Antarctica 2005

2005-12-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Its great to be home now and to look back on a wonderful trip. Here are some photos from the adventure.

The IL-76 shortly after touch-down on the ice at Patriot Hills.

The Twin Otter taking off toward Vinson Base.

Vinson base camp with Mt. Vinson in the background.

On the way to camp 1.

On the way to camp 2 - the headwall.

Looking down the lower headwall towards Sue's Pyramid.

Past the headwall - just about to camp 2 on the Shinn-Vinson Col.

Camp 2 (high camp).

Climbing above high camp.

Looking up towards the summit. Our route of ascent was the right skyline and we descended the left side.

In the upper valley just before the summit pyramid.

Gaining the summit ridge.

Looking back on the lower summit ridge.

The team within minutes of the top.

Smile on top.

Heading down the left skyline.

The final stretch back into basecamp.

2005-12-06T12:37:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Santiago, Chile! The last few days have been a little bit of a blur. Within a few hours of getting down to Vinson Base Camp we were wisked away to Patriot Hills in a Twin Otter airplane. The next day (after repacking, eating many quesodillas, and numerous games of hearts) The IL76 came in (amazingly) on schedule. We took off around 1o pm and got into Punta Arenas at about 3 am and to our hotel at 4am. After a short rest and a much needed shower, we got our flight arrangements taken care of at the LAN Chile office and then off to the airport. All of the team members are in Santiago now and will be going thier own ways from here. It has been an amazing trip to a breaththaking place with wonderful people. Thanks for checking up on us, this will be the last real update. I will post some trip photos in the next few days.

2005-12-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

2005-12-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

2005-12-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

2005-12-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

2005-11-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

2005-11-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

2005-11-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

2005-11-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

We had a good meeting with ALE (Antarctic Logistics and expeditions) yesterday - these are the guys that provide the flights to and from Antarctica. In addition to details of gear preparation details and photos of the area, the main message was be ready to go at any time, but it could take a few days. The IL-76 airplane can only tolerate about a 20 knot crosswind landing on the blue ice runway at Patriot Hills (Antarctica). At 9 am the winds were 24-28 and at 10 am they were 20-24 knots, an improving trend. We are on alert here to put our boots on when ALE calls back witht the next update. Hopefully my next update will be from the ice. Kepp your fingers crossed.

2005-11-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

After two days of flying we made it down to Punta Arenas - all of the team members made it safely. Tomorrow we will have an orientation meeting with ALE and finalize our packing with the plan of flying onto the ice the next day (weather permitting). Everyone is pretty tired form lots of flying . . . bed sounds good.

2005-10-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Jason (or Mr. Tanguay, depending on who you are) on a previous climb.