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Thursday, December 02, 1999: Daily Stats

Newcomb

The Team's Call from Antarctica
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Hi Mountain Zone, this is Mark Newcomb calling from Camp II on Vinson. Today we carved our first turns on a 45-degree headwall between Camp II and Camp III. We hauled loads to Camp III, returned to Camp II, we're going to stay here the night and hopefully proceed to Camp III tomorrow.

Weather did move in, though, ending our beautiful spell of unbelievably blue skies. We have overcast skies and they have dropped down below the level of the peak. Winds are still light, however, we have light snow falling, temperatures are now between -15 and -25 degrees Fahrenheit. We finally put on all our down gear and we're loving it, feeling toasty. Wind-chill factor has dropped to -35 degrees Fahrenheit. The snow we skied today was variable, but mostly buffed windpack, smooth pool table, awesome turning, really fun. A little bit of flat light kept us on our toes.

We had a lot of fun and banged out a huge camp at Camp III, we are going to live in a palace up there. Things are going great so far, we'll see what the weather does — keep our fingers crossed that we get another streak of big blue skies coming up in a couple days.

Thanks, that's all for now. One more more message for Mark Sicola; we have not been able to reach him with our Iridium phone or by radio. So we are out of contact with Mark Sicola, our contact at Patriot Hills. Dave Hahn does say hello with his group, they are at Camp III spending the night, hoping to summit tomorrow. Talk to you later.

— Mark Newcomb, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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