If you enjoyed the short version, and you want to get a little more of the story, then check this out too! Even this version has been shortened down from the original 45min. length. It is hard to put 3 months of adventure into a short flick, but I have done my best! Thanks for watching!
Here is a summary of the three months:
I flew down to Punta Areanas on November first. It was a long journey from Salt Lake (37hr travel time). We then were delayed for 3 weeks waiting to fly onto the ice. We kept busy with projects in town, going to the climbing gym, and getting to know each other. There were a crew of people that had flown in early to Union Glacier on the Twin Otters and the Basler who were on the ice in some crazy storms. They still manage to get a lot of things set up and cleared the runway for the Illyushian. I flew in on the second flight on Nov. 25th. It was absolutely stunning when we landed on the Union Glacier. There are mountains in every direction, and inspration was easy to find.
The next day I flew to Vinson Base Camp with some other guides to set up camp there and start to prepare the mountain. We only had a few days to get set up before the first Vinson climbers arrived. It was a team effort for sure. A few guides went up and put up the fixed lines, a few others went up and set up the camps, and Pachi and I started right in with our first groups.
My group was Guiseppe from Itay, Eric from Poland, and Francios from Canada. They were great, and we had a super fun trip. We climbed on the first day from Base camp to the top of Ski Hill. From here we had amazing views of Epperly and Mt. Shin.
The next day we went to Low camp. From Low camp we did an acclimitization day and took a day hike to the col where we were looking at the face of Epperley, and down onto the Pyramid shaped Shcultz peak!
Then we climbed up the fixed lines to High camp. It is a long day getting up there. We were glad to have Rob and Simon helping us set up tents. The winds were already picking up as a storm was approaching. We spent the next 5 days waiting out a storm. The winds were blowing up to 60 at times with an average temperature of -20C. We hunkered down! When we ran out of hot chocolate, we were glad there were enough chocolate bars up there to make some homemade hot chocolate.
When the sotrm passed we had a beautiful and warm summit day, until we reached the summit ridge where the winds were blowing 20-30mph. It was cold up there and every bit of skin had to be covered!
I did a ranger patrol with Pachi on the mountain, and then we went to Union Glacier for awhile. We marked many routes with bamboo poles, climbed a few routes on Mt. Rossman, did a little kite skiing, and enjoyed a festive Christmas at Union Glacier.
On New Year's Eve, I flew to the 89th parrallel to ski the last degree to the South Pole with the Chinese group. Average temperature here was -25C with a 3-5 knot wind. It took us 7 days to complete the journey. It was an interesting experience to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere on this large white expanse. Near the south pole it is a large glacier plateau that is mostly flat. We could see only white in all directions to the the horizon. Without a compass and GPS, it would be impossible to walk in a straight line. Imagine the South pole in the summer is pointed at the sun, so as the earth spins, the sun just moves around you in a circle. It became very apparent to me how fast the earth is spinning, as my shadow visible spun around me. I thought, hear I am trying to walk in a straight line when the earth is spinning so fast.
We settled into a pace of hiking for 2 hr and taking a 25min. break. It was too cold to stop for long. We had our Hileberg tent ready to pop up with the poles taped together when we got to camp we could set up in about 20min. Once in the tent it was quite warm because the sun was always shinning and would warm it up quickly. We wore face mask most of the time, and cruised along on our cross country skis pulling sleds in tow. It was a great opportunity to be alone with your mind. I thought about all my family and friends. It occured to me how I choose my attitude at any moment in time. When at times I would get frustrated with my sled, or my back would hurt, I would then realized that it was all an opportunity. So I learmed our to walk better using my core and not my back, I appreciated the hard work and began to enjoy this unique opportunity.
The group did great and got up to doing about 20 km a day. We were elated to arrive at the South Pole. However it was not in our cards to leave right away, and we spent 4 days there waiting for the weather to cooperate for a plane to get in to pick us up! Another opportunity, and a great time to catch up on our sleep. We were not alone. An owner of ALE, a guide, and one client had opted to spend one night at the pole as well. That one night turned into 4! You never know what may happen. So we have lots of photos from the south pole!
We did finally make it back to Union Glacier, but again there were delays of weather, a fuel strike in Punta Areanas, and a broken fuel pump on the plane that had to be flown from Russia! So we played ping pong, volley ball, went for hikes, did yoga, and had an Olympic competition. Always an adventure. Now mater what you do in life, there is change, there is adventure, lessons to learn. May we always be grateful and happy, no matter what comes our way! Thats what I want to take from Antarctica 2011!
