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Cybercast Dispatches
The expedition is communicating via email and audio dispatches.
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Home for Christmas
Thursday, December 23, 1999, 2:17pm PST
"I'm really excited getting back to Jackson Hole for the holidays to see my wife and all my friends and go skiing...."

Calling the C-130
Tuesday, December 21, 1999, 7:54pm PST
"They've called in the C-130 Hercules, which is the plane that lands on the blue ice runway, so we can get back to civilization..."

Non-Stop Wind
Sunday, December 19, 1999, 5:52pm PST
"...the wind has just been non-stop; it's been continually burying our tents. In order to get out of them, we have to put on full gear and unzip them and burrow out..."

Digging, Waiting, Kite Sailing
Sunday, December 19, 1999, 4:11am PST
"The winds are still high, so the Herc that leaves at 1:30 can't get here till the winds drop a little bit. We've been getting out digging and ski touring Newcomb traverse, the whole Patriot Hills..."

Wine-Sodden Gaggle of Homesick Wanderers
Friday, December 17, 1999, 6pm PST
"The storm ends, after six days of incessant snow and wind had bothered us into becoming an over-slept, over-eating, under-exercised and wine-sodden gaggle of homesick wanderers..."

Sleep, Lectures and Snow
Thursday, December 16, 1999, 6:24pm PST
"The runway is currently covered in about 16 inches of snow, still windy here, winds are gusting up to 40 miles per hour and visibility right now is about 200 feet I'd imagine. The prospect of a C-130 landing any time soon does not look good..."

Domino Kings
Wednesday, December 15, 1999, 8:12pm PST
"The blue ice runway, which the Hercules T-130 lands on, is completely buried and ANI is telling us this is the first time it's happened in five years..."

Antarctica Factoids
Wednesday, December 15, 1999, 12:38pm PST
"Koch, Stoup and I discovered a couple of artificial climbing holds in the shape of frogs bolted to a beam in the Cessna hanger by pull-up maniac Alex Lowe..."

Home by Christmas?
Tuesday, December 14, 1999, 7pm PST
"The average wind speed in the last eight hours has been 80mph with max gusts at almost 100 mph. Visibility outside is 0-10 feet..."

Experience of a Lifetime
Monday, December 13, 1999, 5:11am PST
"This birthday is most unique — longitude, 79 degrees, a sun that never sets, a cold that never yields, and friends that never waver..."

Waiting on a Jet Plane
Monday, December 13, 1999, 5:09am PST
"We are now awaiting the C-130, which should hopefully arrive in the next couple days to bring us back to Punta Arenas and back to our regular lives..."

Footsteps on the Flat Horizon
Sunday, December 12, 1999, 6:15pm PST
"We had a great trip and we climbed and snowboarded, and skied Mt. Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, which was the fifth of the seven summits for me, which I am trying to do...."

Towing the Angry Child
Thursday, December 9, 1999, 8:48pm PST
"We sled-dogged our way back down to Base Camp in the evening — towing our "Angry Child," which we call our sleds because those things just tip over and throw you all over the hill...."

Exploring Icy Mt. Shinn
Wednesday, December 8, 1999, 7:46pm PST
"While still rubbing the sleep from my eyes, the inspiration struck to give Mt. Shinn a try. Shinn is Vinson's northern neighbor...."

From the Top of Mt. Vinson
Tuesday, December 7, 1999, 4:50pm PST
"Hello Mountain Zone, this is Stephen Koch on the top of Mt. Vinson in Antarctica with the Ski and Snowboard Expedition...."

Scrabble, Aussies and Chilean Beer
Tuesday, December 7, 1999
"I'm playing scrabble with a bunch of Aussies and drinking a Chilean beer waiting for any radio or satellite phone transmission from the climbing team up on Vinson..."

Amped and Poised
Monday, December 6, 1999, 7:39pm PST
"We will assess weather at 8am and leave by 10am tomorrow. I hope our next update will be from the summit of the Vinson Massif...."

