Trip Reports

Vinson - 12 to 31 Dec '07

Written by Leader Neal Short, January 2008

Vinson 2007 Team Members: James, Phillipe, Stuart, Janet and Doug.

All members and leader summited Vinson on Friday 28th December 2007.

We met up on the 13th December in Punta Arenas and unfortunately where immediately informed of a 3 day delay due to poor weather at Patriot Hills, Antarctica. Although this was disappointing it wasn’t unexpected.

Our delay gave us plenty of time to sample the ‘delights’ of Punta. In many respects Punta is quite an ordinary town however it did have some good restaurants, particularly down by the port, and surprisingly North Face and Mountain Hardwear stores (though nowhere in town can you purchase suitable cold weather gear for Vinson). Also all members managed to visit local penguin colonies. Philippe, arriving a day earlier than the main team, took the opportunity to visit a penguin colony of some 50,000 breeding pairs on Isla Magdalena and the rest of the team took a trip to see a much smaller colony at a wind swept headland on the Seno Otway.

19th December: All go. At 11am we got the news that the cross winds on the blue ice runway at Patriot Hills had reduced sufficiently for the Ilyushin to land safely. We were rushed through airport security and boarded wearing our down kit.

The flight out on the Ilyushin made for an unusual start to our expedition. As a cargo plane, the Ilyushin didn’t have any passenger windows which made it difficult to judge the landing and so it was with a sudden bump we touched down in Antarctica.

Although very excited to be on Antarctica, we were disappointed to hear that we couldn’t fly out to Vinson BC for at least a couple of days due to poor weather over the Ellsworth mountains (Vinson massif).

20th – 22nd December: Patriot Hills. The delay did have some benefits, as it allowed us time to acclimatise to the both the cold and more so, the 24hrs daylight. Of interest whilst there was the Ice Marathon & 100km Ultra Marathon races. The winner of the marathon was a chap who worked at Patriot Hills with a time of four and half hours. There was also a wheelchair athlete, who with finishing the Ice marathon had managed to complete a marathon on each continent.

23rd December: Wow! There was great excitement and relief when we finally got the go ahead for our Twin Otter flight into Vinson BC.

The views out through the plane windows across the vast expanses of ice and numerous pyramidal peaks where stunning. Even though we didn’t land until 6pm I deemed it best to leave BC straight away as it would allow us to split the heavy sled-haul to Low Camp (LC) over 2 days. As quickly as possible we packed the sleds, cached 3 days food and had an environmental impact briefing from the staff at BC. We left BC at around 9pm and took just over 3 hours to reach Half Camp (2550m).

24th December: Low Camp (2750m). As the sun didn’t hit camp until 11am we had a leisurely start to the day and left for LC at 2.30pm. The route up the Branscomb glacier took us close to a number of ‘cracks’ (crevasses) and past impressive ice streams that flow down from the upper reaches of Vinson. We pulled into camp at 7pm and were fortunate to take over a previously prepared camping area (i.e. with snow block walls).

25th December: At LC. We awoke on Christmas day to grim weather and after some discussion elected to stay in camp rather than force the route in less than favourable conditions. Whilst at camp I decided that we would use the new fixed lines route to HC.

NB. - Fixed Lines: Over recent years the original route up the Branscomb glacier headwall to Goodge Col (between Shinn & Vinson) has started to cause some concern. The problems that exist are two fold; firstly a more heavily fractured/crevassed headwall and secondly, threatening seracs from the valley sides. Therefore this year, the company who run the logistics on Vinson decided to try and provide an objectively safer option. They chose to put in a 1000m of fixed lines on a snow slope just beyond LC. The fixed lines rise from approximately 2800m to 3600m and take between 4-6hrs to ascend. From the top of the fixed lines it takes a further 1-2 hrs to reach High Camp (3800m).

26th December: Single push to High Camp (HC). The weather improved slightly and with agreement from the team we moved to HC in a single push rather than load carry and take 2 days.

We started off in low cloud but at about half way up the fixed lines we broke through and this gave us a magical panorama across peaks that were protruding through. Once above the fixed lines we took a rising traverse, on open slopes, up to HC (2hrs). At camp the team worked hard to prepare our campsite.

27th December: Acclimatisation day at HC. As we had plenty of time left in the itinerary and a good weather forecast we stayed in camp thus providing further acclimatisation and rest before the long summit day. Also with fabulous views of the Antarctic plateau and the majestic peaks of Shinn, Tyree and Gardner it gave us the opportunity to appreciate our privileged position.

28th December: Summit Day. We fired the stoves up at 7.30am and left camp just before 10am. We started out in glorious sunshine and remarkably warm conditions but after a few hours had to stop to put on more clothing and in particular face masks.

On the summit pyramid we tried the slightly steeper ‘right-hand’ variant but found exceptionally hard neve and sections of ice. Therefore we had to traverse around to the ‘voie normal’ and reached the summit at 6.30pm. After spending 45mins on top we returned to HC at 10.30pm.

29th December: HC to Punta Arenas. We left HC, swiftly descended the fixed lines to arrive at LC in glorious sunshine and then made the final push to BC.

Fortunately the good weather continued to hold so without delay we took a fantastic Twin Otter flight buzzing the summits of the Ellsworth range and then immediately boarded the Ilyushin back to Punta.

Finally, the expedition was a success for a number of reasons but none more important than the effort and comradeship that each team member put into the common goal.

Neal Short, Expedition Leader

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