November 27, 2006 – Moving to Camp 1 Today

Listen to Audio of Wally's Call (.wav)

It’s the 27th of November and I’m calling you from Vinson Base Camp.  Larry, Wayne and I just spent our third night, which had been our plan. here at Vinson Base, getting ourselves acclimatized and organized to move higher on Vinson.  Yesterday we successfully did our first carry up to Camp 1.  We moved heavy loads all the way up to Camp 1 and we were moving on the glacier for 10.5 hours round trip to get this done.

Mostly Larry and Wayne will tell you stories about being hot so far on this trip.  I keep mentioning the warm temperatures but I haven’t been specific.  When we flew into Patriot Hills it was -6C and that’s about as warm as I know it can be down here. Here at Vinson Base we have even had temperatures closer to zero or freezing, that’s extremely unusual for Antarctica.  It doesn’t sound hot but when you are out moving in the bright light of the glacier and your clothing is soaking up all the solar radiation and you are working hard as these guys were, it’s all about hot especially when the wind isn’t blowing.

Now here this morning we have our cozy little camp at Vinson Base which we are about to say goodbye to.  We have a cook tarp, a pyramid shaped tent that stands over a hole dug in the snow with blocks sitting around it.  This is where right now Larry and Wayne are cooking quesadillas for breakfast or melted cheese on little pieces of flatbread.  After we eat we’ll get loaded up and pull our sleds up the glacier and actually move to Camp 1 today, Monday November 27.