More Snow, Build a City
Sunday, December 5, 1999, 6:28pm PST
"We could charge up there right now and it seems like it's pretty safe, and if those guys get back pretty soon that might be what we do...."

The Word from the Boys
Sunday, December 5, 1999, 9:07am PST
"Today, they will head down to Vinson Base and get the rest of their supplies to bring back up to Camp 2. Doug sounds great and all the guys were happy...."

Two New Couloirs
Saturday, December 4, 1999, 3:46pm PST
"After Mark's dispatch this morning, we went out and skied two couloirs...We named them after Jackson Hole's opening day, one couloir being named 'Opening Day' and the other one being named 'I'll Be Okay'...."

Lots of Summer Snow
Saturday, December 4, 1999, 9:35am PST
"Amazingly there has been no wind here at Camp II, so the new snow has covered everything in a even, pristine layer of fluff..."

10,000 Feet and Snowing
Friday, December 3, 1999, 1:48pm PST
"This is about 15-20 percent of the total snowfall for the whole year on Mount Vinson, so getting five inches is a big deal here...."

First Turns
Thursday, December 2, 1999, 6:30pm PST
"Today we carved our first turns on a 45-degree headwall between Camp II and Camp III...."

Weary, but Psyched
Wednesday, December 1, 1999, 5:57pm PST
"Everyone's in pretty good spirits. Antarctica is quite unforgiving — minus five in the shade, but Sahara heat in the sun. Drops like 40 degrees once you get in the shade...."

Hello Antarctica
Tuesday, November 30, 1999, 5:03pm PST
"This is Stephen Koch from the Antarctica '99 Ski and Snowboard Expedition, on Tuesday, November 30th, calling from Vinson Base Camp. We arrived today a couple of hours ago at 10 o'clock, Vinson time...."

Monster Pigs
Monday, November 29, 1999, 3:08pm PST
"At weigh-in we thought the scales were reading heavy, so to test them we weighed in ourselves and all came in about five pounds over our normal weight..."

Preparing for Flight
Sunday, November 28, 1999, 1:14pm PST
"The forecast is nice weather and it looks like we are going to get a flight out of here possibly tomorrow, Monday. We are pretty excited about it, the weather conditions look pretty good in Antarctica...."

Packing and Re-packing
Saturday, November 27, 1999, 4:04pm PST
"We saw a bunch of penguins, and went through some slides on Vinson, it looked incredible. Afterwards, we went and did some shopping...."

No Mas Potatoes
Friday, November 26, 1999, 4:17pm PST
"It rained a bit this morning then cleared up for an amazing view of Torre del Paine and Valley Français. We got some great photos and are heading back to Punta Arenas to await the arrival of a new camera...."

Marge Simpson à la Serengeti
Friday, November 26, 1999, 4:03pm PST
"Doug Coombs spotted a really bizarre tree that looked exactly like Marge Simpson's hairdo, and we had to stop and all run out and climb on it...Everyone has tons of energy, and we seem as creative as little kids in expending it...."

Another Day Down
Thursday, November 25, 1999, 1:05pm PST
"We got pushed another day to get to the ice; we now leave on the 28th, due to high winds. Hopefully we'll leave on Sunday. Another down day, the team did a hike to a crag area...."

Bouldering in Torre Del Paine
Wednesday, November 24, 1999, 5:05pm PST
"We hiked today to the top of Torre Del Paine Towers, the three towers, did some bouldering, some boulder problems....The rock that we climbed was crystal, clean white granite...."

Torre Del Paine
Wednesday, November 24, 1999, 2:30pm PST
"Today we went for a hike up to Torre Del Paine... we had some amazing views of Torre Del Paine and the huge towers. Everyone is in great spirits. Also did some great climbing and bouldering with Newcomb and Coombs setting the routes...."

We Are Here!
Tuesday, November 23, 1999, 10:24pm PST
"We're in Rio Verde just north of Punta Arenas at a friend's ranch. They have 60,000 acres and we might help them mark a few lamb tomorrow..."