Expedition Dispatch

November 29, 2012 – The Waiting Game Begins

Well, it is still Thursday, the 29th. But we were really munted now! We’re really tired now! There’s still a blue sky overhead. It is really beautiful here at High Camp the sun is still up and beating down onto our tents. It will be some while before it goes behind the ridge in the Ellsworth Mountains. We have shade rather than sun here so High Camp feels really good. But, we did, as I told you earlier today, start up towards the summit of Mt. Vinson to get familiar with our route. Because of the weather report which I’ll tell you about soon.

Now first of all today, down low, as I’ve said it’s been really nice. It was great for Vaughan, and Todd, and I, and the others (inaudible). We actually climbed to about 4,550 m and as you probably know, Vinson is about 4,900 m so we really weren’t that far below Vinson. We’re at a cache, where we keep rescue equipment. We often use to stop and rest when we realized we had definitely reached our high point for the day. This is because there were very high winds on the summit ridge. We began to feel some of those cold winds. The temperature may have been quite a lot below -30 Centigrade even though we are in the sun and the bright snow is all around. Even the slightest wind felt very cold. We learned a lot about protecting our face from frostbite, our hands too, of course. I think it was a really important day for Vaughan to learn what it is like to climb high in Antarctica. It is really a challenging experience, and also a beautiful experience. Now, we’re going to get to sleep (Lost satellite connection)

Listen to Wally's call

A climber protecting themself from the elements

The rescue equipment found at the cache on Mt. Vinson. Not having enough supplies at High Camp is not an issue on this trip.