 At the Mercy of Weather
Waiting for winds to die down for flight to Antarctica
Tuesday, January 6, 1998 — 8:45am PST
The patience of expedition leader Wally Berg and the Alpine Ascents
International Vinson team continues to be sorely tested. Berg reports
that although it's been only their second full day of waiting for the
weather over the Patriot Hills base, Antarctica, to sufficiently clear
to
allow the team to fly there, it seems like much longer. Being on call
24
hours a day can exact a fiendish toll, according to Berg. A glimmer
of
hope came in the form of a report announcing reduced winds over
Patriot
Hills, but that was dashed as the weather socked in and snow once
again
began to fall. So it's back to the hard work of waiting for the
would-be
Vinson climbers, a situation which emphasizes the fact that often the
most difficult part of climbing in Antarctica is getting there.
Wednesday, January 7, 1998 — 7pm PST
Berg reports that the entire team has been "stood down" for 12 to 18
hours as weather over the continent of Antarctica continues to make
an
attempted landing impossible. And a serious obstacle has presented
itself: the potential doom of low winds but continued snowfall at the
Patriot
Hills base. Such a situation would mean that snow might accumulate on
the blue ice runway there, which makes landing impossible. Usually,
winds blow the make-shift strip free of snow, which permits departures
and landings, so the Alpine Ascents International team is now
actually
hoping for more wind at Patriot Hills.
Thursday, January 8, 1998 — 6am PST
The AAI Vinson team continues to wait out impossible weather over
Antarctica. Another depressing forecast was received at 9pm last
night, indicating the expedition is in for a long wait for flying
weather to Patriot Hills. Team leader Wally Berg reports that an
adventurer on the continent now, attempting to ski to Patriot Hills,
has
been pinned down by bad weather and unable to make progress. It's
shaping up to be a bad weather climbing season on Antarctica, but the
team members are trying to maintain a positive attitude even though
they
are unable to even stray far from their hotel as they must be ready
to
leave at all times.
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