Expedition Dispatch

November 24, 2012 – Todd Passey, Team 2nd Guide, Joins the Team at Vinson Base, Supplies and Logistic Already in Place

It is 11:30 in the morning on the 24th of November and I am calling you from the Branscomb Glacier in an elevation of about 7,000ft., the Ellsworth Mountain in Antarctica. Vaughan and I are continuing to have superb luck with our transport and all of logistic leading up to our Mount Vinson climb. We had a very restful night in our comfortable clam shelters at Union Glacier last night. Completely bright through the night of course, Vaughan slept with eye shades on but I chose to just put a pillow over my head and that worked fine for me.

This morning we had a great breakfast, scrambled eggs, pancakes and bacon. We were told that the conditions were flyable to head to Vinson base in a Ken Borak Air Twin Otter ski plane from Calgary, Alberta; and sure enough we landed here at 11:30, scarcely 24 hours after we have been deployed from the hotel in Punta Arenas bound for Mount Vinson, so we’ve had exceptional luck. Todd Passey, who will be guiding with us, was waiting here. He and several of the other guides and the support staff have got here at least about 5 days ago. The fix lines have gone in, leading up to high camp in Mount Vinson; all the supply and logistic seem in place. We’ve got comfortable little mountain tents here, superb views of the expanse of wild Antarctica around us and we will just spend the next 24 hours getting ourselves organized to continue high on Vinson. Weather reports are coming; we will take slow and steady and make good judgments about our schedule but we are off to a good start.

Listen to Wally's call