The Plane is Coming!!

The word from Antarctica is that the winds have calmed and the plane is on the way. It will be this evening before they are all back in Punta Arenas, Chile. This will probably be the last update on this trip unless anything changes. Thanks for checking it out, Congratulations to the climbers, it sounds like they had a great trip, and adventure in Antarctica. Check out our website www.mountaintrip.com for more adventures.

Thanks from Bill and Todd at Mountain Trip

The Waiting Game

The Antarctica team is waiting for the weather to improve at Patriot Hills, eating Pizza (Todd is a pretty good mountain cook) and generally relaxing. They'll call as soon as the word comes that the plane is on the way. I'm sure they are all excited to get back and take a shower.

Back to Patriot Hills

The weather improved the planes could fly into and then out from Base Camp and the Vinson team is now back in Patriot Hills. This is the main airbase for this part of the continent and the place where they will wait for the next flight back to Chile. They are going to get on the same big Russian cargo plane that delivered them to the Ice a couple of weeks ago. It is an awesome sight to see that big bird come in for a landing on the blue ice runway. The plane is scheduled to fly tomorrow, but as always that is weather dependant.

Life is pretty good at Patriot Hills, they have a big heated tent where they can sit in chairs at tables and play cards for hours on end as they wait for the flights. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything new. Stay tuned.

Still at Basecamp

They just called and they are still at Base Camp! The weather improved today, and it looks like they are going to have a pretty good shot at flying tommorow. They are still eating well; tonight's dinner was a spinach gnocci with a white sauce and tuna. Todd was a bit disappointed with the consistancy of the gnocchi, but it tasted pretty darned good. They are, however, down to two boxes of wine so if they don't fly soon they might really start to suffer. Let's hope they wake up to blue skies tommorow.

Hanging out at Vinson Base Camp

The clouds hung over Vinson Base Camp again today so the planes couldn't fly in to carry our climbers back to Patriot Hills where they will catch their flight back to Chile. So they're hanging out for another day in camp, waiting for the weather to change. Don't feel too bad for them, they are getting lots of time to read books, sleep in, and socialize with the 20 other climbers from around the world that are with them at Base Camp. They had grilled cheese sandwiches with soup for lunch, and Tamales with Chilean Wine for dinner. Sounds like they are living pretty well for being in Antarctica. We'll update when we hear anything new, but they are hoping to fly tommorow if the clouds clear just a bit.

Back To Basecamp

The whole team is safe and happy to be back down at basecamp (Maria said that coming down was the most painful part of the trip).

After packing up high camp, they descended the steep, crevasse-ridden headwall to Camp 1. The fourth member of the team, Matsumoto, was excited to see the summitters and was in great spirits after his "vacation" staying at the well-stocked Camp 1. His frostbitten fingers look great and there is no risk of infection. He made the right decision in remaining at Camp 1. He won't lose any tissue and they should be as good as new in a few weeks. The rest of the team admires his determination and dedication to the group as a whole. By choosing to remain at Camp 1, he enabled the team to go up to high camp in time to capitalize on the good window of weather they needed to reach the summit. His indomitable spirit defined "teammate" and when you get right down to it- that's one of the key reasons we enjoy climbing big mountains.

Now the team is waiting in the "luxurious comfort" of basecamp for the return flight to Patriot Hills. They hope to get to fly to the Patriot Hills Camp tommorow and will fly back to Chile as soon as tommorow night if the weather cooperates. We are psyched to have the whole crew back to basecamp healthy and happy.

On The Summit!!

We just got the call from the top of Antarctica!

Todd, Jonas and Maria are all doing great and are standing on the top of Vinson on a beautiful day. They sounded ecstatic. I can't wait to see the pictures, as they say they can see forever. After a couple of days of wind and weather they awoke this morning to beautiful blue skies and went for it. The trip up was a long one and the shear scale of all things Antarctic made it seem like the summit just never grew nearer. Fortunately the weather held and they were able to enjoy an almost windless, perfect evening on the top of the bottom of the world.

Congratulations to the team and we will let you know when they get back to basecamp. Weather permitting, they will be packing up their tents at high camp and heading down tomorrow. Yippeee!!!

Waiting for the Weather

Well they spent another day watching the wind blow high on Vinson today. They did not try for the summit, as they are waiting for a better window of weather. Two teams did try for the summit today, but our crew thought it looked a bit too iffy to warrant an attempt. Both of those teams turned around about an hour out of camp and are now nestled in to their tents as well.

Everybody is hanging tough and is in good spirits as the heat wave of -25 F is still sticking around. They are hoping for the wind to calm so they can give it a shot tommorow. The benefit is that these extra days at High Camp will get them all well acclimitized for their summit day. We'll all hope for a good day tommorow.

Tried, but Denied

The Mountain Trip crew ambitiously tried for the summit today, but were turned around by ugly clouds and high winds. They decided to call the attempt an "acclimatization hike" and will rest up for the remainder of the day, hoping for a good weather window. Everyone's still in good spirits and anxious to try again tomorrow. Last night's temp was a balmy -23F !! Think warm thoughts! Maria wanted everyone to know that she hasn't turned blue yet.

At High Camp

The crew is at high camp, poised for a summit bid. Yesterday they had a big, but beautiful day moving up the headwall. The "night" time temps are still in the -37 F range. Depending on weather and energy levels of the team, they may go for it or they may take a rest day. We'll keep you posted as more news unfolds.

