Mount Vinson Massif Expedition — January 1998

Successful Summit!
All Summit, Safely Traverse Vinson for Descent, and Dig on 30 Year Old Candy

Summit Climb
[Click to Zoom]
(photo: AAI)

Monday, January 19, 1998 — 1pm PST
Expedition leader Wally Berg called from Patriot Hills to say that at 6:15pm on January 16 (Antarctica Time), all seven members of the Alpine Ascents team stood on the summit of Mount Vinson (16,076') in "beautiful, remarkably calm" weather. They safely completed a traverse of Vinson for the descent (rather than retracing their ascent route) that evening and returned to Camp III (12,300') in the middle of the night — though it's still light out this time of year in Antarctica.

"They had found a much needed supply of food at the base of Mount Gardner that had been left in 1966..."

On the 17th they descended all the way to Vinson basecamp where a Twin Otter airplane transported them across the Ellsworth mountain range back to Patriot Hills. All the climbers miss their families (spread out from Milan, Italy to Montana to Colorado) but all are in great health and got to spend some time with other climbers at Patriot Hills waiting for winds to die down for the flight back to Punta Arenas.

Summit View
[Click to Zoom]
(photo: AAI)

They shared the flight back from Vinson with Conrad Anchor who had completed a "quite impressive, 30-hour ascent of a new peak that had been unclimbed... I think you'll hear more about that route soon," said Wally. An old Everest friend of Wally's, Viekka Gustafsson from Finland, and another Finnish climber named Patrick [Degerman] skied into Vinson base after having done "quite a remarkable ski over a period of 17 days in which they did five new routes."

"Another little interesting note on Viekka's return to Vinson base... they had found a much needed supply of food at the base of Mount Gardner that had been left in 1966 by another friend... John Evans. We all enjoyed those candy bars, John, as well as some other items including a great mashed potato meal that Viekka and Patrick fixed themselves right there at the base of Gardner, and that food was very much need by those guys as they completed quite a lengthy and impressive journey."

"A trip to Antarctica is a big adventure," says Wally.

Winds prevented the C-130 Hercules from picking the team up immediately for the flight back to South America, but The Mountain Zone has gotten word that they have made the flight over, and as of this morning, all members except for Wally Berg and Brent Bishop are on their way home. Berg and Bishop are in Punta Arenas finalizing expedition details.

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