November 29, 2006 – Carry to High Camp

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

I’m calling you at about 4:00pm on the 29th from the Vinson Shinn Col well up over 12,800 feet (3900m) now above the headwall which is the steepest part of the climb up Mount Vinson.  We tried to get an early start today, you know when you are in a camp in Antarctica you go with the sun.  Every camp loses sun when the high arching sun goes behind the ridge of the Ellsworth mountain range.  At Camp I we lose the sun after midnight and we get it back around 11:00am. 

This morning we got up well before the sun, I made hot cocoa for Wayne and coffee for Larry and I.  Wayne was not feeling well this morning, he felt a lot of nausea so he went back to bed for 2 or 3 hours since the sun was not up anyway.  He got up with the sun and he was still feeling under the weather.  So Larry and I started up to carry our food to high camp, in fact we are almost there now.  I have been talking to Wayne on the radio and throughout the day he went from feeling 25% to 50%, in other words he still has low energy.

We gave him an antibiotic in case an upset stomach bacteria is his problem but he needs to rest today and we will see how he does tomorrow.  Larry and I are going to move on to Camp III or high camp now and we will be back with Wayne tonight and tomorrow is our day to move the entire team to high camp.  Watch us on December 1st, that’s our summit day.  We’ll keep you posted each day and let you know how we are doing.  The weather is still great, our team is hanging in and we are loving being in Antarctica, it’s really beautiful here.