Rest Day Today

Well they carried a load of food and fuel up to high camp yesterday, up the "headwall" to the saddle between Vinson and Mt Shinn. The weather has become a bit more Antarctic with the lows last night reachin -37 f (a more typical night time temp.) Thats why they brought all those warm clothes and big down sleeping bags! They are resting up today, and hope to be able to move up to high camp tommorow.

Camp 2

Well the Mountain Trip crew moved up to camp 2 on Friday, we got the call last night. They had a great day, the weather has continued to be beautiful and the temperatures were a warm -5 F last night. Today (Saturday) they are carrying food and fuel up to their high camp, where they will cache it and return to Camp 2 to spend another night before moving up. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIV!! Jonas would like to pass on his birthday wishes to his neice Liv in Sweeden.

Made it to Camp One!

With beautiful weather, a slight wind and relatively mild temps, the group had a good day carrying to Camp 1. They are at the corner of a large glacial tongue, and have "stunning views" of the surrounding mountains; can't quite see the summit of Vinson yet. Jonas wanted it to be known that his new boot liners are great and keeping him warm. He's psyched to keep on truckin' up the mountain. Tomorrow's agenda is to head to Camp 2. Last night's low was a mere -3 F.

The team is at Basecamp

After spending one night a Patriot Hills the crew boarded a twin otter (smaller plane on skiis) and flew about an hour back to the North to the basecamp for Vinson. The weather is beautiful at basecamp, they will spend a day there getting the gear prepared for the move up to camp 1. Sounds like the temperatures have been fairly warm so far with lows staying above 0 F. Everyone is doing great. We'll give you more details as they arrive.

On the ICE!

Hi folks, this is Lisa Rutledge, Todd's wife writing this because Todd has no access to email while he's on the ice. I spoke with Todd last night via the sattelite phone. They had landed safely after a 4 hour and 45 minute flight from Punta Arenas on the ice runway at Patriot Hills. Todd's words were, "The pilot greased the landing... this place is amazing... clear, beautiful weather...everyone is psyched!" They were planning to walk about a kilometer to Patriot Hills, then set up tents and sleep. The flight to base camp of Vinson should happen today.

Landed In Antarctica!!

They have landed. The weather in Antarctica improved yesterday and the crew boarded the giant russian cargo jet and flew down to the Patriot Hills base. The plane lands on wheels on a 4 mile long blue ice runway. The crew spent the night at the relatively luxurious Patriot Hills camp, and will be flying to Vinson base camp today. The flight to Vinson base from Patriot Hills takes about an hour, and they will be flying in a 12 passenger plane on skiis. We'll keep you updated if we hear any more details.

No Flights Today

Well, we just received the phone call cancelling any possibility of flying this evening. The winds at Patriot Hills are gusting about 30 knots, which is just too windy for the pilot to want to attempt a landing.

The air service, ALE, will give us a ring at 6:30 am to let us know if we can fly at that time. Hopefully we won´t have a repeat of today, but if we do...there is always the next day. This is all affectionately called the ¨Hurry up and wait program.¨

Hurry Up and Wait

We are waiting for the winds to taper off down at Patriot Hills. We received our first weather update at 9:30 a.m. this morning and it didn’t look too favorable. They were getting a crosswind that wind that was gusting to about 25 knots. The noon update was even less optimistic, with gusts to 30 knots. We decided to keep our rooms for the evening, just in case we cannot fly today.

The most recent update looks much better with a decreasing trend in wind velocity. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll be boarding the plane this evening. The next weather call will be at 6 p.m. and if things still look good, I expect that we’ll head out to the airport. As they say, “Vamos a ver…”

Vinson Massif Expedition

Greetings from Punta Arenas, Chile, at the southern tip of South America! Tatsuo Matsumoto arrived late on Saturday night to complete our team and we are hoping to fly to Antarctica this evening for an attempt to climb Mount Vinson, the highest peak on the continent. Matsumoto is from Brasil and he is joining Maria Alonso, Jonas Karlsson and me, Todd Rutledge on this expedition.

The first hurdle on any international expedition is arriving at your meeting point with all your luggage. So far, so good! None of us had to scramble fo find equipment in this bustling port city thanks to the wonders of modern baggage handlers. Thanks American Airlines and Lan Chile! I arrived a couple of days before the rest of the team and bought some of the food we will take with us on this trip although I flew down with all of the food that we will eat on the mountain. One of the vagaries of climbing in Antarctica is having to deal with the potential for long flight delays due to weather. We will have an additional week’s worth of food with us, just in case.

Everyone was very organized and we made short work of weighing our equipment and food in order to load it on the huge Ilushyn cargo plane that will deliver us to “The Ice.” Due to relatively high temperatures at our landing point on the blue ice runway at Patriot Hills, we won’t fly until evening, so as to land during the night, when the runway is most frozen. With daytime temperatures around 25 degrees Fahrenheit, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The biggest limiting factor to flying to the Ice is wind. Crosswinds are common at Patriot Hills and the pilot does not like to land in a wind of over 20 knots. The estimate is that weather permits you to fly on an average of one day in three.

The past days have been busy in preparation, although that time has been tempered by dining out at some of the many restaurants specializing in the seafood for which Punta Arenas is so famous. There’s no clear winner in the “tasty entrée” challenge. So far it’s a toss up between the white, flaky, grilled Congor Eel and the King Crab casserole. I think we’ll need to sample a bit further…