!

I’ve been unable to make recorded conference calls as planned due to the bad satellite signal, so blogging will have to suffice for now. Thank you to everyone who is supporting my mission and cheering me to the top!

Climb on