Vinson Expedition Dispatch
November 30, 2010 – The Team is Heading to Camp I
The beautiful and cold awaits us
It is November 30 and I am calling to report that the conditions and spirits at Vinson base camp continue to remain perfect. We are doing very well, happy, and couldn’t have better weather.
This morning there was a cool breeze coming from the upper mountain, a Katabatic wind: this wind originates from the radiational cooling of air atop a mountain/glacier, the air then flows downwards, warming as it descends.
How the Antarctic Katabatic wind forms
The wind cooled us off for a little while with the slight breeze, but when we were standing out in the sun, as I am right now in the heart of Antarctica, with the radiant sunlight absorbs into your clothing, you feel quite warm.
Kate, John , Pachi and I are packing up our sleds and our back packs getting ready to tie into the rope again and begin walking up the glacier to move up to camp one. We talked via radio today with some of the other climbers at the higher camps, and we also got a weather report from Union Glacier base; the word is the weather is stable, clear, and no high winds anywhere up the mountain. But the temperatures are much colder above us; we are hearing that the temperatures, at what will be our high camp, are down to -45 degrees Celsius. That compared to our current warm temperature of -25 degrees Celsius here at Vinson base camp, we have some really cold challenging weather ahead of us. Hopefully the lack of wind and clear skies will stay with us.
Hour to hour and day to day, it is still beautiful here. The team is loading up the sleds; it will be me in the front of the rope, then John, Kate, and then Pachi at the end. Of course, last but not least, Flat Stanley will be riding in Kate’s sled today. The four of us will take a long slow trudge up the glacier to our camp one and we will report to you when we arrive.