Expedition Dispatch

November 25, 2012 – Heading to Low Camp, On Schedule

It is 2:15 in the afternoon, Sunday, November 25th, from the Branscomb Glacier in Antarctica. Todd, Vaughan and I are about to set off on the next stage of our trip. Things are going extremely smoothly so far. Yesterday we had a long and relaxing day preparing to begin to carry our loads higher on the mountain, enjoying life in the Vinson base camp.

There are climbers from all around the world. The three of us will be climbing together but there are some really interesting folks who will be moving probably at a similar pace we are on the mountain. We will be pulling sledges today, behind our backpacks and we are going to travel from here at Vinson base camp, which I told you is about 7000ft above sea level, 2100m, to what we call Low Camp, it is 9 kilometers (5 ½ miles) from here.

Low camp is at 9000 ft. or about 2750 meters, so it is going to be a long day. We packed our big lunches, as a matter of fact we just had a huge lunch in the dining tent here, but we got more food for along the way. We will be pulling our loads slowly up the glacier and believe me it is absolutely beautiful here. We still got superb weather.

The mountains, the Ellsworth Mountain towers around us and I am looking up at the summit of mount Vinson right now and it looks clear and calm, very inviting. Yesterday was Todd’s birthday and we celebrated after dinner last night; they sent out ice cream and cake from Union Glacier. Todd’s wife, Winslow, is here as well; we had a nice celebration in the dining tent. Here we go, the next stage of the climb is ahead, and we will keep you posted as we climb higher on mount Vinson.

Listen to Wally's call