Hi, it's Robert Anderson, reporting in with Antarctica 2003. After the climb, we got back down from Vinson, we slept a quick seven hours, and got up around midnight. With perpetual daylight around here we pay little attention to night or day, when we eat or sleep. As long as we feel good, we take off and do what we want to do.

We left camp for a very long, glorious ski back down the glacier. Very nice, just glide back down what took us so long to go up. We came down in about 2 hours, compared to the 2 days it takes us to ascend the glacier. We had a quick lunch of olives, cheese and just a sip of single malt to celebrate the summit, then we set off up the Branscomb glacier for Vinson Base Camp.

I've been unable to find any information that anybody's been up this glacier. The map, with 200 meter contour intervals, means that we could run up against a 590 foot ice cliff that didn't warrant even noting on the map. And at the bottom of the map in small print it states, "Absence of the crevasse symbols does not necessarily indicate a crevasse-free area." So we were operating a little bit in the dark on what, exactly, we'd find.

Fortunately, though, we only encountered a few smaller crevasses, which we successfully bridged, and one very large, monster crevasse, which you could have dropped a few houses in, which we had to kind of skate across the glacier to the other side and then come back again. We got around that.

The fog descended a bit as we finally circled the frontal ridge and headed up towards Vinson Base Camp. Climbing up out of the mist, it was just a long little line of flags on the runway that they have here and 10 small tents.

We were greeted by two of the ANI men that work here, John and Christof, who boiled up a huge hot, steaming cup of hot chocolate for us. So we're back to kind of the Antarctic version of civilization.

We've arrived here in Vinson Base Camp in the timeframe that's recommended to kind of get back on the flight we want, but right now the ice frost, the fog is enshrouding the camp, so we won't be getting out today. We hope, with some fresh breezes that are blowing in now, and a bit colder weather, probably down to about 10 below, that it'll be a bit better flying tomorrow, and we'll get out, back to Patriot Hills, and then catch the Alleutian flights on Thursday.

With Chris Heintz headed to a friend's wedding in New York, and myself off to the circus this Saturday night, we're looking for some good weather to get us home quickly.

And on a final note, to Larry Harris at Foote, Cone & Belding and James Barkley at Salomon Smith Barney, yes, you guessed it, Intesar and I will need this week off. We hope to see you soon, thanks.

— Robert Anderson, expedition leader and MountainZone.com correspondent