Mount Vinson

Located only 660 nautical miles from the South Pole, Vinson Massif (16,067') is the highest peak in Antarctica and one of the least climbed of the seven summits. In November of 2015, I travelled to Antarctica to climb this amazing mountain.

Getting to Southern Chile - November 22 to 23, 2015

It is a long journey to get to Antarctica. First is a 3 hour flight from Chicago to Miami. My flight seemed to be on time as I boarded, but once on the airplane, we were told there was a mechanical issue and this prevented us from leaving for almost an a hour and a half. Due to the delay, we arrived late into Miami and I now had only an hour and a half to get from the domestic terminal to the international terminal and my connecting LAN airways flight to Santiago, Chile. It is a long walk from the terminal where I landed to the terminal where I was departing and I had to leave the secure area and then go through a very long security screening line. I made it to my flight with only a few minutes to spare.

I settled in for the 10 hour flight to Santiago. It was a 787 which is a nice plane, but the seats were very tight. Luckily, no one was in the middle seat next to me, so I was able to spread myself out a bit. I slept some on the plane and eventually made it to Santiago about 7 am local time the next morning.

In Santiago, I had to retrieve my baggage, clear immigration and customs, and then re-check my bags for the domestic flight to Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas is located at the southern tip of South America and is the town where all Vinson climbers must begin their journey to Antarctica. While in line to re-check my bags, I met a couple of guides from another guide service who were also headed to Antarctica. They were very friendly and I spent time chatting with them at a little coffee shop while we waited for our flight.

I'm not sure why, but all flights going to Punta Arenas have a stop in Puerto Moffitt. At Puerto Moffitt, about 2/3 of the plane got off and a set of new passengers got on. I just stayed in my seat and relaxed.  After about an hour we were on our way again. One and a half hours later, we touched down in Punta Arenas. I felt like I had been travelling forever!

After gathering my luggage, I found my driver standing near the baggage claim with my name on a sign. He escorted me to a van where my guide for the climb, Tre-C, was waiting along with three other climbers in our group. A father son team from England -- Steve and Ben, and their friend Neil from Northern Ireland. After a short ride down the coast to the hotel, I checked in and then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. I was exhausted after almost 30 hours of travelling. I met Tre-C and a few other guide service staff members for dinner at a pizza place in downtown Punta Arenas. It wasn’t Chicago pizza but it was good enough and it helped me stay awake a bit longer.

The town is small but very scenic and the view from my hotel window of the Straights of Magellan was amazing. I was extremely tired, so by 9 pm, I was in bed and enjoying some much needed sleep.

Punta Arenas - November 24 to 25, 2015

After a wonderful night of sleep, I woke up feeling much more alive. I ate breakfast and then organized all of my equipment for a gear check with Tre-C. Once I am in Antarctica, there will be no options for gear replenishment, so it was important to make sure I had everything I would need for the climb. I laid all my gear out on my bed in my hotel room and waited for Tre-C to arrive. An hour later, the gear check was completed and we agreed I had everything I needed. After I reorganized my stuff into the bags that would be flying with me, I spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around and exploring Punta Arenas. It is a nice little town with a lot of small shops and restaurants. It is easy to get around and although it was overcast, the temperature was quite pleasant.

Later in the evening I met up with the guides I had met in the airport and their climbing team. They were nice enough to invite me to join them for dinner. There were 10 of them total from all over the US. We went to a popular restaurant called La Luna and had a scrumptious dinner and a few pre-climb drinks. I didn't make it to bed until a little after midnight.

The next day was a busy day...After breakfast, I went downstairs to hand off my checked luggage for the flight to Antarctica. The outfitter (Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE)) weighs the luggage and takes it a day in advance so they can have the plane loaded and ready to go. After checking my bags, I had lunch in town and then walked around and did some sightseeing. There is a famous statue at a park in town where it is supposed to be good luck to rub its foot. It is funny to look at because it is a solid green statue with a shiny foot. It is shiny from all of the people rubbing it!

