Expedition Dispatch

November 30, 2012 – Pinned Down Until Sunday

It’s 2pm, on the 30th of November at High Camp Mt. Vinson. I’m happy to report that right here at High Camp we still have great conditions. Those winds that were forecast to come up here at this level last night did not—still perfectly clear skies. Looking up at the ridges above us, the winds are really hollowing. There are very, very strong winds above us.

At 1pm every day we get our weather report. It’s called up from Vinson Base Camp and what we got is very high winds, very cold temperatures right through Sunday our forecast. We’re actually forecast to have 50-knot winds by Sunday, right here at Vinson Base Camp. Now I don’t know if that will happen, I am actually of course hoping that it doesn’t, but we got to be ready for that.

We’ve got it great living here now. We just had a big, long breakfast in our pyramid shaped tent that goes over a big hole in the snow where we can all set up. We had pancakes and lots of coffee. And we’re enjoying the good weather now but now were going to get dug in a little better because we expect to be pinned down through the weekend and unable to climb higher or make another attempt on Mt. Vinson. And as I said, even in these conditions looking up at the high ridges above us, there’s no way you can be up there in those winds; extremely cold, extremely windy, I am not even sure if you’d be able to stand up if you were up there. So, Antarctica is showing us its power, its ferociousness right now, but also its beauty and we’re living well enjoying one another’s company. We count it up; we’ve got people from 12 different countries here. We’re enjoying (Lost satellite connection)

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