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Preparing for Epic Drake Passage Crossing
Friday, February 11, 2000

Saari

The Team's Call from the Antarctic Peninsula
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Hello Mountain Zone, this is Hans Saari calling from Southern Argentina, currently in the fjords between Chile — Chile is on my right, Argentina on my left — and we're just about to enter the Beagle Straits. And about 12:30 tonight, we are going to start our epic crossing across the Drake Passage. We left Ushuaia, Argentina, at around 6:30 this evening. We did a brief life jacket, rescue set-up and had an excellent dinner of sea bass. It's day three of our approach, we should be reaching Antarctica some time during day five.

We've got a few temperature and weather statistics for you. On February 11, the temperature was 45.2° Fahrenheit. The wind speed was 5.5 miles-an-hour, north to northwest. Wind-chill: 45.1. Humidity: 60%. Altitude: 0. We're currently cruising on the ship. Elevation: We didn't climb or descend anything. Hours of daylight: 18. Barometric pressure: 991.2. Location: Like I said earlier, currently in the southern fjords between Chile and Argentina. And team condition: Good.

We're definitely getting really excited. The weather was a little more clear today, and we caught sight of some peaks outside of Ushuaia, which look to be steep and snow-capped. We also did some exploring in a local book shop and saw some pictures of the islands where we're headed. The terrain looks fantastic. The weather will probably be mixed, but if we can get a small window, we can definitely do some cool stuff, and we'll keep you all posted.

In terms of equipment, we are having some problems with the digital camera, and we'll get those photos off to you tomorrow. I guess we have two or three photos for you. And we'll also do some more dispatches tomorrow, as well. Alright, I'll talk to you guys later.

—Hans Saari, MountainZone.com Corespondent

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