At 5 pm everyone who will be going on the flight to Antarctica met at the ALE offices for a reception and briefing on the upcoming flight. We had Pisco Sour's (a Chilean specialty drink) served over Antarctic ice and then sat down for the briefing. There were about 50 of us in total waiting to fly. Most were planning to climb Vinson, but there were also several people intending to ski to the south pole from the coast. Skiing from the coast to the pole takes 40-50 days and you have to pull a very heavy sled in temperatures of -30 to -50. Pretty interesting people you meet on the way to Antarctica!

As the briefing began,  we learned that instead of flying in on the Ilyushan (a huge Russian cargo plane that is the usual transport to Antarctica), we were going to be the first people to ever fly a 757 to Antarctica. ALE was trying a new concept in partnership with Icelandic Airways. The plane had flown last week with just crew and we were to be the first passenger flight. We were told that we would get a call between 6 and 9 am tomorrow morning with an update on flying plans. In order to fly to Antarctica the weather has to be good in Punta Arenas, along the route to Antarctica, and at the Union Glacier landing site. This does not happen all that often. Teams frequently have to wait days (and sometimes weeks!) to fly.

After the briefing ended the 9 climbers and 3 guides on my team went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Brocolini. We had a delicious meal and while there we found out that the restaurant was making the meals for our flight tomorrow and the proprietor would be up all night working on making them all! Our group consisted of myself, another woman from the USA, a British father and son team, two guys from Ireland, and two Italians who spoke almost no English. Our guides were Tre-C, Zach, and Scott. Scott has an impressive climbing resume. He has completed the seven summits seven times!

Antarctica! - November 26, 2015

It was Thanksgiving day back in the US!

I had a hard time sleeping. I was filled with anticipation about what the day would bring. I kept looking at the clock -- 6 am...7 am...8 am...Finally at 8:20 am the phone rang. It was Tre-C letting us know that we were flying today and we needed to be ready in the hotel lobby at 9:10! I took a quick shower and did one last pass at organizing my carry on gear and headed down to the lobby. A little after 9:15 we were on the bus and headed to pick up a few more passengers from other hotels. It was about 10:15 by the time we got to the airport. We went through security and then settled in the waiting area for them to announce our flight. Around 11 am they called our flight and we walked onto the tarmac to board the 757!

Prior to boarding the plane, we were required to ensure that we had no foreign material on any of our gear, shoes, or clothing. There was a small pan with disinfectant where we had to rinse our shoes in to make sure there was no dirt on them and all of our gear was inspected to validate it was clean. This is done to ensure that nothing unexpectedly hitches a ride and damages the fragile antarctic environment.

The 757 was by far the nicest airplane I have ever been on. It was configured with 75 first class seats. Although I was a little disappointed to not be flying on the Ilyushin, it was hard to feel bad about being on a plane this fancy! I got a window seat and was seated next to the person who is responsible for all airports in Chile. He was going on this flight since it was the first commercial 757 flight to Antarctica and he wanted to see the logistics of how it would work. Unlike the rest of us, he would just stop on Antarctica for a few hours and then head back to Chile. I was a mixture of excitement and nervousness as we took off. The flight was expected to take a little under 4 hours.

About 3 pm local time the pilots informed us that we were starting our descent and we should gear up for landing on the glacier. They turned down the heat in the plane and we put on our climbing boots and down pants and down jackets. This is necessary because upon landing, once they open the airplane doors, we will be in temperatures around 0 degrees. A little after 3:30 pm we touched down at Union Glacier. It was a surprisingly smooth landing for being a runway made entirely of ice!

About 15 minutes after we landed I disembarked and took my first steps on Antarctica! It was quite a feeling to set foot on a continent that so few people ever get to experience. It was very windy on the runway, so I took a few quick pictures then hopped into the transport van for the ride to camp. The Union Glacier camp is about 5 miles from the runway and it is quite an interesting ride. The path (kind of a semi smoothed out road of ice) is incredibly bumpy and I think the van came close to flipping over every half mile or so! After about 20 minutes of the crazy drive, we arrived at camp where we were greeted by ALE staff members who gave us a quick camp overview and orientation tour.

