Berg

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Hi Mountain Zone, it's Wally Berg. I'm calling you at about 5:17 local time from the blue ice runway, at Patriot Hills in Antarctica. This is a pretty big time for us; I'll have to tell you. The Hercules C-130 was off deck a little less than six hours ago in Punta Arenas and is on its way to come get us.

Many of you know, from past dispatches and elsewhere, what the scene is down here; this is a natural feature, the blue ice runway. The Hercules C-130 is a very large, wheeled aircraft that can land here under the right conditions and this is why Patriot Hills exists here. The right conditions is the important key to this, we had clouds and bad weather here for days, as you know. Steve Pinfield, the station manager, and Simon, his assistant this morning, along with Neil and Lucy doing the weather and radio, liked what they saw. They requested that these guys get in the air and start down here.

As the day's gone on, we have had clearing skies, but those winds, which are partly...or are responsible for this natural feature existing — I'll back up now. And the C-130 has, normally, a tolerance for about an 18-knot crosswind, in order to land out here. Obviously, they left Chile with enough fuel to return but they don't have enough fuel to circle for long. So, the picture is — the gist of this is — as you might imagine, we've got our fingers crossed — big time.

I'm down here watching this and I'll keep you posted. In the next 10 minutes or...[transmission fails].

Well, [Unintelligible] down towards what's called the threshold the area of the Blue Ice that the Herc will first touch down there and we had a little reminder...[Unintelligible]...and also there's [Unintelligible] down there and we're about 2km away from what's called the threshold or the...[transmission fails].

Yeah, based on that information — the visuals from the mirrors and the report of the wind speed — the pilots make their decision in just a few moments. They don't have enough fuel to circle for long, and then they're either down or not. You can imagine how hard we're hoping for them to get down. I'll give you a report as it's happening or soon after.

Another interesting thing of note is, from the other direction, Doug, the First Air pilot, who has another Twin Otter in addition to the one that flew us out — Bob and I off the Embree Glacier — is due in with those M&G Ice Challenge Girls, those British girls; we call them the 'Ice' or 'Spice Girls.' He's due in with them about five minutes behind the Hercules. And, of course, those gals had a very successful two-month epic, travelling overland to the South Pole, and, if luck holds, not only will all the climbers and adventurers who have been stuck at Patriot Hills for some time, be on the way back, but the successful M&G Ice British Women's Team will all be back in Chile tonight.

I'll keep you posted. I'm going to sign off, for now. I hope the wind isn't much of a problem on the Iridium phone here. We'll give you a report in a few minutes as to how successful the Herc landing was.

— Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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