It’s just past 3:00am local time on Sunday morning, December 4th at Patriot Hills.  Martin, Woodie and I just stood out and watched the big Ilyushin come in and make a safe and very successful landing once again on the Blue Ice Runway.  It’s always an awesome and thrilling sight and I know on board that big jet there are some very excited people just as we were some days back, just before we first stepped off into the interior of Antarctica and experienced the vastness of the white space around us.

Now we are still soaking that scene in as we look around, knowing that in 2 short hours we’ll be back on that same plane and headed on a 4.5 hour flight back to Punta Arenas, Chile.  Once you experience being in Antarctica, being at Patriot Hills and out in the Ellsworth Mountains and flying across the expanse of Antarctica in a twin otter and climbing on Mount Vinson, you’ll never be the same again. The experience of vast, pure and wild earth just stays in your heart forever.   

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The images below are from earlier in the expedition when the team arrived at Vinson Base

Wally types a dispatch on his Toughbook computer at Vinson Base

Martin works on cutting snow blocks at Vinson Base


Woodie helps prepare our dinner

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