The scenery is stunning! The camp is located on a flat plateau with mountains surrounding it. As far as you can see is snow and ice. Camp consists of a dining hall, a lecture hall, some bathrooms, a few showers, and several double walled clam shell tents for ALE clients to sleep in 9(non ALE clients need to bring their own tents). Because I was climbing with ALE, I got to sleep in one of the clam shell tents. These were super nice. Each tent had two cots with mattresses in them and a small wash basin. Each tent is named after a famous Antarctic explorer. Unfortunately, I did not get to stay in the "Palmer" tent (yes, there is one!) but I did get a nice picture of it. I was in the "Ross" tent with Kevin from Ireland as my tent mate.

Union Glacier camp is the main ALE camp on Antarctica. From here all of the clients who flew in will disperse to other parts of the continent. For us climbers, that means we need to fly on a smaller airplane to Vinson base camp.

After moving my stuff into the tent, I went to the dining tent to meet everyone else for dinner. At Union Glacier camp, there is an amazing buffet set up for each meal. I think I might gain 10 pounds on this trip if I stay here too long! We ate dinner and got to know each other better until 9 pm and then a few of us went to see a video about how they set this camp up each year at the beginning of the season. It is quite impressive what they do to rebuild camp each year. The Antarctic season only lasts from late November until late February each year. At the end of each season they pack up the entire camp into a few trailers and these are then towed to a safe, sheltered area to ride out the winter. When the next season begins, staff arrive a month before paying clients to retrieve the gear and rebuild the camp. They often are doing this in temperatures significantly below 0 and have to ensure multi day blizzards.

The sun never sets in Antarctica at this time of the year, so based on the sun, you would have thought it was still the middle of the day! Turns out, it was almost midnight and time for me to get some rest.

Exploring Union Glacier - November 27, 2015

Slept great my first night in Antarctica! I woke up about 7:30 am and went to the dining tent to have breakfast. At breakfast they informed us that there would be no flights to Vinson base camp until at least tomorrow due to poor weather near Vinson.  We spent the morning sorting our gear again and practicing crevasse rescue training. Even though most of us had already climbed several large mountains, it is always important to refresh your training prior to walking on a glacier.

Around 1 pm, we ate another fantastic lunch and then drove out to a n area known as Elephant's Head. It is called this due to the fact that the large rock face resembles an elephant's head when viewed from afar. We piled into two of the antarctic vans and began the 10 mile ride. 10 miles back home would take about 10 minutes. Here in Antarctica on crazy crevasse filled, iced over roads, it took us a half an hour.

On the way to the trail head, we passed the ice runway and the Ilyushin had landed and was in the process of being unloaded and re-loaded. It had arrived with a load of cargo for base camp and was being re-loaded to take a load of garbage back to Chile. At Union Glacier, to protect the fragile antarctic environment everything is packed out and brought back to the Chile. We were going to wait around and watch it take off, but it was taking longer than expected, so we eventually moved on and continued to the trail.

Once we arrived at Elephant Head, we got out and began hiking up the hill. It was a rock filled valley with a bit of snow, but mostly rocks. At one point most of my team mates had either gone up above me, out of site, or were down below me, out of site. I felt like I was completely by myself in Antarctica. This was a pretty amazing feeling. One of my favorite aspects of being in Antarctica is that there are so many place where no human being has likely ever gone before. It is quite exhilarating to think about walking somewhere where no one else has ever set foot before! 

We hiked up the trail for an hour or so and then made our way back to the vans. After so many days of traveling, it was nice to get out and stretch the legs for a bit. We drove back to camp, had dinner, and then settled in for our second night in Antarctica. I have to say, these double walled clam shell tents are incredibly nice. It feels like glamping in Antarctica!

Vinson Base Camp - November 28, 2015

I was up for breakfast at 8 am and quickly found out there was a window to fly today and we needed to be ready to go by 9:30 am. I hurriedly ate breakfast and then went to pack up my gear for the flight to Vinson base camp. Normally they fly everyone to base camp in a Twin Otter (a really cool type of small airplane that can take off and land on almost any surface ), but since the Twin Otter can only take 8 people at a time and we had only a short weather window, they decided to fly everyone in on the Basler. The Basler is an older DC 3 with special engines designed for cold weather. This plane can hold around 20 people. The problem with the Basler is that it cannot land at Vinson base camp (the runway is not long enough) - it has to land a few miles downhill. What they did was fly us out to the lower runway in the Basler and then used the Twin Otter to ferry 8 people at a time the last few miles up to the actual base camp. As a former pilot who loves all things aviation, I was excited to be able to fly in so many different airplanes.

