1-12-2010

After nearly a week of sitting in Punta Arenes, Chile, we have finally arrived on the last continent of my journey, Antarctica. Punta Arenes is a city on the southernmost tip is South America with no paved roads leading out. This meant it was hard to get fat while I was there, with Coca-Cola being 20 bucks, and a hot dog being 40. Well, pretty much that expensive.

            But now that is all over. Last night at 7:00 PM we got the call from ALE (Antarctic Logistics & Exploration) that the weather was clear to fly. We boarded our Russian cargo plane along with the other climbing teams. Our Mountain Madness group consists of Willie, myself, Shawn from Canada, Enrique from Cali, and Suzanne from Dubai. There are two more teams, Alpine Ascents and RMI, both have several clients each.

            For the flight here we had a stony mustached man watching to make sure we didn’t move. The plane had no window, and about 30 seats, and just enough surrounding insulation to keep the birds out. After four hours we put on out down clothes and landed in Patriot Hills, Antarctica on the blue ice runway. Antarctica is incredible, it was 2 AM and I was getting a sunburn. Rugged peaks looked at us from beyond the horizon across the glaring snow and ice. We arrived in the Patriot Hills camp after a couple kilometers of walking, and were welcomed by a huge pot of potatoes & stew. We get one meal in the big ALE tent then we are on our own.

This morning I woke up, and couldn’t believe I even fell asleep at all. I poked my head out of the tent, yep, still the same light. Now, after Willie’s awesome breakfast we will wait for our turn to fly on the little plane to VBC (Vinson Base Camp).

Made it to VBC, set up with incredible views all around. The best part? We get them 24 hours a day. We went through our 4^th debriefing on peeing only in designated areas, and keeping every piece of garbage to ourselves. ALE really stresses cleanliness here, and it shows. The place is spotless, probably the cleanest of the 7 summits.