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Birthday Wishes
Wednesday, December 8, 1999
 Prittie | |
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Hello this is Willi Prittie, again, calling from an update in Punta Arenas. Yes, as a matter of fact, that is Punta Arenas and not Patriot Hills. Yesterday we were pretty much...what they told us was they closed down the operation because the weather was so bad just to give everybody the rest of the day off. And our first contact this morning was that the weather appeared to be improving, but that they were doing snow removal on the runway and flying conditions were not good due to obscured horizons and blowing show. We're kind of on a short leash with radio contacts every couple of hours or so. That's the way things stand right now so it appears that at least another day or so in Punta Arenas. I have a fond hope that today, December 8th, my birthday actually, I could actually spend in Patriot Hills. We'll see whether or not that works or not.
So, we're seeing a few things around Punta Arenas and the Ezmerelda, which is an over 300-foot long, four-masted, bark [barkentine] sailing vessel; it's a training vessel for the Chilean Navy is in town. So we're planning on a group trip down to there, if we're still here this afternoon to actually be able to go aboard her and visit her — that would be interesting. I have a few other things cooking on the back burner to kind of use up our time here.
One of the things that both Fay and Liz were telling us, at Adventure Network, is that this year they do have a higher capacity for snow removal on the runway than they did last season. That apparently was one of the real hang ups is last year when the weather got good they didn't have adequate time or equipment to be able to remove the snow before the weather turned and got bad again. We are, of course, very hopeful that that will mean that we will get down there without significantly longer delays than what we've already had. Unfortunately the downside to that, we're speculating, is that there's less likelihood that they will put us on a longer leash. Last year with Wally Berg and Pete Athans and the crew down here, there was at least one period of three days where, if they called to checked in, they were actually able to go to a farther field. And the speculation is now that with the larger capacity for snow removal that may not happen this year. We are going to be sticking fairly close to home here and doing a few things to enjoy Punta Arenas and the surrounding — close surrounding — area as much as possible.
The weather here is quite good today. It did rain a bit yesterday. It's back to mostly blue skies. It's a very quiet day here in Punta Arenas, with the religious holiday and whatnot. We're all in a holding pattern and waiting to see what goes on and I'll call with further updates. We'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
—Willi Prittie, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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