It took a while to get everyone organized, but about 10:45 am, my group took off in the first Basler flight. The flight took about 45 minutes and the scenery was absolutely stunning. Antarctica is such a beautiful place - you can see for miles and miles and there is nothing but vast desolation filled with snow and ice broken up by the occasional mountain. When we landed the Twin Otter was already waiting for us, so we made a conga line between the two planes and offloaded the luggage from the Basler and loaded it back onto the Twin Otter. After our luggage was loaded onto the Twin Otter, we climbed aboard for the very brief flight (10 minutes).  Around noon local time we were finally officially "on the mountain" and were at Vinson base camp!

Fortunately for us, ALE had already set our tents up, so after I moved into my tent, I spent some time helping people from other groups get their tents set up.

Most of the rest of the afternoon I relaxed and enjoyed the views. It was definitely colder here, but it was incredibly beautiful. From base camp you can see the summit of Vinson if you look uphill and you can see miles and miles of snow and ice when you look downhill.  ALE has a heated dining tent at base camp, but unfortunately the heater was missing a part and the new part wouldn't be flown in until the planes returned to fly us out :-) It was still a nice large dining tent with chairs and tables.

We had dinner around 7 pm and enjoyed being on the mountain. It felt really good to be here and finally be in position to start climbing. The food once again was excellent. I'm not sure how they cook such excellent meals up here, but I think I may gain weight on this trip! Base camp is about 7000 feet high, so it definitely felt like I was finally climbing a mountain.

After dinner I walked around admiring the views and then headed to sleep. It is a bit strange trying to sleep when the sun never sets. Your body has no visual cues as to what time it is. This is quite disorienting.

Stuck at Vinson Base Camp - November 29 to December 1, 2015

November 29

We woke up to winds blowing strong up high on the mountain, so we weren't going to be moving uphill today.  We spent the morning working on sled rigging and organizing our gear for the eventual move up the mountain. We will be using sleds for the section between base camp and low camp. Sleds allow us to carry more gear in an efficient manner. We needed to sort out which gear would go in our backpacks and what would be in the sled. It also takes some time to rig up the sleds so you can pull them and the bags don’t fall off.

In the afternoon we took an acclimatization hike up one of the side peaks near base camp. We had intended to go all the way to the top, but the snow was unstable (and thus at risk of an avalanche) so we hiked for about an hour on the lower, safer section, to stretch our legs and practice walking roped up as a team. It was a nice hike and it felt good to get out and stretch my legs.

Most of the day was spent just relaxing in the dining tent and enjoying the views. All in all a pretty quiet day.

November 30

We woke up to find out that a "Mega Storm" was parked over Antarctica. This essentially meant that we weren't going anywhere again today. The weather in base camp was calm, but we could see up the mountain that it was still very windy up high.

We spent the morning puttering around camp and hanging out in the dining tent sharing climbing stories and getting to know each other better. Several of the people in our group will be finishing the seven summits with this climb. I enjoyed hearing their stories of climbing Everest and other mountains.

After lunch, we went for a short hike up the route to the first break area. It took us about an hour to get there and another half hour to get back down. It's been a while since I've had any serious exercise, so getting out and about and stretching felt good.

For the rest of the afternoon, I relaxed in the tent and read a book I brought with me. It is amazing how warm you can be in a tent when the sun is out even when the outside air temperature is well below zero. We had a wonderful salmon and pasta dinner and then went to bed hoping for better weather in the morning.

December 1

Well, the calendar has flipped to December, but unfortunately the "Mega Storm" is still parked over us. The good news is that the weather report says it should start clearing out tomorrow or Thursday, so although we won't be going anywhere today, it looks promising for us to be moving up soon.

Today was basically a repeat of yesterday. We puttered around again in the morning and then went for the exact same hike in the afternoon that we did yesterday. It was only a couple of hours out and about, but it felt to be doing something. Sometimes the hardest part of climbing a mountain is staying patient when weather prevents you from doing much.

