Expedition Dispatch
December 2, 2012 – Antarctica is White!
Sunday December 2nd; Antarctica is white! That probably sounds like an obvious statement to those of you who are viewing this dispatch. But I can’t imagine how to tell you how literarily that is true today. Antarctica is white here in the Ellsworth mountain in perfectly clear weather because when we get up high we can look out across the vast expense of glacial wilderness and see nothing but empty white that blends into the horizon that is not even perceptible.
Here in the Ellsworth Mountains, however, we have great rock ridges in that kind of weather and of course I have talked a lot on this trip about the blue sky overhead. No such thing is that here at Low Camp on the Branscomb Glacier on mount Vinson today. I am calling you in complete whiteout conditions. Winds are not that strong, probably about 15 to 20 knots but we are in a thick fog. There is clouds above us, by radio we know below us at Vinson base camp there are clouds and we have no doubt that it was a good decision to move down from High Camp.
Today’s forecast has the winds at least at 35 knots up there today, and I am talking knots, not kilometers per hour. For tomorrow, Monday, it should be higher, and it’ll hit those 50 knots winds that sends us scrambling down here to make sure we were in the safest place we could be when this big weather came through. So today, Sunday, we know we won’t be moving up. Monday, no, Tuesday, the winds are going to diminish but not to the levels that would allow us to travel. We do have everything we need and the rangers, the two Sherpas and Rob (Lost satellite transmission)
Listen to Wally's call
Poor weather conditions
Life gets a bit more difficult with poor weather conditions
Update in the Afternoon
As I mentioned earlier, yesterday, after we descended from High Camp, the Sherpas, Namgay and Lakpa and along with Rob, the 3 climbing rangers for this trip, descended all the way down to base camp to get more supplies. We talked to them by radio today and they are heading back up. I told them why you don’t just wait, since the weather is bad anyway but they decided to come up and be with us; who knows, the weather might be worse tomorrow. They are coming up in whiteout conditions with more food and fuel for us.
Good food sent from Vinson Base
We got plenty of food here, don’t worry about that. We could live for a long time very comfortably here but we might as well get some more stuff in. Today we got together in a pyramid shape dining tent with the holes on the snow, we sat around on our snow benches with pads underneath and we had cheese toast and bacon and hot coffee for breakfast. That breakfast we managed to stretch out to about 2 ½ hours, it was quite enjoyable. Vaughan reported to me that he had the best night’s sleep of the entire trip last night, December 1st. We did get pretty tired moving down on the fixed lines and probably here at a lower elevation it’s a bit easier to sleep for Vaughan and for the rest of us.
But now we’re back in our tents, just kind of hunkered down, because as I said we are not in gale force winds but certainly in a steady 15 knots wind, I would say right now, and in complete whiteout conditions on the Branscomb Glacier. It’s a good thing we have everything we need, it’s a good thing we enjoy one another’s company as much as we do. We have a lot of fun just kind of talking and telling stories. Because the mountain is not going to let us go anywhere for a few days. We’re fine, sitting tight on Low Camp on the Branscomb Glacier, Antarctica.