Shortly after we got back from our hike the winds started really howling. It was blowing a good 30+ MPH and made us all quite happy that we had not moved up to low camp. From about 4 pm until 10 pm the winds were battering everything in camp. Then, just as we were about to go to bed, the winds completely died down and the skies cleared up. We all stood outside talking and marveling at the amazing vistas. I spent about 30 minutes just enjoying the view. I kept pinching myself to remind me that I was actually in Antarctica. It is definitely cold here, but it is an amazingly beautiful place. Eventually I wandered off to bed with hopes of finally moving up the mountain tomorrow. The good news is that I am well acclimatized to 7000 feet!!

Moving to Low Camp - December 2, 2015

Finally! A beautiful morning! We awoke to clear skies and light winds, so we ate breakfast and immediately started packing up camp for the move up the mountain to low camp. After a quick lunch, we loaded up our sleds and around 1:30 pm we were on the move. The route to low camp is long but not very steep, so we use sleds to help haul all of our gear. The packs and sleds aren't as heavy here as they are on Denali, but after a week of doing next to nothing, I could definitely feel the effort.

The first hour of our walk was beautiful, but unfortunately, just after the first rest break, the clouds came in and visibility was reduced to only around 50 feet. The winds stayed calm, so the temperature was not too bad, but it was kind of eerie walking in a complete whiteout. It was like being in a giant snow globe and there were times I could barely make out my rope mates only 40 feet ahead of and behind me. Fortunately our guides knew the route quite well and after 4.5 hours we rolled into low camp. I was more tired than I had expected. I was fighting a bit of a cold/flu the whole time, so maybe that was part of it.

Anyway, getting to camp is only part of the battle. Once there, we needed to level out a flat area and get all of our tents set up. This took us a couple of hours. I was pretty tired, but it felt good to finally be making progress up the mountain. We were now at about 9000 feet of elevation. Only 7000 more feet to go!

ALE used to have a really fancy dining tent up at low camp, but the week before we arrived a storm blasted through low camp and the tent was completely destroyed. We were relegated to eating in a “posh” tent. A posh tent is a triangular tent that has one pole in the middle. You dig a large hole in the snow, leaving a table in the middle. Then you put the pole in the middle of the table and spread the tent fabric out from the pole to the ground and stake it down. This creates a nice little room where you can hang out and eat meals together. When you have time, you can make some really nice dining accommodations in this manner. The posh tents can be pretty warm when everyone is huddled in. We ate a late dinner at about 9 pm and then settled in for the evening. At low camp, the sun goes behind the nearby ridge from 3 am until 11 am. When the sun goes behind the ridge at this camp it gets VERY COLD, so we won't be getting up until the sun is back out tomorrow. The nice thing is that I will get a nice long rest!

Thursday, December 3rd

Well that was a cold night! I had a -40 degree sleeping bag and I was in it wearing my long underwear, gloves, hat, and a couple of layers of light down jackets and I was still cold! I had a bit of a problem around 5 am. Because it is so cold here, you need to sleep with your water bottles in the sleeping bag or they will freeze solid. I woke up and realized it was wet near my feet. I tossed and turned so much during the night, I accidentally started to undo the top to my water bottle and a small pool of water had spilled out. This can be a HUGE problem here as there isn’t a good way to warm things back up if they get frozen. Fortunately for me, I recognized the issue quickly enough and I was able to use my camp towel to wipe up the water. Catastrophe averted!

The forecast for today called for high winds, and we could see it blowing off the ridge above us. Because of this, we took a rest day. Some of the team went for a hike, but since I had been a bit under the weather, I was advised to just rest. Relax is what I did. I basically spent the whole day either hanging out in the posh chatting with my teammates or sitting in my tent listening to music and reading. All in all it was a pretty quiet day. We had dinner about 7 pm and by 9 pm we were tucked in our tents ready for another 14 hours of sleep!

High Camp - December, 2015

Moving day! We woke up at 10:30 am to a windy but beautiful day. The forecast called for very light winds tomorrow, so we made the decision to push up to high camp today even if it is a bit windy. By the time we ate brunch (not sure what to call it when you don't get up until 10:30 am) and broke down camp, it was about 1:30 pm when we finally started walking.

It took us 45 minutes to get to the fixed lines. The fixed lines are where the slope steepens considerably and in order to make it safer for everyone, ALE climbing rangers install fixed ropes (ropes that are anchored into the snow) that we can attach ourselves to for extra safety on the way up. The fixed lines don't look that bad until you are on them and realize that it is significantly steeper than what we have been climbing up until now. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to the first stop, a small ledge where we took a brief food/water/rest break. The winds had died down and the weather was fairly pleasant. After a short break (with the temperatures always below 0 and sometimes significantly below 0, you don’t ever really take a long break in Antarctica) we proceeded to make our way up the next section of the fixed lines which was another 1.5 hours. One more brief stop and we were ready for the final section of the fixed lines. This last section was very steep and kicked my @ss! It was really hard work going up this part. After another 45 minutes, we topped out and were finally off the fixed lines. Unfortunately, the top of the fixed lines did not mean we were at camp. We still had another hour or so to walk.

The last hour was a surprisingly (to me) steep trek and it seemed to go on forever. It wasn’t steep enough to require fixed ropes, but in my head I had mentally thought the hard work would be over when we got off of the fixed lines.

I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we rolled into high camp around 7 pm - six hours after we had left low camp. Fortunately, the rangers had gotten there ahead of us and were nice enough to have already set our tents up. (Note - the rangers work for ALE. They only set up tents for ALE clients. If I had been with another guide service, we would have had to set up our own camp.) We moved into our tents, had a quick freeze dried meal and went to bed. The plan is to go for the summit tomorrow since the forecast is calling for great weather. High camp is situated about 12,500 feet so I was definitely starting to feel the altitude.

Summit Day - December 5, 2015

Summit Day! We awoke at 7:15 am to a beautiful, clear, and calm day. Normally we would take a rest day at high camp before going for the summit, but the forecast calls for winds to pick up tomorrow and today is such a nice day, we didn’t want to pass this opportunity up.

We had a quick breakfast of granola and protein bars and then started gearing up for the climb. At approximately 9:30 am we left for the summit. Most of the summit day climb is a steady, gradual rise. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the first break spot. In Antarctica, to help protect the environment, you cannot just stop anywhere on the trail. There are specific places where teams are allowed to stop. We were going at a nice pace and I felt really good and strong. The weather was so beautiful that we were taking longer than normal breaks. A couple of other ALE rope teams were ahead of us and all the other guided teams were behind us. The second stretch was a bit longer and it took us about an hour and a half to reach the break spot. We took another nice long break and were really enjoying all of the beautiful views along the way.

The third stretch was a bit steeper and took us to the base of the summit ridge. We took many short standing rest breaks along this section because it was steeper and we were getting up over 15,000 feet.  You can see the summit during this whole stretch, which helped keep the motivation strong...knowing that it was so close. Eventually, after another 1.5 hours of climbing, we made it to the base of the summit ridge. We took a short break here, and began the highly entertaining walk along the ridge to the actual summit. The ridge is a narrow rocky ledge with fairly big drop offs on either side. The views though are gorgeous and knowing that you are so close to the summit is a pretty amazing feeling.

On the way up this last section, we passed our ALE teammates heading down. It took about 30 minutes, but right around 3 pm I made it to the summit of Vinson! It was an amazing feeling to be at the highest point in Antarctica! This was my third of the seven summits and it is a really cool feeling. Less than 1500 people have ever summited Vinson and to be part of that exclusive club felt amazing. The views from the summit are absolutely stunning. Everywhere you look is a sea of white. It is a desolate beauty and one of the most amazing places I have every been. Although the air temperature was probably -25 to -30, it felt really warm because there was no wind.

The actual summit is a snow cornice with a several thousand foot drop off to one side. When we were taking pictures, we had to use care not to go too far out onto the cornice and risk falling.

We spent about 30 minutes on the summit taking pictures and enjoying the views. Eventually though, we figured we better start heading down. It was so nice on the summit I didn't even need to wear my big parka. I never would have expected that on Antarctica.

On the way down we passed all of the other teams still headed up. They all looked quite worn out. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one who had struggled a bit on the way up! Going down we took our time and stopped a periodically to enjoy the views and rest, but mostly we just made our way methodically back down the mountain. It didn’t really feel cold during the day while I was moving, but whenever we would stop and I had to remove a glove to do something, I would realize very quickly that it was still well below zero outside!

One of the interesting things was that a good portion of the trail was raised up above the ground around it. This is because the snow gets packed down and then melts slower than nearby areas. It actually snows very little in Antarctica and thus over time the trail ends up being higher that the surrounding area.

We rolled back into camp a little after 7 pm. All in all, it took us 9.5 hours round trip which is a pretty good time. I was tired but felt really good to have safely and successfully summitted Vinson. We had a quick dinner and then went to our tent for some well earned rest. Unfortunately, I was so hyped up from the excitement of the day, I couldn't fall asleep. I spent half the night reading, listening to music and generally just not being able to sleep.

Descent and a Rather Abrupt Return to Civilization - December 6 to 8, 2015

We slept until 9 am today and then began plotting our journey down the mountain. It was another gorgeous day. It took a couple of hours to pack up camp, but a little after 11 am, we began our descent. It took about 30 minutes to get back to the top of the fixed lines. Here we took a nice long break because it was so nice out and the views were amazing.

After the break, we began back down the fixed lines. Going down is easier cardiovascularly, but significantly harder on the knees and legs. On the way down we didn't make any stops and by the time we got to the bottom an hour later, my legs were completely spent. They were shaking as we got off the fixed lines. I was soooo happy to be down the steep part and back on more reasonable terrain! It was a bit chilly coming down the fixed lines because they were still in the shadows and I started to get cold at the bottom. Fortunately, as we walked the last 30 minutes back to low camp I warmed back up.

At low camp we retrieved our sleds and the gear we had left behind. We spent about an hour getting organized and before long we were making our way back down the trail to base camp. On the way up to low camp we had zero visibility. Today we had a beautiful day and could see what we missed on the way up. The views were amazing. It is hard to describe in words what it looks like in the interior of Antarctica. It is just this incredibly stunning place. We stopped a few times for pictures but generally just kept plugging along back down the mountain.

About 4:30 pm we rolled back into base camp. We got there just in time to see our ALE teammates about to fly out on the first Twin Otter flight. We bid them farewell and then waited for the it to come back and get us.

At camp, the ALE staff had champagne waiting for us to celebrate. Back in the relative comfort of base camp ,we sat in the dining tent and refueled with delicious food and hot drinks and sat around enjoying our success. Other teams started rolling back in as well and we went out to congratulate each of them as they returned.

Eventually, around 7 pm, the plane came back to get us. It took about an hour to get the plane loaded and just before 8 pm we were on our way back to Union Glacier! The flight back was beautiful. There were amazing views out the window and I tried to really soak it all in knowing I would likely never be back to this beautiful and amazing place.

We landed back at Union Glacier a little before 9 pm. I was hoping to spend another night a this camp, but there was weather coming in the next day and the Ilyushin was already "on deck" (meaning it was in Antarctica) and we were told we had 30 minutes until we had to head to the plane! Yikes!

We ate a quick dinner and then said quick goodbye's to our guides, who will be staying in Antarctica until the end of January. It was quite a whirlwind day! At 9:30 pm, we piled into the vans for the treacherous ride to the runway. This is a 5 mile drive and I seriously think it was the most dangerous part of the entire trip! It felt like our van was about to flip over several times! Fortunately we did make it to the plane safely.

We took some final pictures of Antarctica and then boarded the Ilyushin for the 4.5 hour trip back to Chile. The Ilyushin is not as fancy as the 757 we flew in on, but it is a pretty amazing plane and a thrill to get to ride in. It doesn't have any windows, but they mount a camera in the nose and show the view on a television in the cargo hold. Passengers made up the first half of the cargo hold and the back half was filled with equipment and garbage headed back to Chile.

We landed in Chile about 3 am. By the time we retrieved our baggage and arrived back at the hotel it was almost 5 am. While I was flying my travel agent had changed my flights to fly me home that same day. I slept for a couple of hours, had lunch with a couple of my teammates and was back in the airport for the almost 24 hour journey home.

This was truly the trip of a lifetime. I wish I would have had more time at the end to enjoy more of Antarctica. It was weird being back in Chicago only 48 hours after being on the summit! I met some amazing people and had a fantastic time. I hope I am lucky enough to go back to Antarctica again some day.

Map of Antarctica

Vinson Area Map